I was wondering what the best way to partition a HD with more than 4 partitions is? Because Dell being the genius that it is sent it with my HD already partition 4 times, which I've read is the max that is possible... Any ideas?

You can have as many logical partitions as you want, as long as you have letters to name them However, the max of 4 you speak of is for 3 primary partitions, and 1 extended partition, question though, why do you need so many partitions?

Well I really only want 2 but it came with it already parted into 4. How do I determine which is which, I mean which is logic, and which is extended? Oh, and here's a screenie of what I'm going to use to Partition.

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It says on the right - "Primary" or "Logical".

I hate manufacturers that do that. I had the same problem partitioning my laptop when I got it.. You can try removing some, but factory stuff breaks and it's annoying.

Any suggestions of which one to delete first?

Also, I had read that I can partition the logical one into as many as I want, so is it possible that I could change my C to the logical one?

Not really; I don't have much idea what any of them are for exactly. From the usage on your C drive, I presume that this is not a new, empty computer. Do you have a live install OS disk? If you have one and don't care about data on your comp (or have backed it up to an external hard drive), then I would recommend a complete reformat and then give yourself what you need.

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Also, I had read that I can partition the logical one into as many as I want, so is it possible that I could change my C to the logical one?

Not easily. First, Windows was not really written to be installed to a logical partition, so there's a bit of weirdness in doing so, if I recall. I have never tried to put Windows on a logical partition, so I don't really know. Also, it's not easy to just move your current OS partition without wiping it blank and starting anew.

I'm not exactly sure what you want, or how experienced you are with partitions, so I don't know how to guide your further.

2 possible options:
Deal with it.

Reinstall windows.

I'd do the latter, but that's just me. I find partitions stupid and pointless.

Actually, you could back up your current OS with DriveImage XML, data and all, do the formatting, I would recommend getting UBCD4Win(for those of you who haven't already, after all my advertising..) in order to have a live OS to work from while you partition and move the data back onto the drive, and you should be set.

Usually store bought computers come with a recovery partition, then you have your main partition.
I'm curious what *; and *;mediadirect are (nevermind, googled it). They don't have drive letters and formatted as FAT?

Anyways, your extra partitions aren't that big at all and should just be ignored.
Or, I would download vista, use your serial key you got from Dell, delete C: and D:, then reformat using all space for one partition. This is only mainly because I hate the extra crap companies like Dell would throw in the operating system as is. You risk losing recovery options outside Vista's normal systems.

Well, if you want a recovery partition, you can just set it up exactly how you want, then back it up like I said in the previous post, and place the backup on that recovery partition, I did it and it takes me under 30 minutes to put my computer back where it was.