Which partition software?

I bought a 250Gig external hard drive. Now I want to partition it.

I am a computer doofus.

What is a good, safe, easy-to-understand, idiot-proof, reasonably priced (or free) application to make partitions?

I do not need a program that does a whole bunch of things. All I want it to do is make partitions for me. Like --

It has a button: "Make a partition _Yes _No"

Pressing "Yes" gets me a new menu: "Which drive_?"

Entering a drive gets me: "How big do you want it __?"

Entering a number gets me: "I did it. Have a nice day."

Is there such a thing out there?

 

Hey Bell,

Is this going to be a one time thing or there-abouts ?

If so....I would suggest plain ole MS Fdisk.

How to Use the Fdisk Tool and the Format Tool to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk

In case it matters....is this also the external drive that you are also going to use Acronis True Image to put your main hard disk on to your new external HD ?

 

Thanks Bubba. Fdisk seems to be for Win9x whereas (due to circumstances beyond my control) I am now running XP & using NTFS file format.

Yes, I own a license for Acronis True Image (ATI). I was definitely planning to use it to do periodic images of my system HD (in one partition) & do daily back-ups of my data HD (in a second partition).

However, there has been a new development. Namely, my new external HD is made by Iomega & it came with a program called "Automatic Backup Pro." (ABP).

The user's manual for ABP says it will backup selected files and/or create a disaster recovery image. It also will boot to the recovery image using the CD that came with the drive. AND it will back-up that boot cd (burn new copies) if I tell it to do so.

I read through the user's manual & it seems a lot simpler than ATI's 79 page user's manual. (I think that's mainly related to the fact that ATI has lots more options & abilities than does ABP.)

I am planning to research for user's comments about the effectiveness of the Iomega ABP package. If I get some positive vibes, then I will probably use that instead of ATI. After all, the guys who made the HD also provide the software -- it ought to work well together, wot?

Sooooo... I am still seeking a simple program to partition my new HD.

 

Hi Bellgamin,

Not sure if it will work with your USB drive, but Windows XP has the Disk Management snap-in (like a control panel applet).

Click Start, Right Click My Computer, from fly out menu select Manage.
Computer Management window appears. From the left pane, expand Storage and select Disk Management.

 

I created my partitions on my USB external harddisk this way.

@Bellgamin,
I collected this list, but I never tried them.

Bootit Next Generation v1.75a ($34.95)
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/
Acronis Disk Director Suite ($49.99)
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/
PartitionMagic ($69.95)
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/system_performance/pm80/index.html
Partition Manager ($49.95)
http://www.partition-manager.com/

Ranish Partition Manager (freeware)
http://www.ranish.com/part/

 

Yep. If it's a one time deal, bellgamin, and, especially, if you're only doing partitioning on your external drive, I'd skip any investment or even using freeware and just use the Disk Management console.

As far as the softwares, I have Acronis Disk Director and Partition Magic. You may be able to get a discount on ADD because you have ATI. To tell the truth, however, I often prefer to use Partition Magic over ADD because it is just more stable and reliable on my system. Can't give you any input on the other softwares although I have seen Fred Langa mention Ranish utilities in a positive light.

 

QParted or Gparted do a very good job at partitioning. Just use knoppix ( a linux live-cd), then boot it up and select QParted from somewhere in the kde menu, then you have a nice graphical way to partition your harddrive (it's a clone of symantecs partition magic, only without the symantec bloat and without the $70 charge).

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

 

@bellgamin

I am sorry to say you can no longer be one of us: the doofi reject you for being too competent.

Sounds like you have been very busy !!
Installing XP, trialling various Linux distros with success.
Experimenting with ATI goodies.
Experimenting with FDISR (whose only limitation is "C"drive only)
New HDs
New partitions

Busy, busy

FWIW for partition mgt : (iknow ,I know) BING is the goods. Manage FAT, NTFS, and your linux partitions without blinking. (35$ for all the tools including the IFLinux) Apart from NTFS it will also format the partitions any way you want USe from the floppy, particularly if you have gone for ATI as imager, cloner. Non destructive data moves as partition sizes change. Easy support for USB drives. It really is easy and for me so far has been completely safe. Be careful about data loss when formatting.

(Note that to format with NTFS you will need MS tools after creating the partition. Can use XP computer mgt services for that. Bing will align the partitions for conversion.)

I have settled for FDISR and Terabyte for my disaster recovery, imaging, copying, and partition mgt and when I get around to Linux, will use bing for boot manager.

As noted above a live knoppix cd will do the job well for free.

Regards.

I wish they were giving me some payment LOL.

 

Oooops....don't know why I failed to mention I have this too. It's on my desktop at home and I reckon I've been on the road too long with my laptop !

 

Good grief -- I did it! Out of the box, my new external drive had 1 partition formatted in fat32. Now it has 2 partitions, both in NTFS. Shazam!

Mucho thanks to Devinco for showing me the way, & to Erik for giving me the confidence to have a go at it.

Also, my thanks Erik for the splendid link to ranish.com, & to crofttk for pointing out langa's endorsement thereof.

@Longboard- I made a note of Bing for future reference. Right now my teeny span of attention is already at critical mass.

I'm right now going to try imaging with ABP. Wish me luck, sports fans.

 

Hehe.... it could be worse and, like mine, be at critical mEss !

 

I dont think there is any/many disadvantages to what you do.

Recovery images could be huge?

Need extra partitions for booting into separate OSs; that is what I am workinh up to for trial of Linux.

 

www.Outpost.com and Fry's stores are offering a combination of Norton Ghost 10, Partition Magic 8 and Symantec Internet Security for a net cost of $zero after rebates.

Hard to beat free for a price.

You would have to pay sales taxes and possibly shipping though.

Partion Magic is not too hard to use.

 

Progress report: I tried ABP. It is buggy crapola. I had to go into safe mode to get back control of my computer. Iomega makes great drives but lousy software. I shoulda remembered what my uncle taught me long ago: "Never order fried chicken at a steak house."

So I used Acronis True Image -- for the first time. It is absolutely bee-yoo-tiful! A dream come true. So easy to work with and stable as a rock. I now have imaged my systems & backed-up my data so all is well.

Thanks again to all -- for help & encouragement.

 

Hello,
Download Gparted - it's a Linux based bootable partitioner.
Boot from CD, do what you need - very simple and intuitive. Reboot. Install what you need.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Mrk

 

Partition Magic is oft available free, or very low cost, AFTER rebates.

I purchased a second license for $0 plus the cost of sending the rebate forms.
Only reason I buy Symantec software is the low price.

 

Hi,

I think Q parted has its own separate live CD as well.
Do u know what is the diffrerence between QParted and Gparted?
Thanks.

 

Hi, I want to ask two questions about it.

1- Its user interface is graphical or command line?
2- Does this( and other) partition managers work at MBR level? I mean what if u partion ur primary drive with them and then use RollbackRx or FDISR? Should u expect conflicts?

 

Hello,
It's graphical. Very much so.
BTW, why don't you download and boot from it. You don't need to make any changes. Just try it.
It works at boot level and can read the hidden partitions made by imaging softwares like Acronis, Rollback etc. Will it interfere or conflict? I can't tell you for sure. Depends on the partition choices, I guess. If you play with primary partitions, then there might be conflict. If you play with logical partitions, there should be no problems. But this is true for any partitioning software that works in conjunction with imaging software that can overwrite MBR.
Mrk

 

here are the screenshots for Gparted. the livecd is suppose to be good.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php

http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/04/25/1917228

 

Thanks Mrkvonic and iceni60 .

 

Gparted will be great to make my NTFS partition smaller to make room for a Linux partition in a dual boot setup. Always have a good reliable backup before messing with partitions.

 

Argh , what a pity, this is only for US customers ! I don't care about NIS, but was interested in Ghost and PM.

About partition software, I've bought a copy of Partition manager 7, from Paragon, but didn't have the time to try it yet.

nicM

 

I have to agree with Peter2150. Partitioning is rarely necessary and often and unnecessary risk. Longboard mentions one of the few circumstances (multiple OS) that I can imagine needing partitioning.