installing windows vista and xp on the same computer

hi.can anyone tell me if i can install windows xp on a partition on my computer.I have 3 partitions on my acer aspire 8920g.Windows vista is installed on a 111gb one and I have two other partitions of 107gb and 232gb.Will this affect the perfomance of my computer?if so,how?I am looking to optimize the use of my cpu using xp for some external audio hardware.help pliz

 

I installed Vista 64 and XP Pro on two differant HDDs, switching OS's with bios boot sequence

 

Usually you install from oldest OS to newest so XP should be installed before Vista. There are workarounds but I have also read of problems trying to boot XP on a Vista computer.
Vista no longer has boot.ini, which XP and lower OSes have which let you select the OS to run at bootup. Vista uses bcd.

I really am not sure but you might have to use some sort of boot loader to choose whether you wish to boot XP or Vista.

 

I loaded Vista on an XP HD, and still can't get'em to dual boot correctly, even using Vistabootpro, and finally just got tired of fiddling with it, and made a mirror copy w/acronis on an xtra HD, put XP as *active*--in Disk Management--on the second HD, and just hit F8 when it's booting, and that throws up the screen where I can select which hard drive I want to boot from, rather than fiddling w/the bios, as I've also done...have to hit F8 when the bios is loading tho, not after it shows the boot up screen...that way, if I don't do *anything* it always goes straight to Vista, and only if I want to mess w/XP do I have to bother: that's easy enuff, and I'm getting to really like Vista, and when I go to XP now, it's like getting in an old car and driving: more fun in theory than in reality...just my humble opinion...of course....