I know this is going to sound odd, but it might be possible to use another os, like a live cd of ubuntu (linux) and re-partition the hard drive. Not sure if it would work or not, but it might. Vista partitioning software sucks for lack of a better term.

Dell seems to be unconcerned with how much space they use, or how many partitions they create on *your* hard drive. My wife's Dell Inspiron that's about 3 years old has a Dell Restore and Dell Utility partition and some unallocated space. Very wasteful. Here you can see what Dell does on their new systems:
http://www.goodells.net/dellre.....direct.htm