I'm learning that Win7 may have a capability itself like VirtualBox,
and that VirtualBox uses an M$ format to do its thing:

Wikipedia says:

"Third-party products also use VHD file format. VirtualBox, part of
Sun xVM line of Sun Microsystems supports VHD in versions 2 and
later." Where VHD was earlier described as Virtual Hard Drive,
a Microsoft-acquired format.

It wasn't clear if Win7 Home Premium would have a VHD capability;
maybe only an Enterprise/Server level of Win7?

And I found this:

http://www.3dhomejoe.info/jsite/uploads/vhd.pdf

And I note I can display a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) that
looks like the pdf examples.
The MMC on my Home Premium Win7 looks like it might be capable of
doing a lot of manipulation, including formatting to fat or ntfs. Not clear
what the implication is of some other formatting, say ext or reiser.

I hope this is converging toward an accommodation of Werner's re-
mastering, Capricorny's poor-man's install and my up-till-now
unused ntsf capability. This still feels like re-partioning by another name,
and diddling with the Win7 install is problematic.