Partition HDD

I'm getting a Dell XPS and since there are 4 preexisting primary partitions , how can I create an extended partition without having to reinstall Vista. Any guide on this would be highly helpful.
Thanks in advance...

 

I think Partition Magic can extend existing partitions without erasing the contents. Use Google to find a place to download it (not sure if it is free, but there might be a trial version).

 

Will partition magic shrink the OS partition (by say 50GB) and create an extended partition with that 50GB as a new drive..
Sorry to be bothering, but this kind of partitioning is new to me. I've partitioned under XP several times but this 4 primary partition stuff from OEMs is a big nuisance.

 

I think you can only have 4 partitions total. 4 primary or 3 primary and 1 extended. The extended partition can have several logical disk.

 

So do I have to delete the recovery partition and merge that space into the OS drive and then create an extended partition?
Any guide on how to go about this procedure?

 

I did some re-partition but had some help. It's a little complicated to say the least. I found this guide that may help.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_01.htm

 

Thanks for the guide.. Was informative...
Any tools for creating those extended partitions from C: drive. I can't have all data in C:

 

I think Vista has it's own partitioning tool. Without seeing how your partitions are laid out it's hard to give advice but what I did was to shrink C drive and create an extended partition in D drive.

Also, do you have an idea of what you'd like to do? I moved My Documents from the default C to D using this guide. Again it's for XP but may work with Vista.

Sometime soon I'd like to dual boot with Ubuntu (using my Media Direct button to boot) but I haven't quite figured out the structure yet.

Before you do anything, it's probably best to have a back up program or at least a Vista reinstall disk if things go wrong.

 

I used Gnome Partition Editor which can be downloaded free from Sourceforge to partition my XPS so that I can dual boot Vista and XP.

 

Yup that's what I used too. It was suggested it's safer than doing it with a Live CD rather than a Windows environment.

 

Hmmm... When I created my Vista-XP dual boot system I used the built in vista partitioning tool to shrink my vista partition, deleted the Media Direct Partition, then booted into the XP disk and had it format and install itself on the unallocated space.

 

Great. How long did it take to shrink? It seemed to take forever using gparted. From what I understand if you interrupt the process it will hose your system.

I'll be trying to shrink D to make room for Ubuntu and may try to use Windows.

 

I shrink my D Drive from 75GB to 55GB within 10 seconds using the built in It is much faster compared to the GParted. But it has some serious limitations

 

I have the default 4 partition drives that come with Dell.
OS,Recovery, MD and a healthy something...
Should I just go and delete the recovery partition and merge that space with C and create and extended partition??
Sorry to be getting on to ur nerves , but I'm worried about my new lappie and this is my first one...

 

You need unallocated (free) space to create an extended partition. Within the extended partition you will create one or more logical partitions.

When enlarging, shrinking and/or creating partitions use the same tool, all partition tools may not work the same, which may cause errors. The windows tool can't enlarge a partition and may be one that partitions differently so may be best to avoid this one.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=281873

 

I wonder what's in the last one? If you have a alternate recovery strategy, such as using ATI or similar, you may be able to just keep the OS and delete the rest, then create your extended partition set up the way you want with the unallocated space.