Hello Bev,
your screenshot shows exactly, what you described ... and alas, this doesn't match reality !
But there is one possibility left : ntfsresize. This is a commandline tool (in Terminal window), which "Gparted" also uses (and therefore is contained on your USB Stick), when working on NTFS. NTFS is a little bit problematic, because Microsoft keeps its structure as a secret. GNU programming for NTFS is reverse engineering, which might not cover all cases or might have unexpected limits. Please backup everything on your netbook, what you don't want to loose, before you proceed. Using "ntfsresize" should not touch the boot code or the recovery partition, but it is not totally excluded. Having or getting (from your dealer) a WinXP-CDROM and a driver disk for your netbook, would be a welcome reassurance. Changing the factory state might also void warranty.
I'm afraid, that, after shrinking your XP partition, "GParted" will continue showing nothing but unallocated space. It is therefore not possible to create a new volume with "Gparted". But this is an easy task for Win XP's Disk Management. I would suggest to create an Extended Partition with the intended logical volume inside, because you are not limited to four (primary) partitions (three are already "shot"), which gives you flexibility for further changes. The fact, that the partitions are not in disk order afterwards, does NOT care Windows, and it must not be changed or you loose the recovery function.
NTFS is fault-tolerant, resizing tools are NOT. You should run "chkdsk /F /R" twice from WinXP to assure a clean filesystem BEFORE using any Linux programs and AFTER the resizing. Sometimes it is better, shrinking in a few smaller steps to the wanted size than to do it in a big one. It is important to test after each step, whether XP is still bootable ( and running "chkdsk" !). Some users noticed, that "ntfsresize" does not only shrink the partition, but move it unintentionally a small amount. The loss of storage(=>unallocated space), however, is neglectable.
How to :
1. Enable your "GParted" USB-Stick to store screenshots and other print-outs
a. Start WinXP, attach your USB-Stick, open "syslinux.cfg" with "WordPad".
As you might have noticed, there is a menu item at boot "To RAM, Boot media can be removed later" . This "unlocks" the stick for mounting it as read/write device. The smallest amount of RAM storage loss is achieved by changing the "append initrd= ..." parameter from "toram" to "toram=filesystem.squashfs". Do this please, store it and choose the appropriate menu item at next boot.
b. After booting, open "Terminal" window and type ([Enter] after each line)
mkdir /mnt/usb
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
mkdir/mnt/usb/bup
mc /mnt/usb/bup /root
"Midnight Commander" file manager opens; you see at left folder "/root", where screenshots are stored (gparted.jpeg), and at right the new folder "bup" on your USB Stick. Mouse isn't working within "mc". You change side with [TAB]-key and copy highlighted file with [F5] to the other side. To store the output of a commandline, use " ...(any command)... > /mnt/usb/bup/(whatIwantToStore).txt". If "...txt" is highlighted, press [F3] to view it.
2. Study this carefully.
3. Test, whether NTFS partition is recognized and minimal size for XP detected (don't forget an appropriate surplus for updates and new programs )
ntfsresize -n -i /dev/sda1 > /mnt/usb/bup/ntfsrszInfo.txt
Since the print-out is stored permanently on your stick, you can present it easily here, before continuing ! Please state the intended new size of Win XP and the number of smaller steps, you want to use (see above).
4. Do a test run
ntfsresize -n -v -s ......M /dev/sda1 > /mnt/usb/bup/ntfsrszActio.txt
...... stands for the target size in MegaBytes. Guess, where you should present the file.
5. Shrink your WinXP partition
ntfsresize -v -s ......M /dev/sda1
...... stands for the target size in MegaBytes. This value decreases from step to step.
Probably the first primary partition looses the bootflag with this procedure. You verify/restore it with "fdisk"
Look for the asterisk behind "/dev/sda1". If it lacks, type
6. Do a test run, see 4.
7. Use "fdisk" to temporarily delete and instantly recreate partition table 1 a little bit bigger than the new resized WinXP volume, see the link above. This is very important !!!
8. If everything went right, open XP's Disk Management, create an extended partition and a logical volume of appropriate size within. Format it with NTFS or FAT32. Ready !
Good luck for this adventure
cmdr