Unable to install Fedora 16 beta on 32-bit machine with XP dual boot

[Al Dunsmuir]

Folks,

I  have  a  32-bit test machine (Dell GX270, 1TB SATA, 2GB RAM) running XP
(SP3)  where  I had successfully installed the Fedora 15 beta last release
(500  MB boot, no LVM), and continued to use (in GNOME compatibility mode,
the  Radeon  7500  PCI video card not being rich enough for the full GNOME
Shell).

I'd  tried  to install from the F16 beta DVD, and shrink the F15 partition
so I could run both F15 and F16 side-by-side.   The shrink worked, but the
subsequent install of install of the F16 beta failed.

I  tried  again,  with the F16 i686 LiveCD. It booted fine, but I ran into
the  ""you  have  not  created  a bootloader stage1 device" error. I tried
again  blowing  away the F15 partitions, but without success. I have added
my own comments to https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=739389.
Before   installing   the   F15   beta,  I  had an experimental Ubuntu (my
regular Linux being Fedora, but I wanted to check things out) 9.04, and
later   10.04  partition  dual  booted with the same XP.  When I installed
11.04 withUnity,  it was aweful - the system was up but no windows or text
was visible... hence the F15 beta.

There  seems  to  be  a theme of problems with migration from older Fedora
grub  to  grub2  in  existing  machines  (especially  when  one  has other
partitions  that  can  not  be blown away, and even more so with 32-bit XP
which does _not_ support GPT.

Surely my experience is not typical?  Suggestions anyone?
Al