New Looks, Same Functionality in Partition Master from EASEUS

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Resize/move, merge, split, hide/unhide, set active partition, wipe disk/partition, rebuild MBR, convert dynamic disk to basic, GPT disk partitioning, convert partition to/from primary/logical, disk surface test
  • (6 more, see all...)

EASEUS Partition Master has been around for quite some time, although it was initially labeled as a manager, not a master. Naming aside, the application’s purpose has not changed over the years and it is still in the game of resizing your hard disks and drives.

There are three editions you can pick from, Home, Professional and Server, the first being the most popular since it allows any home user to re-organize the partitions on the system free of charge. This edition has recently been updated to version 8, which does not introduce breathtaking features, but consolidates the functionality of the application.

Since our previous review of the free edition of EASEUS Partition Master the developer expanded the abilities of the software to support more storage devices as well as larger capacity hard disks. Thus, you can use it on removable devices such as flash drives or memory cards as well as hard disks up to 4TB in size.

As far as the novelties in the latest version are concerned, you will find a redesigned user interface that integrates much better with the style of Windows 7. Also, resizing the partitions is now done much faster and safer as the algorithm has been optimized for such operations.

A change in look was long time overdue in Partition Master. The new interface is clean, clear-cut with a polished frame that does not affect the ease of use many have grown accustomed to. All the elements are in the exact same place, but the appearance just got better.

The set of options includes all major operations required for successfully and easily resize or move a partition, change its label, format it, convert to a different file system, defragment or delete it altogether. These are still available in the left hand side panel as well as in the context menu of the selected entry.

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Besides showing all the drives and disks available to the system, drive list also offers a quick view at details such as file system used, total capacity, amount of used and free space as well as their type. It is an easy way to assess the state of a volume in a glance, and very useful if you want to engage in partition copying operations.

Partition list does not update automatically to show the newly connected devices, but you can easily get the new details by hitting the refresh button in the toolbar.

Creating a new volume from a chunk of unallocated space is an easy job that allows you to set a label for the new storage, type (logical for storing stuff or primary if you want to boot off it), the file system, letter, cluster size and, of course, size. Size and position of the new partition is not a difficult task to complete either, as you can use the interactive graph and drag by the ends to reach he desired size or you can punch in the numbers yourself.

An important aspect is that Partition Master lets you position the new drive to have unallocated space before or after its last bit. This is useful if you want to leave a gap in case you need to upsize any of the partitions neighboring the new drive.

Once you are done configuring the limits the operation is listed as pending until you decide to apply it. This way you are offered the possibility to change your mind and make final adjustments, if necessary.

A slightly more complicated endeavor would be to create a copy of a drive from a piece of unallocated space, but the difficulty level for this task is not beyond the abilities of an average user. However, should this be above your level, the developer makes available a wizard that helps you carry out the task without problems.

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Disk slicing is not the only purpose you can use Partition Master Home Edition for as the app brings to the table tools for checking the volumes as well as defragmenting them. These instruments are the exact ones in Windows OS (Defrag.exe and Chkdsk.exe), so there is no extra efficiency involved.

The interface is the first change you notice when launching the program, but another improvement you’ll witness is the speed of the resize/move algorithm. During our tests we created a new partition from an 80GB chunk of unallocated space in less than 10 seconds. Actually, allocating the space took about 5 seconds and another 3 were required for the software to update the drive list.

Resizing it to just 1GB took around 5seconds as well. Moving the volume to a different section of the hard disk, with no data on it completed in about 10seconds. The same operation, this time filled with 800MB, required 37 seconds to finish.

However, it looks like deleting and wiping both lead to turning the selected partition into unallocated space. The difference between the two options is that the first one allows recovery, while the second can perform multiple overwrites (up to 10) so that the data cannot be recovered.

The built-in partition recovery wizard helps you get back deleted or lost volumes still available in unallocated space. It features two recovery modes; automatic to let the software check all the hard disk’s unallocated space and a manual one which permits you pick a specific slice yourself. There are two search methods as well: fast, which may miss some partitions and complete, which is more thorough. During our tests we managed to recover data off a long time deleted drive.

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The Good

You get a free instrument to handle your hard disk and partitions any way you want. For a home user running Windows this is way better than the default solution built in the operating system as it is more flexible and much easier to manage. Also, creating a new volume, resizing or moving it on the hard disk is done very quickly.

Looks have been updated to better fit the Windows 7 style and the interface is no longer hard on the eye.

The Bad

Wiping a partition actually transforms it into unallocated space. It would be nice just to overwrite the data on it and not destroy it completely.

You can undo pending operations only one by one instead of picking the one you want to exclude in case you change your mind and there are multiple tasks to be performed.

The Truth

EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition 8 finally got some good looks to match its functionality. It may not be a big leap from the earlier version, but it continues to offer a free and easy way to slice and dice drives without having to restart the computer (we still recommend backing up the data before the procedure and so does the developer).

user interface 5
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 5


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
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