So I'm trying to try out Windows 7. I'm not willing to sacrifice an entire computer for it (although I'm getting to that point with my idiotic Vista machine) so I need to create a partition.

On my XP machine I simply can't create a partition. I have tried using the disk manager, which won't let me shrink the volume, and I have tried with diskpart.exe, which looks like this:


Does this have anything to do with the "free space 0" line? I don't really understand this since I have 30gb of free space.

On my Vista machine, despite me having a full 37gb of free HDD space, the disk manager says that the largest partition I can create is just over 6gb...is this because files are scattered all over the HDD?

Does anyone know how I can go and do this, on one or both of my machines?

You might have to delete current partition and recreate new partitions or try and use partition magic and see if it makes things easier.

I read from your post that you have a partition which is as big as the HD, at least for the XP computer. On this partition you have 30 GB free space. However this doesn't interest DiskPart because it only shows as free space the disk size minus the sum of all existing partition sizes on that disk (the free space WITHIN the partitions is not relevant).

So what you want to do is split your partition into two without losing the existing data. Sorry to say but under XP this is only possible with special tools like Partition Magic or Acronis Disk Director. DiskPart can't do this.

Can't tell for Vista if this comes with the necessary disc tools to split a partition as I don't have it.

Hum, kinda sounds like the easiest thing to do might be to just completely wipe the Vista machine and install Windows 7.

Thanks for the clarification.

I just started using Vista Enterprise a week back, and I actually rather like it. It just feels like XP with more eye candy. Windows 7 looks very cool though, I was playing around with it on a friend's computer last night.

Vista 7 is pretty damn fast.. and pretty slick. i like it a lot. and so far, Daemon Tools doesn't work on it.

as for partitioning.. use Paragon Partition Manager.. or GParted Live for a free option.

Also, if re-partitioning your drive is out of the question, try looking into running a virtual machine using Microsoft Virtual PC. It's like a full computer that runs in a window on your computer.