Before I clean install windows vista, I created a partition for back up. Now, I insatlled the windows and realized that the back up partition is too big and the partition that has windows is too big. I just want to reduce the back up partition and expend the partition that has windows but I can's seems figure out how. I can shrink the drive but can not merge on to the the other drive. It only let me reduce and expend to the partition where it originally came from. Am I doomed untill I delete both partition and recreate? Thank you for your adivse.

Your problem is that shrinking the second (backup) partition leaves space at the end of the drive. If that space is sufficient to hold your backup files, shrink the backup partition, leaving space for a third partition . Move the backup files to the third, delete the second, and expand the first (windows) to fill the space left. Not somethig I've attempted, but should be feasible. Rather like moving the tiles round one of those plastic letter puzzles!

You can only resize a partition (bigger) if the blank space is DIRECTLY after that partition. You need to shrink your second partition and then SLIDE that blank space so that it is directly after the windows partition. I use BOOTitNG for all my partition work and it has a SLIDE option, but any reputable partition program should have this option.