14 DAY TRIAL // Slicing the hard disk into all the partitions you need can be a daunting endeavor for a beginner but also for an average user. Luckily third-party apps have made their way through, providing even the professional user with stable instruments for manipulating the partitions in any way they want. And given the limitations of the Windows operating system in this sense, third-party developers are about the only ones making available easy-to-use and straightforward products.
This partition manager has reached version 3.5 and has already changed its name once. It used to be Easeus Partion Manager and now it has turned into Easeus Partition Master; it's a small difference, but one that needs to be made known. The application is available in four flavors, covering every need of a user requiring a hard disk dividing tool at all price ranges. We'll cover the Professional version, an edition in between the free variant and the server one, which costs $149. There is also the Unlimited Edition that sells for $399 at the moment.
Easeus Partition Master Professional comes at a price of $31.96 (reduced from $39.95) and is available for testing under demo license. So there is no period of time you can use it for, but there are some limitations and these consist of inability to move/resize a partition and restriction for batch operations.
The unimpressive looks are no different than in other editions, but aesthetics is of little importance in such software as the features are what the user is after. Working with the Professional version of the Partition Master from Easeus is straightforward and leaves no room for futile complications because the same options are accessible from multiple areas of the interface. Although this may seem unpleasant and redundant for some users, it ensures that all the options you need are at hand and easily accessible. An action can be started from either the drive map area of the interface, the toolbar, the side panel or the menu bar. Regardless of which one you choose the result will be the same.
The options made available are the important thing and they cover everything you need to chop a hard disk into as many pieces (read “partitions”) as you want easily and effortlessly. Partition Master lets you scale up and down a drive, copy it to unallocated space (a partition is created prior to the copying process), delete, explore, label, format, change its letter or check it against errors and bad sectors.
To keep you informed on the current stat of the disk(s) drive map provides a set of details regarding the type, size, status, and amount of free and used space for each drive detected on the system. Unallocated space is also presented.
The flexibility of the program allows for physical movement of a partition to a different section of the hard disk. The one condition required for this to happen is for the partition to have unallocated space before or after it. Otherwise you will have to move the unallocated space little by little until it neighbors the desired drive allowing it to be displaced.
Resizing a partition can be done in more than one way, permitting beginners and average users to enjoy the utility of the app the easy way and allowing professionals finer tuning of the values limiting the size of the new drive. Thus, in Resize/Move Partition screen you can simply drag by the graphic representation's sides to set the new size or you can manually type in the desired values for unallocated space before/after or for partition size.
Creating a new drive out of unallocated space is similar to the abovementioned procedure but there is slightly more info to add, such as label (name of the slice), type (depending on what it's destined for, primary or logical), select the drive letter, cluster size and file system. This all may sound like geek information, but the truth is that if you define only what you understand everything will work out just fine because the settings are already preset to the current standards.
One advantage of Partition Master over the free edition is the possibility to create a bootable disk that lets you slice and dice the hard disk offline. Although the interface is quite the same, there are several restrictions to keep in mind if you want your OS' boot not to be affected. Resizing or moving the system partition as well as creating or deleting drives in front of it (if the OS is Windows 2000, XP or 2003) are the two situations to avoid. Also, do not try any operation on RAID as the bootable disk does not support it.
As some form of backup, the application lets you copy a partition to a different place. One condition for this to happen is that the destination has to be unallocated space out of which the app will create a new drive and copy the source on. The same operation can be initiated for entire disks.
EASEUS Partition Master makes partitioning easy even for a newbie thanks to the wizards guiding the user at each step of the task. Also, the changes will not take effect without you approving them. All the operations scheduled to take place are listed in the side panel and you have the possibility to relinquish them at any time. The one trouble you'll encounter with this, though, is that you can only give up one operation at a time starting with the last one in the list.
The partition manager from EASEUS does an awesome job giving you an easy way out for manipulating all the partitions on the disk, creating, expanding, moving, copying, deleting or converting them from FAT to NTFS. The bootable disk lets you undertake some of these operations offline.
And there is more to the list of features, under the Advanced section of a right-click. From this section (which can also be accessed from Partitions menu) you can change a drive's letter, hide it altogether in Windows environment or check it for errors. Changing the active partition (the one the system should boot from) is also an option, but make sure you have an OS installed there first. And for all your settings to be preserved and to prevent any tampering, password protection can be activated.
The Good
Less complicated tasks that do not involve the system partition can be completed without restarting the computer. The update to show the new partition structure is immediate to the finish of the operation.
Creating a bootable disk allows you to make the desired changes offline in case you want to partition the disk(s) prior to installing an operating system.
The Bad
When there are multiple operations pending you cannot undo them selectively, but coerced to relinquish one at a time until you reach the one you need.
The Truth
You can try it as a function-restricted demo if you do not require resizing/moving partitions. But as the chances for this are slim, you can see it in action by trying the free version.
