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!!!