options running XP on newer PCs?

Looks good so far.

Programs, by default go to c:\Program Files, which is on the same drive/partition as the OS. Usually there's an option for a custom install which will let you change the location the program is installed to.  Where you have the installer files located really doesn't matter - they're generally set up to put the program in the Program Files folder.

Your next step is to create your virtual machine. Only install programs in Windows 7 in you want them accessible to Win 7. In your case, that's probably just Virtualbox. Programs you want to run in Windows XP should be installed in the Windows XP virtual machine

• that's why I'm saying to give it plenty of space.

well, I think I did it correctly. Deleted partitions so there was just one large unallocated entry, created a partition, which I think also generated a small reserve space of 100 MB (I've already forgotten). Since the tutorial indicated the OS had to go on an unallocated area, I extended the 100 MB into 200 Gb, and installed there. I'm attaching a pic. I was confused because I thought the OS would load to an existing partition.

I misunderstood what the Drivers/Utilities  disc was telling me, and had to call Dell, who helped with installing the latest drivers. Now if I could only get the desktop to look and behave like XP like I had it before...

I'll try this anyway, but if you have a program stored on the data side, and go to install it, does it automatically get loaded into the OS, or do I need to drag the program onto the OS partition?

1 GB would work fine for XP, but there's no harm in giving it more. XP 32 bit can use up to around 3 GB, and that's the most I'd allocate. It's isn't recommended to use more than half your system RAM for a virtual machine. The memory used by the virtual machine Is just in use, like with any other program, and is therefore pretty much unavailable to the host OS. Once you shut down the VM, all 6 GB are open to use by 7 again. So it's not quite like partitioning, since it isn't permanent.

In your case, since you probably won't be running other programs in 7 besides the XP machine, you might possibly get away with allocating more memory, but since XP can only use about 3 Gigs, there wouldn't be any real benefit. I'd stick with 2 or 3.

Don't pay the $130 just for help partitioning. The Windows 7 installer is easy to use. I think it does default to one partition, but you can adjust that easily. Just keep up with the research, and read the screens very carefully and you'll do fine.

I more-or-less backed up my data. I've read I also need to specify how much RAM a virtual machine will use. It sounds like partitioning - that the RAM will be inaccessible to the rest of the OS. Is this true? How much should I allocate - 1 gb? I have 6 gb.

I phoned DELL to walk me thru the process, and while they will help to reinstall the OS, they would charge $129 to help with the partition, which they felt should be done at the same time (I thought the partition could be made afterwards). So I havent done anything yet. :(

seems easy enough:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

You could think of it that way, but ultimately it's just a file on your hard drive, rather than a separate partition. It's a file that houses your client (virtual) OS and to that OS it looks like a hard drive. But ultimately it's just a big file that can be moved and copied and backed up like any other file.

To Windows XP, the client OS running in the virtual machine, it's a hard drive. To Windows 7, the main OS on the physical computer, it's a big file.

When you create the virtual machine, you're set the size of the virtual hard drive your client OS uses. What you're really doing is making a special file that is that size, which acts as the hard drive for the client OS.