When I try to install the mandrake 10.0 distribution, everything goes fine and dandy until I get to the partitioner, a window pops up and says "ntfsresize failed" then it checks the disk, says "accounting clusters" or something, then that fails too. I ran defrag. would it be better to reinstall windows and partition that way?

try running "chkdsk /f" on all NTFS partitions.
if this doesn't help free some space with a tool like "Partition Magic" or delete some unused Windows partition.

suggestion: also create a FAT32 partition for data exchange - NTFS not so good :-)

does chldsk /f rn from the command prompt? Or do I have to do something else to use it? Thanks

Yep, just run chkdsk /f from the Windows command line. The ntfsresize FAQ explains it better: http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/...ze.html#chkdsk

Q: What do "Cluster accounting failed" and "Filesystem check failed!" mean?

A: Before resizing an NTFS, ntfsresize makes a filesystem consistency check and it refuses to progress, giving the above messages, if it found errors. In these cases you need to boot Windows and run chkdsk with the /f (fix errors) command line option. If chkdsk asks you about if it should check the drive the next time you restart the computer then answer 'y' (yes) and restart Windows. If you don't specify the /f option then chkdsk will not fix the NTFS consistency problems.