Need help partitioning hard drive

[Elrond]

I have downloaded ubuntu 7.04 and fedora core 6 and want to install both.

I have a 80gb10k rpm hardrive which Vista uses, I also have a normal 220gb hard drive - I want to keep 180gb of that hardrive for Vista, whilst using 20gb for each linux distro.

Obvously the default partioning choice isnt going to be anything like that - how do I partition my second hard drive so I get the hard drive partitions I want?

[Erik]

Is the 220GB disk currently empty?
If so you can just remove any existing partitions (WARNING: this will remove all data from that disk) and create three new ones.

But I'm assuming you want to keep the data on the 220GB disk while you re-partition it?
That's more tricky, but there are special programs out there that can do this.
Basically you need to resize the existing partition, leaving 40 GB of unpartitioned space, and then create new partitions in those spaces.

[Elrond]

Is the 220GB disk currently empty?
If so you can just remove any existing partitions (WARNING: this will remove all data from that disk) and create three new ones.

But I'm assuming you want to keep the data on the 220GB disk while you re-partition it?
That's more tricky, but there are special programs out there that can do this.
Basically you need to resize the existing partition, leaving 40 GB of unpartitioned space, and then create new partitions in those spaces.

Yes I have stuff on the 220gb disk and want to keep it there.

what partitioning software is free and works on vista 64bit?

thanks

[Erik]

what partitioning software is free and works on vista 64bit?

Don't know of any because I always partition my disks with the windows installation CD.
I used partition magic years ago, but it's not free. (although there might be a trial version that works, which would be enough because you will only have to use it once).

If you Google a bit I'm sure you can find some.

btw: Am I the only one who thinks it's strange that Windows doesn't come standard with this kind of software?

[Elrond]

Don't know of any because I always partition my disks with the windows installation CD.
I used partition magic years ago, but it's not free. (although there might be a trial version that works, which would be enough because you will only have to use it once).

If you Google a bit I'm sure you can find some.

btw: Am I the only one who thinks it's strange that Windows doesn't come standard with this kind of software?

thanks,

The reason why WIndows does include this software is because it encourages the use of other OS's which MS obvously doesnt like.

[Spiff]

Im pretty sure most partitioning can be done in the windows disk management screen (right click on my computer, click manage, then click disk management). The help file for that section tells you how to do most things there.

Partition magic is much easier to use though - and the interface from booting from a windows disk is pretty straight forward also.