Free Partition Manager - Partition Wizard Home Edition

Partition Wizard Home Edition is freeware partition manager designed by MT Solution Ltd. The partition manager supports 32/64 bit Windows Operating System including Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Home users can perform complicated partition operations by using this powerful yet free and easy to use partition manager to manage their hard disk. Note that the free Partition Wizard Home Edition is designated for home user only; to use Partition Wizard in a business environment Partition Wizard Professional Edition is required.

Main Features

• Support Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows7 (32 bit & 64 bit) operating system.
• Support RAID.
• Extend system partition to maximize computer performance.
• Manage the hard disk for substantial performance increase.
• Create, Delete and Format partitions with simple steps.
• Disk Copy to protect or transfer data.
• Support disk and partition size larger than 2 TB.
• Convert partition format from FAT to NTFS.
• Partition Copy: Copy the entire content of one hard disk to another.
• Copy Disk Wizard: Copy the entire hard disk to another without having to reinstall Windows.
• Disk Map - Visually demonstrate your disk/partition configuration; preview the changes before applying.
• Hide/unhide partition, set active partition, etc. - Change partition properties easily.
• Explore FAT/NTFS partition.
• Set partition as primary.
• Set partition as logical.
• Rebuild MBR.
• Disk Surface Test.
• Partition Surface Test.
• Change Partition Serial Number.
• Change Partition Type ID.
• Hot Extend Partition without reboot.

TechSupportAlert Review:

Partition Wizard Home Edition is a very easy program to use with a solid graphical interface and the power and features to accomplish everything you need done to your disks. From the standards like resizing, creating, moving, deleting, formatting and copying disks and partitions to some fancy tasks like wiping your disks and partition recovery — Partition Wizard aims to be your one-stop software for all your disk needs.

My testing on modest hardware returned very fast results for most tasks. On the average, a disk resize including reboots clocked in at under 5 minutes. These results are very close to my results for Easeus Partition Master. In fact, the times between Partition Wizard and Easeus were so close that the differences in completion time are not even worth mentioning.

A few notable features - The partition recovery wizard worked great. I was able to see the previous partitions created and deleted, regardless of the tool used, and recover 100% of those partitions complete with data. There is also an enhanced data protection mode that you can optionally select when you are modifying your disks and partitions. The website describes the data protection mode as insurance against corrupting your disks while a partition task is running due to power failures and other electrical disturbances. This sounded like a great safety feature, but not one I was willing to test. Since the overhead of using this feature was a few megabytes of disk space, this in one of those "just use it" features.

Developers’ website:

http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

Direct Downloading Link (installation version) :

http://www.ziddu.com/download/11143155/PartitionWizardHome5.exe.html

Direct Downloading Link (free bootable CD):

http://www.partitionwizard.com/download/pwhe5.iso

This image should be burn on an empty CD, and you can use it for emergency boot-up and other operations outside of your Hard Drive.

OS: Windows 2000, Windows Vista, WinXP, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Business x64, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Enterprise x64, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Basic x64, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Home Premium x64, Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Ultimate x64.

System Requirements: x86 or compatible CPU with main frequency 500MHz, Capacity of RAM memory above 256MB.

Screenshot

Euseus Partition Master - Free for Personal Use

Easeus Partition Master (former Euseus Partition Manager), free Windows partition manager software that offers a simple user interface to perform hard disk partition with basic and advanced functions option under Windows operating system.

Windows not very experienced users can achieve simple disk configuration and make partition of their hard drive easily with a click. For more experienced users, Easeus Partition manager also offers advanced features to operate their Hard Drive configuration as viewing Disk/Partition properties of each partition before performing any operations.

Easeus partition manager also allows changing cluster size automatically or manually. In addition, it can set an active partition as the boot partition for Windows operating system.

Easeus Partition Manager Personal Edition is FREE for home users only and support only Windows XP and Windows 2000 SP4.

MainFeatures:

• Resize, Move partitions without losing data.
• Disk Copy. Automatically copy the files file by file (fast) or sector by sector (sectors be exactly the same as the original one) after checking the partitions to make a back up.
• Partition Copy. Fast file-by-file copy to save your valuable time as well as protect your data before any operations.
• Disks Mapping. Visually demonstrates your disk/partition configuration; preview the changes before applying.
• Copy with Resize to fit target space.
• Create, Delete and Format partitions with one simple step.
• Hide and Unhide partitions.
• Can handle up to 32 hard disks - a flexible choice for server systems.
• Supports 1.5 TB hard disk.
• Supports Hardware RAID.
• Operating System - Compatible with Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP 32 bit, Windows Vista 32 bit.

For Vista 64 bit, Bootable CD or not a home user, you should consider purchasing a Professional Edition (cost $32).

Developers Website: http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

Download: http://www.ziddu.com/download/3791220/epm.zip.html

Screenshot ;

SwissKnife - freeware partition manager

SwissKnife is a Windows program used to create/format partitions in your hard drive. Supports IDE interfaces in Internal, external like parallel, PCMCIA, USB, and Firewire. Supports creating FAT16 and FAT32 fixed and removable partitions.

If you are looking for an external hard disk drive solution that can be used interchangeably between Windows XP, Windows 98, Mac OS and Linux, there is only one way to prepare the hard disk and SwissKnife does it for you. You can create, delete and format partitions on your hard disk drives in one smooth, simple process. While the product has been tested up to 400GB, it should support hard disks of up to 2048GB. SwissKnife allows creation of FAT32 & NTFS partitions. FAT16 option is provided for compatibility. Supports Internal interfaces such as IDE and SCSI and External interfaces such as Hi-Speed USB, Parallel port, PCMCIA, USB On-The-Go, Firewire, SATA interfaces etc. Creates Fixed and Removable Disk Format types.

Key Features:

• Formats faster than the OS.
• Allows change of cluster size during Full format or Quick Format.
• Divides a single hard drive into one or more partitions.
• Supports Hi-Speed USB, PCMCIA, SATA, SCSI, USB 1.1, and FireWire® external drives.
• Supports Fixed and Removable disk formats.
• Supports FAT, FAT32 & NTFS systems.
• Allows creation of a single partition of up to 2048GB of FAT32 or NTFS file systems.
• Full format or Quick Format of existing partitions.
• Selective partitions can be modified for optimum flexibility.
• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 95B/ 98/ 98SE/ 2000/ Me/ XP

Developer website: http://www.compuapps.com/download/Swissknife/swissknife.htm

Direct downloading link : http://www.ziddu.com/download/3577624/swissknife.exe.html

Screenshot

Cute and Advanced Free Partition Manager

Cute Partition Manager is an advanced free hard disk partition management utility. Using Partition Manager, you can easily add, edit, delete and manage the partitions in your computer. Most of the hard disks have plenty of space and can store plenty of data and easily accommodate more than one operating system. In order to efficiently store large amount of data or install multiple operating systems, you need to partition your hard disk with a partition management utility like Partition Manager.

Partition Manager is very easy to use. It lets you preview the changes before you save them. It lets you edit the boot flag, partition type and other advanced parameters. It gives you total control of your system during the partition process. For example, it lets you edit all existing partitions. It even lets you install all the operating systems from scratch. It supports all versions of Windows (9x,ME,NT,2K,XP,Vista), DOS, Linux, etc

Partition Manager - Main Features

• Lets you create more than 100 partitions per hard disk.
• Lets you preview changes before you can save them.
• Lets you edit advanced partition parameters such as boot flag, partition type, etc.
• Lets you remove every single partition in your system.
• Does not require an operating system to run (everything is built-in).
• Can be booted from CD, DVD, Blank Floppy, DOS Boot Floppy, etc.

Partition Manager - Installer Features

• Can directly create a "Cute Partition Manager Boot CD or DVD" in one click.
• Installer is fully automatic. Self-extracts the program and runs it for you automatically.

Partition Manager - Support and Document Features

• Can directly create a "Cute Partition Manager Boot CD or DVD" in one click.
• Installer is fully automatic. Self-extracts the program and runs it for you automatically.

Partition Manager - Support and Document Features

• Document is being updated continuously.
• Document is in HTML format.
• Round the clock email support

Developers Website: http://www.cutepm.com/

Download: http://www.cutepm.com/download/cpm.exe

Partition Manager - Screen Shots

Special Freebie: Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8

This is actually a deal you do not want to miss. You can legally download and unlock for free the utility that is not free. British computer magazine "Computer Active" offered free legal license to the software using a special link which was supposes to expire on April 11, 2007 but is still active and allows you to register your copy of Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8 for free legally.

Free Paragon hard disk manager 8 SE edition is giving away for free by ComputerActive. This Paragon hard disk manager 8 is windows hard disk partition software that allows partition hard drives , backing up and restoring partitions, moving and resizing partitions and creating recovery disks. But you can also use it to create or restore images of your entire disk or copy the entire hard drive to another disk

Paragon hard disk manager 8 features:

• Basic and Advanced Partitioning: Resize, move, hide, merge, restore and convert partitions without data loss. Enhance your computer performance safely and quickly, convert file systems, defragment partitions and optimize their cluster size
• Complete Backup and Restore: continuous disk-based data and system backup and fast restore even from bare-metal state. Automate operation routines of almost any complexity. In addition to basic backup/restore functionality, Hard Disk Manager provides wide range of advanced features such as Differential, Synthetic and Synchronous backup.
• Powerful Recovery: Recovery Media is a bootable CD containing full functionality of the program and additionally offering full access to all partitions on local hard drives. Even in case of unbootable system you can boot machine from Recovery CD, access important documents and copy them in secure place, fix crashed operating system with special tool or perform any operation.
• Secure Disk Wiping: Secure Disk Wiping: completely erase a whole hard disk, a separate partition or just clean free space. It guarantees secure and easy erasure of your critical data, so as it cannot be recovered with any present-day technology.

The Free Paragon hard disk manager 8 Special Edition looks similar to the Hard Disk Manager 2008 Suite from Paragon which retails for $49.95.

To get Paragon hard disk manager 8 free serial number, you need to visit the registration page and fill in your information. The Paragon hard disk manager 8 serial number will be send to your email account. The download of the actual software has to be done from the Computeractive website. (Note that this offer could expire at any time.)

The information has to be entered during installation of the software and a restart of the system is necessary before all functions become available

Developers Website: http://www.partition-manager.com/

Download Link : http://www.ziddu.com/download/3154436/hdm8_se-20070203-0000-en.exe.html

Screenshot :

Universal Cross-Platform Data Recovery Software

TestDisk is OpenSource software and is licensed under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL).

TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types ofviruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.

TestDisk can

· Fix partition table, recover deleted partition

· Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup

· Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector

· Fix FAT tables

· Rebuild NTFS boot sector

· Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup

· Fix MFT using MFT mirror

· Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock

· Undelete files from FAT filesystem

· Copy files from deleted FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3 partitions.

TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.

TestDisk can find lost partitions for all of these file systems

BeFS ( BeOS )

BSD disklabel ( FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD )

CramFS, Compressed File System

DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32

Windows exFAT

HFS, HFS+ and HFSX, Hierarchical File System

JFS, IBM's Journaled File System

Linux ext2 and ext3

Linux LUKS encrypted partition

Linux RAID md 0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2 (RAID 1,4,5,6)

Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2)

LVM and LVM2, Linux Logical Volume Manager

Mac partition map

Novell Storage Services NSS

NTFS ( Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 )

ReiserFS 3.5, 3.6 and 4

Sun Solaris i386 disklabel

Unix File System UFS and UFS2 (Sun/BSD/...)

XFS, SGI's Journaled File System

The software is simply one of the best disaster recovery utilities, available on the market. Almost all Live CDs include it in their data recovery toolboxes. However, the lack of normal GUI will be a big drawback for the less advanced users. For those who at least slightly familiar with Kernel-type DOS-like utilities, that will not be a problem. Note that the software is all command line based. But you don’t have to remember and type any commands. Simply select the various options from the list using the arrow keys and press Enter to execute them. So the software does have an interface, it’s just not graphical one.

I would say that this utility is a must for the emergency data recovery!

OS: Dos, Windows NT/XP/2000/2003/Vista, Linux, Mac OS X

Author: Christophe Grenier

Website: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Download Page (choose your OS): http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download