add a partition to separate data from system files

[msrice]

Probably an old issue but confounding for a newbie; although I saw some posts in other forums about similar problems. Pardon the idiot question, but how do you add a partition? Does a partitioning software like Partition Commander work? Can you prevent the Rescue and Recovery from erasing all the partition in a new hard drive when you restore from a backup DVD?
Thanks for your help.

[sliston32]

msrice you should really use the "Search" function but this is what you could use. The software is called G-Parted its free and it works.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

there is a guide to using it on

http://lifehacker.com/software/hard-dri ... 230420.php