I have two SATA II drives on my new PC. Windows Vista is installed on one, the other is currently empty. I want to partition both but I don't want to spend a lot of money on a utility that I only use one or twice.

What are my options?

Hello Dad the option is no third party software required as you are running Vista.

You can shrink a volume and create new partitions via Disk Management.

Can I repartition my hard disk? - Windows Vista Help

Are you wanting additional software to buy? If not vista is capable of partitioning too (which is what I would recommend) give us a few more details on what you are wanting to do and we can help you. does windows recognize your empty drive?

Thanks JB and Snoopy. I was aware of the partitions facilaty in Vista, which I am running, but I read somewhere that it was not reliable. From what you both say that information was wrong so there is no reason why I should not use it.

Yes the enpty drive is recognised. My old PC also had two HDDs and I had partitiioned both using software which I got on a free time limited basis but I can't rememebr what is was called.

On the C drive I want to use one partition for programs and the othere for data. I then want to instal Linux Ububtu in one partition on the other drive and archive data, video and photos in another one or two partitions on that disk.

I also have an external drive which I use for backup and I may partition that also.

Dad then Vista disk management will do the trick.

Just a heads up the linux partition will need to be made through linux, or the installer. You can't install linux on a windows partition.
I'd recommend creating your video/music/etc partition and leaving free space for your Ubuntu installation as free space. This should actually even make things easier when you proceed with your linux install as there is an option to use "free space", with that option it should make the linux partitions automatically.