I already have another (empty) 120Gb drive in the PC, but I don't see why I should give up that 40Gb, so I am trying to find the solution.
I have been happily partitioning drives since my Amstrad 1640 approximately 17 years ago. I have never had a problem doing so, and have certainly never been unable to use all the available space.
It's worth noting that I have been running some of these partitions virtually full with no problems, in fact the only problem I have had with this drive is not being able to get to those 40Gb. Well, I have got a bit sick of the "your disk is full" messages, does anyone know how to turn them off.
It's also worth noting that my Sony laptop comes from the factory with two partitions on its single HDD.
Yes, drives are cheap, but that isn't the point... it's me against Microsoft now...
I'm sure the problem is solvable, if one digs deeply enough... I'd rather spend a few hours looking for the answer, than moving everything over to another drive...