P 7805u Dual Boot Questions

I'm in the Game Design program at the Art Institute of Orange County and I recently bought the P-7805u with the intent to use it for 3D studio Max (32 bit edition), Photoshop, and whatever else the school may need me to do. The plan is to set it up so I can dual boot into both Vista and XP 64-bit; XP for 3DS Max and photoshop, Vista for games.
So my question is this: Is it necessary to wipe the hard drive clean and start from scratch? If so, do I need to put XP on first then Vista? Or can I just install XP without clearing everything out?

 

You can try resizing the existing Vista partition and installing XP on the new partition (or installing a second HD into the system).

Where you're going to run into problems is the bootloader though. If memory serves me right, Microsoft suggests installing the latest operating system first (i.e. install XP first, Vista last). The other problem you're going to run into is that the restore CD's you create aren't true Vista install CD's (they wipe everything on the HD).

Only ways around it I can think of is:

a) Temporarily pull the primary HD, install a second HD in the second HD bay, and install XP onto that drive (and then put the primary Vista HD back into the first drive bay). When you want to switch OS's, change the boot order in the BIOS so it sees the second drive first. Really though, this is a pain in the butt.

b) Get a copy of the real Vista x64 install CD either from someone that has the CD (just to be clear, I'm not advocating software piracy here. Your machine comes with a 100% valid license, and it's your serial number that determines what version of Vista gets installed (that's how the anytime upgrade system works BTW)) or by calling Gateway. I had called Gateway to try to get a copy of the CD. They were going to send it to me for free, but after 20 minutes of being in online chat, being told to call their voice line, being escalated to Tier2 support, and waiting on hold for 45 minutes, I gave up for the time being. Your luck may be better though.

Install XP first onto it's own partition or drive, followed by re-installing Vista. Vista's boot loader will show the XP install in the boot loader menu when you start the system.

 

Has anyone installed Win XP 64bit on their P 7805u successfully??

If so, is there a resource for the install and which drivers to use, etc?