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| Product: PartitionMagic |
Company: PowerQuest |
| Web: www.powerquest.com |
Phone: 801-437-8900 |
Platform: DOS/Win95/98/NT
Linux support |
SRP: US$70
$30 upgrade
Street Price: same |
Cred Rating: | Special Award: |
Partitioning your hard drive, dividing it up into several sections to more efficiently organize programs, data and different operating systems, has long been a daunting task to all but the most advanced PC users. Since 1993, PowerQuest has been gradually making this process less user-surly, and its latest version, 4.0, is a total dream to use (for such a utility, anyway). Anyone who can click a mouse and follow set-by-step Wizards can create new disk partitions, re-size existing ones, convert between 16-bit and 32-bit file systems and load multiple operating systems onto their PC.
As hard drives have become larger, partitioning has become more of a necessity. Unfortunately, many partitioning programs can't handle some of today's behemoth hard drives. PartitionMagic can handle drives over 20GB.
One very useful thing to use partitions for is to separate your data files from your programs to more easily facilitate regular back-ups. You can also create a special partition to test software whose stability you're unsure of, and even create hidden partitions for security purposes. The program also includes the MagicMover and DriveMapper utilities which let you move applications between partitions and automatically update the drive-letter references after partitioning.
Deep geeks fear not. PartitionMagic has all of the power and functionality of earlier versions (and then some) and offers both a Wizard-based interface and a manual method for those who don't want the hand-holding. Working with this program, you quickly begin to understand why it's garnered so many enthusiastic consumer reviews and industry accolades.
PartitionMagic includes PowerQuest's other popular program, BootMagic, which not only allows you to load multiple operating systems, but lets you easily switch between them. If you've been wondering what all the hoopla is over the Linux OS, and want to have a peak at it (without having to re-tool your entire PC), ParitionMagic/BootMagic is just what the disk doctor ordered.
- Gareth Branwyn [6/30/99]
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