Partitioning
 

Ive recently bought a laptop which i want to install ubuntu on.(hp pavilion but dont think its relavant to this problem)
However I am having strange trouble partitioning my drive. I have an 80gig hardrive and just want to section off about 10 or 15 gigs for the installation. When i try to adjust the 'size' label on the installer and press enter, it just brings me back the main page with the list of partitions, makes no change.
Here are some other methods I have tried:

Mandrake: what i used to install linux on my desktop, but the installer wont recognise my cdrom so cannot boot the partitioner.(i cant use a boot floppy because this laptop has no floppy drive.

Suse: Tells me that i need to defrag my hard disk so that the ntfs resize program can resize it. however it is a brand new laptop, and the disk is 0% fragmented!

Fedora Core: Cant even remember what error it gave but it was something unhelpfull..

Knoppix/qtparted: When it went to resize it said it couldnt check the disk for errors due to bad superblock.. or something like that.

cfdisk: doesnt seem to have an option to resize?

This seems like a newbie post and Im surprised I have to be posting it(ive been using linux on my desktop for ages), but of the troubles linux could be giving on a laptop, this shouldnt be one of them!
Any help please? Are there any free partition resizers for windows or what can I do to get this drive partitioned

If four different Linux distros tell you there's something wrong so that you can't resize your partition, then probably something is wrong. I realize it's a computer you just bought, but it's still possible that something's wrong with the hardware or that there is, in fact, a bad superblock.

Is Windows currently installed? Since it's a new computer, have you thought about reinstalling Windows, doing a ScanDisk, a Defrag, and then trying to resize again?

But just so you know, here's a great guide for resizing partitions with Ubuntu:

http://www3.telus.net/linux4u/ubuntu.html

In this sort of situation your best bet is to use Partition Magic.

It is possible in your hard disk a hidden partition for doing backup. That could have fouled the partition tools you have been trying. I always delete it as it gets in the way of what I want to do.

Thanks loads for your feedback. That could be the case because athough its meant to be a 80gb hard drive, windows only shows it up as being 75. No info as to where those secret 5 might be :)

Il try and get partition magic and ive it a go. Thanks again.

Cheers for that link aswell. really helpful