I bought a new Sony PC a couple of months ago. It has one partition C: that has 180GB. Think I should divide it into several. I can find four programs available, all at about the same price. Partition Magic (I don't like Norton), Partition Commander, Partition Manager and Acronis Partitioning. None of them get very good reviews. I don't want two OS, just want to separate OS from data from swap file. I do a lot of editing of large videos >4GB.

Can anyone recommend a program to me?

Cordelia

I'm not a fan of Norton (any more) either, but Partition Magic is a good product.

I've seen a lot of bad things about the new version of partition magic.

Also check out http://acronisdiskdirectorsuiteb.say-it-now.com/.

The website says today is the last day of their sale ($49.99), but that is Amazon's normal price.

I have an oldd version of Partition Magic, 8.0 or something, still does the job for me so still what I use.

I respectfully but strongly suggest two things:

#1: Backup, Backup, Backup off computer all your video and data files, and after backup play them to make sure the backup process did not corrupt them.

#2: Practice, Practice, Practice on a computer that you can use as an experimental unit with whatever partitioning utility you decide on. If I had $100 for every person in the last 5 years that trashed their harddrives using these 3rd party utilities, I could retire and live like a king. Another variation on that is to add a second harddrive as a slave unit, install an OS on it, and practice partitioning on that harddrive.

I've always had good results with Partition Magic, however I rarely use the Win32 installed version of it. I prefer to use the DOS discs that can be made from the larger program. I've never had a mishap from those. Two floppies, and it'll run on any PC.

QUOTE

If I had $100 for every person in the last 5 years that trashed their harddrives using these 3rd party utilities, I could retire and live like a king

Me too, ranchhand... It's a wise advice.

Thank you all for answering, but Ranchhand and Ironbender have made me nervous. I don't have a spare PC to practice on. Is it really that complicated?

WinXP has tools to let you partition but then you must reformat and reinstall everything. Should have done it the day I bought it.

Yes, it is really that complicated. When you reset partitions with a fully loaded harddrive, it is very similar to replacing the foundation of your house with a different foundation, while maintaining the safety of your house above. First you must jack up the house carefully- all around the perimeter with housejacks, then breakup the old foundation beneath and remove it, re-dig the foundation trench, create new concrete forms, pour the concrete, let it dry, and then carefully lower the house evenly back onto the new foundation. One glitch and there is a disaster.

In order to re-partition, you must remove the old partition, reset your new ones, format them, and at all times carefully suspending your entire operating system and programs without damage, and them move the whole operating system AND associated programs back into the new partition.

ranchhand,
I've only used 30% of my HD so far so I'd better get a move on. Just have the decision of which software is the safest to buy.

Thanks for your advice.