Partitioning an HDD

[parabellum]

Tried to help a neighbour who is running Vista on a 250GB HDD and wants to partition it so that scanning, defragging etc. don't take so long as they use less than 50GB all up. Produced my Partition Magic 8.0 CD, (licenced copy) only to be told that version 8.0 won't work with Vista.

Don't plan to buy a newer version of Partition Magic until I eventually, possibly move from XP to Windows 7.

Please, is there a simple and cheap, (free is best!) way for me to safely partition this HDD, I'm not a computer techie or even close, just an end user.

(Another problem is that they cannot fully utilise Norton 360 as there is nowhere that they can store the Save & Restore back-ups, memory sticks are not big enough and an external HDD probably costs more than the latest version of Partition magic).

All advice gratefully received.

[hellsbrink]

You can try this, 100% free and no download necessary.....

Resize a Partition for Free in Windows 7 or Vista - the How-To Geek (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/resize-a-partition-for-free-in-windows-vista/)

Then there is Easus Partition Manager (Free!)

Best FREE Partition Manager for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7 - EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition freeware. (http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm)

Finally, try Partition Wizard (FREE!!)

BEST FREE Partition Manager Software for Windows supports all 32-bit & 64 bit Windows No-server OS. (http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html)

That's just some of the solutions out there. Personally I've had no issues with Easus software in the past (data recovery) so I would be likely to go for that one if the first method did not work

[Loose rivets]

Vista is a doddle to partition. You may not be able to manipulate recover partitions just as you wish, but the rest goes really well with the OS's program.

I'm on 7 right now, and created partitions in a similar manner to Vista.

Say, 100, for the OS. 60 or whatever for Program files and the rest for data.

Admin tools - Computer management - Storage - Disk management. Creating and shoving the partitions about is, for once, fairly logical.

[parabellum]

Thanks very much, I'll look at the options and try again!:)