cutie_pyie wrote:

...there are currently no compatible partitioning applications out
that work with Vista.

No longer true. The latest Acronis Disk Director (build 2160) is Vista
aware.

If I can get Partition Magic 8 to JUST create the partitions but NOT format
them, will Vista's disk management format them correctly to the right NTFS
for Vista?

If your Vista was pre-installed it probably takes up the whole disk.
If true, you will need to shrink one (or more) partitions to make room,
and there's the rub. I wouldn't be willing to trust an older app to
do the resizing of Vista's partition(s). I would trust the latest DD
from Acronis, however.