Creating a dual boot mac with mac/xp partitions

Hi all,

I am about to attempt a procedure I have never tried before and am looking for a little advice.

I have Macbook Pro with 320gig hdd.

I wish to make it a dual boot system with XP as a second partition.

However, I would like to keep the original Mac partition as it is by cloning it.

The only current cloning software I have access to is Acronis True Image for PC but as far as I know the cloning proces used is OS independant anyway. At least when utilizing sector to sector cloning.

Any advice is greatly appreciated but I would first like to know if Acronis is capable of cloning an external mac hdd as I really would like to clone th mac hdd as a precautionary measure.

All the best guys and thanks in advance for any help :)

cheers

JoDeZZa