If you haven't heard about Partition Magic, it's time
you got wise. FDISK.EXE, that dreaded program that was
used to partition a hard disk in the dark ages of
computerdom has finally met a timely death. Fdisk is not
intuitive. It had a cryptic DOS interface that was used,
maybe once, to set up a hard disk. Most of the time one
ended up with one big DOS partition and very large
cluster sizes. Any time Fdisk was used thereafter, came
the realisation that everything that was on your hard
disk before was completely and irrevocably GONE forever.
With PowerQuest's powerful 32-bit software tool, you
can dynamically create, resize, format, and move hard
disk partitions. This ability maximises the efficiency of
any file system and takes advantage of smaller cluster
sizes. All this can be done on the fly and with very easy-to-use
graphical menus. There is no loss of files or directories
and you can easily copy files between partitions.
Why consider repartitioning?
For all computer users with large hard disks, Fat 32,
multiple disks, Win '95, NT, and OS/2, up to 50% of your
4Gb hard disk space could be wasted!
The smallest area of a hard drive that can be written
to is a cluster. Cluster sizes are determined by a disk
limitation of 65,575 clusters. The larger the hard disk
the larger the cluster size. A one-byte file would take
up 32Kb of disk space on a 1024Mb hard disk and would use
64Kb on a 2048Mb or larger hard disk. A hard disk between
one and two gigabytes with a single large partition has a
cluster size of 32Kb. This leads to a potential waste of
approximately 40% in disk space. Similarly a hard disk
between 512Mb and 1023Mb would have 16Kb clusters and a
potential waste of 25%. Repartitioning a hard disk as
smaller multiple logical drives would naturally cause
less waste.
Multiple operating systems
For those of you who run multiple operating systems,
you can partition a disk with its maximum of four primary
partitions: each partition can house a separate operating
system. The ability to shield one operating system from
another insures the absence of inter-operating-system
compatibility problems. Boot Manager, from IBM, is
included and you can use this to switch easily between
operating systems.
Partition control
Partitions can easily be reconfigured from a primary
partition to an extended partition. Logical drives can be
created, sized, and easily formatted in any extended
partition. FAT32 partitions are recognised and can be
changed to FAT16 partitions.
Partition Magic can be loaded and run in text mode
from a bootable floppy disk, which can be a real savior
in certain situations.
This is one very powerful and easy to use piece of
software. The excellent, easy-to-read-and-understand
manual explains not only the functionality of Partition
Magic but also hard disks, sectors, tracks, clusters, and
effective partitioning of the hard disk. If you are
concerned about waste of disk space, run multiple
operating systems, and want better control of your hard
disk, then this is the program for you. For more
information visit: http://www.powerquest.com
Bottom Line:
Partition Magic (Proprietary)
PowerQuest
http://www.powerquest.com
Originally published: February, 1998
