I just bougth a new laptop like 2 days ago with windows vista but the problem is that I want to resize and manage partitions in order to install linux in it but vista wont let use partition magic, the new disk manager in vista won't let resize partitions to the size I want. Since I use gentoo I doesn't have any partition manager except fdisk and it doesn't allow to resize partitions I also try with an old mandriva dvd I have around but it fails to resize the windows partition too. Does anybody knows a partition manager that works with vista or a live cd that have a partition manager that will let me resize the windows partition? Thanks.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

On XP, I had to be sure to turn off "hibernation" and "virtual memory" before running defragment. Those two files are unmovable. Once you turn it off and defrag, it should move everything to the front of the disk. Then you can safely resize the partition.

After the resize, you can re-enable virtual memory and hibernation (if you use hibernation).

I have never done this with Vista and I am assuming that Vista will behave the same way as XP...