Initially in Windows XP, a program known as Partition Magic was premier partitioning software on market. Now program is mainly unmaintained, leaving many users looking for a possible option. Those users are in luck not only is there a quality option on market, it's also free.

Partition Magic Limitations

1. As final stable release of Partition Magic was in 2004, reasons for wanting a substitute are ample. The program cannot hold hard drives more than 300 GB which was fine in 2004 but is difficult now, as 1000 GB hard drives are ever more general. The other problem is it cannot work with Linux or Mac systems only NTFS or FAT32 partitions can be edited. Even with these problems, though, Partition Magic costs money.

GParted

2. GParted is not only an option to Partition Magic in many ways, it is better. The conclusion of many projects, open source disk partitioner GParted is default partitioning program for many versions of Linux. Able of resizing and making partitions for Windows, Mac and Linux systems, GParted can work with discs of any size. Best of all, it's 100 percent without charge.

Live CD

3. GParted is a Linux program, but that does not mean Mac and Windows users can't utilize it. As it's not possible to modify size of a partition that's now in use, changing partition your OS is on needs booting to various partition. GParted Live CD is a full Linux OS which boots from CD for particular purpose of running GParted. Just download the program, burn it to disc and boot from CD.

Interface

4. GParted comes with an interface instantly known to users of Partition Magic. Your partitions are signified on screen; right-click them to make modifications. Partitions can be resized, moved or deleted overall. Free space can be changed into a partition. When all is set up to user's liking, push "Apply" to make the modifications take place.

Filing Systems

5. Most important OS now use various filing systems. A filing system is technique utilized to store data on disk. Windows usually utilizes NTFS, Linux utilizes EXT3 or EXT4 and Mac OSX utilizes HFS Plus. GParted can function with and make all filing systems, making it a generally helpful device. Partition Magic, in contrast, could only work with NTFS out of all filing systems.