I'm going to attempt to partition my hard drive, but have limited knowledge. 1. I'm thinking of allocating 45GB for the OS portion (C:). Is this enough? too much? 2. Should the new partition be "primary" or "extended"? Or will I not even have a choice? 3. Are there any other considerations that should be taken into account when partitioning. Such as: should I load ALL future programs on my new partition or the OS partition. etc.. thanks

1. 45GB is enough for Vista and most programs that the avarege user installs. Depending on the size of your drive you may be able to allocate more, if you have a drive 320Gig or more I suggest about 80GB. 2. The first partition will be "primary" this is where you install Vista the rest will be "extended". If you choose the custom instalation from the Vista DVD you can set your partition options from there. 3. If you install a lot of games they can be installed on the secondry partition if needed. IMO it's best to install most programs on the C: drive and with even 45GB that is enough. But more free space is better for Vista's system restore.

thanks for the reply. I have a 160GB HD. So, maybe I can put a little more on the C: drive. So, it's okay to load most programs onto the C: drive, huh? I was under the impression to leave the C: drive with the operating system alone, but I guess the real reason for partitioning is to safeguard data in case your OS crashes, right? I should be able to create an extended partition from an UNALLOCTAED portion of the drive, right? Vista only lets me resize about 60GB, but I can do more with Paragon Partition Manager. Do you know why Vista wants to keep about 60GB on the c: drive? thanks

I just found this info. on the microsoft website for Vista Home Premium: "40-GB hard disk that has 15 GB of free hard disk space (the 15GB of free space provides room for temporary file storage during the install or upgrade.)"