Partition software for my Wndows 7 installation

Hmmm,

won't let me create partition as said already have max on drive (see screen shot). To be honest not sure what those bits at the start and eod of the drive (275MB and 6.24G)

This drive was created from a Clone of the original hard drive of identical size (but had some faults) using Acronis easy migrate (trial version) and that image was originally cloned from the original Dell 200GB hard drive (hence the recovery partition)

Should I just delete that end 6.24GB?

Thanks for input.

You already have a partition - huge (252.93 GB) - but usable.

OK but I cannot format the partition as NTFS. It gives the error message shown in the picture.

Or rather, when I say "New Simple Volume"
and proceed through the wizard I eventually get the error in the screen shot

For info

Acronis True Image doesn't include partioning capacity. It allows you to resize partitions during restoration of an image though.

Acronis Disk Director is the companion app for partitoning. It's not as good as Bootit NG (as yonghv recommended), but it's easier to use. Bootit NG has a bit of a learning curve.

Acronis Disk Director free trial:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/index.html

There is a limit of 4 partitions per physical disk.  If you don't need that little 6.24 GB partition delete it, just back up any files that might be on there, because once you delete it, it's gone.   Once you do that, you'll be able to create a new partition with all unallocated space.

You probably need to expand the 6GB partition to include your free 252GB then use Disk Management to allocate a drive letter.

I have no idea why that 6.24GB partiation is there or how it got there.
I cannot see it in Windows vista (other then through manage Disks) and I cannot assign it a drive letter (no option to do so - in fact the only option right click gives me is to delete.)

So I asume safe to delete?

OK deleted it. it said non windows partition, am I sure, I said yes. Then it said free partion. Deleted that. Then merged with the unallocated space. Then in the unallocated space I was able to create a new NTFS partition which I will now install Windows 7 on and wait to be wowwed beyond beleif. Exciting stuff. Thanks for input!

It may be a Dell partition.  Sometimes they put system files on hidden partitions.  If it was my machine, I'd delete it, but I'm not comfortable advising a stranger to do the same.

To be safe, what you could do, is back up that "Recovery" Drive to your C:\ and get rid of that partition.  That's probably an OS recovery drive that Dell installed in lieu of giving you a Vista DVD.

I was assuming that the 12Gb "Recovery D" partition was the Dell restore partition.
Here's hoping. :)

Did you create an Acronis Image before diving in?

done it. and spent the entire evening installing applicaitions onto Windows 7. But so far loving it.

Just came back into the old clunky vista to get some more details about what I need to install, but so far so good. Then sooner I never need to boot Vista the better. just hope all my apps work (funilly enough office failed - but said missing file from the download I completed - so I'll nip into office and try from CD)

But windows 7 seems good.

There's very little that runs successfully on Vista that won't also run on Windows 7.
Too late to run the Upgrade Adviser but you can start here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/en-us/default.aspx

actually, with Bootit- ng you can create more than 4 primary partitions...

#nobus, really? How do you create more than 4 primary partitions? I thought that was a limitation of MBR partitioned drive structure. As far as I know there can be 3 primary and 1 extended partitions. Withing extended partition one can create up to 128 logical partitions (done myself). But those are not primary.
So we get actually 4 primary partitions only if we consider Extended one to be primary too.

I've no idea how it's done, but Bootit NG can create over 200 primary partitions. I presume that it completely rewrites the boot sector.

What happens when you run ot of letters after drive Z:\   !!!

:)

from the Boot-it page, :  Create over 200 primary partitions (if desired)
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm

it is by far the best partition mangaer, i have seen, though it has a "geeky" interface, but it has never let me down, and works very well

afflik1923,
You really need to follow the advice given way up above here and use Boot-IT NG to set up "OS Partitions" (about 25-30 GB) and a "Data Partition" (all the rest).

It isn't too late to do that now. I use Boot-IT NG to 're-partition/re-size' hard drives all of the time and it will be a true life-saver any time there is a system crash. OS and Data files (including profiles) must be kept separate.

I concur with your assessment of Windows 7 and will finally (personally) migrate for XP.

Have you tried to create at least 10 PRIMARY partitions with it?
I am going to try cause I still don't believe in that fact.

<<I am going to try cause I still don't believe in that fact.>>

noxcho - I am not sure what you mean by that comment. I certainly have no reason to lie to you or anyone else.

In fact, I have NOT created "10" partitions on any single HDD - why would I?
I have created 7 (6 OS and 1 Data) - is that good enough for you?

All primary? That should make Windows XP crazy =))) I admit that one can create extended partition and then lots of partitions inside of that.
Can you  take a screen shot of your Windows Disk Management and post it here?
And sure I am not trying to blame you in lie. Just trying to understand myself how did they overcome the limit of 4 primary slots.

Good answer with lots of extra good comments. Thanks for all the input.