Windows 7 & Windows XP dual boot

[reignsupreme11]

Hey guys.

I just ordered a solid state drive and Windows 7 HE and am hoping to dual boot with XP on my current hard drive, but i've never dual booted before or run 2 hard drives before.

Athlon II X4 620 @ 3.2GHz, OCZ Gladiator 92mm cooler.
4GB Corsair PC-6400
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H mobo
gigabyte radeon 5830
OCZ 600W ModXStream PSU
Hitachi Desktar 500GB HDD (Windows XP HE installed)
Case with good airflow

adding:
OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD (will install Windows 7 HE)

So i got a few questions.
1) When I install and boot into Windows 7 on the ssd will i be able to go in "Computer" and find the other hard drive active with all my documents and stuff available?
2) How can i access installed programs (games, microsoft office etc.) that are on the my current HDD?
3) Will one anti virus installion cover both operating systems?
4) What programs are best to install on the SSD (i've no problem uninstalling and re-installing)?
5) Any other general advice on dual booting these two operating systems?

 

[ulysses35]

I could see why people used to want to dual boot when XP and Vista was around but there is no logical reason to run anything other than Windows 7 these days.

Are you running some very old software that doesnt work with Windows 7 ?? Yo do know that Windows 7 has compatabilty mode ??

 

[reignsupreme11]

no, but i don't want to reformat my other hard drive. there is a lot of data i want to keep, and i don't want to have to reinstall like 12 games, all my productivity programs and all that jazz.

if i'd have to do that anyways, then i am totally fine to only run windows 7.