This is all quite interesting. I installed Windows XP on my homebuilt computer. I never had any such messages at all. This statement may have something to do with your problems: " just got a new PC and it came with XP. :( {I'm still getting patches to get all my hardware to work}." Obviously if things aren't working right for any reason, other things likely won't work right either. I'd be curious to know if you have one of those "proprietory computers," that has a restore or recovery CD rather than a Windows XP CD, etc. If your computer is "proprietory," you might not be able to easily partition that hard drive. You have a huge hard drive, and you could easily accommodate for any special needs by dividing it in half. But if you have a restore or recovery cd, it becomes rather tricky. If you ever had any problems with the computer, the computer manufacturer would recommend running restore or recovery which puts everything back to the way you got it on the first day. Ron