Thanks. It was a quirk in the log-in process. I was fully logged-in when I wrote the first post, but when I submitted it, I was told I wasn't. I logged in again and re-sent it but with a different subject line, assuming the first attempt had been rejected. But obviously it hadn't been, despite the incorrect 'not logged in' error. Thought I'd better report this as a possible bug.

That blats the loader code, the partition table, and the filesystem meta-data of the first partition just for good measure.
Will be surprised if it doesn't do the job.

According to CVS software naming convention, Gparted and Parted have not reached the stable stage yet. Software will not get the 1.0 version designation until it is proven stable.
Bootitng is stable and will do it all and can be used without obligation, but as mentioned earlier, it is best to use Windows disk management in Vista to re-size it's partition if you want to keep it. If you don't want to keep it, Bootitng can delete it and zero it out if you want making your drive as clean as a new one in a box.
It's small, takes only a few seconds to download on high speed and works in a DOS environment similar to Gparted.
I used them all, in my opinion, Bootitng is the best.

Okay, thanks JH and thanks to everyone else who took the trouble to respond to my original query. I think I have more than enough resources now to be able to sort the problem out.

I would just like to add that I really did NOT want to have ANYTHING to do with Windows Vista (or any other Windows) and have only decided to try to save the pre-installed Vista (spit) partition due to bitter experience when I have regretted deleting a version of Windows thinking I'll never need it and later discovering some application or other that I NEED won't run on anything else. If there's one thing worse than having to pay for pre-installed Windows with no master DVD., it's having to pay twice for the same *crap* because you deleted your original install in the belief that you would never be needing it!

Once again, thanks all.

CC.

yes, so omit the chatter, and see my previous post on this thread....

CFDISK... FTW!!!

[QUOTE=ninja master;3357444]yes, so omit the chatter, and see my previous post on this thread....

Sorry I missed this post. I have done as you and Wizardhat suggested, using Slackware 10.1 with its cfdisk. It's worked a treat. Thanks. Since I downloaded the full DVD version of Slacware I've decided to give it a whirl at the same time. I've noticed it's very highly rated in the Reviews section.

CC.

i prefer to use a internet mirror to install slackware. if your cd drive is touchy like mine is, it gets all of the packages 100% correct. my cd drive is good enough to boot the cd, cfdisk the drive, and point the installer to an internet mirror of slackware. i suggest you do some research on "slapt-get" its a life saver for the newbies that dont want to compile a bunch of stuff and would rather have binary installed programs.

Thanks for the tip, but I'd already downloaded the full DVD of Slackware 12.1. It didn't report any errors on installing, yet it hangs quite quickly into the boot-up process, which is rather disappointing and I haven't had time to get to the bottom of it yet. The checksum parsed okay and I went on to burnt it at a low speed and the data integrity check confirmed good, too. So maybe it's a hardware conflict. Maybe it just doesn't like amd64x2. I couldn't find an optimised version for my processor, but the one I downloaded claimed to be good for all. <shrug>

on the boot disk can you get it to boot by giving it the "pinch boot" settings i think its hugesmp root=/dev/sda or whatever?

Hi ,

I have an Opinion here , Along with the notebook you might have got a recovery disk , or you would have made a recovery disk.

Insert the recovery disk and do an total system restore to factory settings ( not the system restore to previous restore point ) , it begins with Vista installer, after some 2 or 3 steps it will ask you for the size that you want to give for c Drive , you have 2 options ,
1 ) full hard disk space
2 ) Manual ( the text in the installer can be different , i am giving a rough idea )

select a size more than 30 GB ( 50 GB + recomended ) and carry on with the installation. Once the installation is done and you boot your notebook in Vista you see only one partition ( c: ) , and if you go to the disk management you will see that rest of the hard disk is grayed out, which means that it is unpartioned disk space .

Now you have options that you can carry on with .

1) Allocate some more space to your Windows , making NTFS partitions from Vista Disk Management .
2) Allocate rest of the hard disk size to Linux .

In both the ways you can create ext2 or ext3 partitions using gparted Live CD , or during your Linux installation .

In this way you will have Windows Vista ( for which you have paid for ) and Linux ( life of freedom ).

Please let me know if this was helpful ......


Thanks
Peeths

i somewhat agree with the opinion, only i would give vista its bare minimum space, make the rest ext3 and install ext drivers so vista can access the linux partitions.

oh i didn't know that , so do you mean to say that , we can install ext3 driver in windows and can access to the Linux partitions ?

if so ... where can i get those .. Microsoft site or is it a third party software ?

Thanks
Peeths

http://www.fs-driver.org/ =)

It mentions only about ext2 , how about ext3 , my Linux partitions are ext3 ... ? will i be able to access ?

yes, ext3 also, i use this driver for my ext3 usb thumb stick. =)