Discussion on:

Five Apps for working with disk partitions

Do you find yourself performing partition management functions often? What tools do you use?

I use GParted to pre-partition all of my HDDs before installing the operating systems (it lets me avoid that worthless 100MB partition that W7 creates).

Since I run XP, W7 and a Linux distro (currently Linux Mint 14 MATE) I need a tool that can handle multiple file systems and the Windows Disk Manager doesn't make the grade.

GParted is also superior to Windows Disk Manager, when you need to resize partitions.

Once I started using it, I haven't tried anything else, so I have no other experience. It does rock!

Best one out there for stubborn drives. And free free free.

Nice list thanks. Oh and thanks again for the 2 links in the newletter, this time I even noticed they were there.

If you want to go for the best "system" for disk care and feeding, Parted Magic is the way to go. It is essentially a specialized Linux distro dedicated to disks. Its centerpiece is Gparted, which several others have mentioned as being great (and I heartily concur!). I keep Parted Magic on a thumb drive at all times. So far I haven't found a single thing it couldn't do. You can't beat the price with a stick either...FREE!!!

Yep - Here we go again - So your OS is **%%$$ and you need to look at your partition and you only have a GUI app.......So do any of these do none GUI. Disk tools in all instances should also be able to work with out an OS to be worth while, as well as having a GUI interface, for those other tasks.

I'm also fond of GParted as my go-to partitioning app. It's the closest (free) replacement for Partition Magic which I used to use extensively.

@tim.deeley
Why not use bootable program CDs/DVDs, Live Linux CDs/DVDs and or USB sticks?

("Reply" to posts doesn't work for me on this page)

I'm 2500 miles from the server I need to create space on. I'm considering EaseUS and Partiton Magic Server to repartition my drive on my Windows Storage Server 2003. From what I've seen, these applications *appear* to run in a fully-booted system. What are my risks if I do this remotely? ETA: I could also use Remote Desktop, if that would be better/safer.

Thanks for any advice.