I've just got a new laptop (Dell Vostro 1510). Its got a 320 gig hd but as a C drive (278 gig) and D (restore 9 gig).

I'm trying to repartition to give data drives of 2x 100 gig and a storage drive of 20 gig leaving C at 70 gig but the software in Vista won't drop C below 50% of its current size. I'm not surprised really... M$ software for this type of thing is never much good.

This is the first time I've used Vista (its the business edition). Are there any problems using a dos prog (partition magic for example) to resize or will that create problems with the Vista install when I boot back in ???

Thanks,

You should do a search for Portable Norton Partition Magic or Portable EASEUS Partition Manager (the Windows versions). To my knowledge the DOS version should work as well, but if thats your concern, try a GUI version instead.

I've got no problem using the dos version, I've been using it for years. I'm just concerned that Vista won't let me reduce C by more than 50% and if I do it in dos it'll screw up the install in some way ??

OK, tried both progs suggested above and neither will work. They report that as the partition that I want to edit had the op system on it they can't proceed !!

I've switched to dos progs and they all report errors in the MBR. I told them to fix the error and the whole MBR corrupted !! (good start).

I've repartitioned and reformatted, but after reloading win it boots really slowly, stopping for 20 to 30 seconds mid boot which make me think the drive still has problems !!

Can't say I'm that impressed, I've only had it 3 days !!!!

Ive always used Partition Magic.. Not Nortons..

my personal best is Acronis Disk Director Suite