Partition Magic 6.0 - Product Review

I have been using PartitionMagic when it was first in-troduced as a tool for OS/2 in 1994. The last version that still had an OS/2 executable was Version 3.0. Newer versions do not support OS/2 directly but switch into DOS mode to do the job. When I recently tried to make changes to my IBM ThinkPad to install eCS (eCommStation, a new packaging of OS/2), the old, trustworthy PartitionMagic 3.0 understandably didn't want me to modify the partitions it was installed on. A perfect time to test PartitionMagic Version 6.0 that was made available for evaluation by User Group Relations representing PowerQuest.

Price: $70 list / $30 user group special

Reviewer: Bernhard Krevet, Napa Valley PC User Group, krevet@attglobal.net

Evaluation Ratings (5 * best)
Overall:   ***** 
Installation:  **** 
Documentation:  ***** 
Support:  **** 
Ease-of-Use:  ***** 

Installation
PartitionMagic can be installed as a Windows or DOS application on the hard drive; in my case, however, I chose to create a set of so-called rescue diskettes from the CD which allow to run PartitionMagic from DOS, Windows 3.x, OS/2 or Linux. After opening a DOS window on the CD, the command "MAKEDISK A:" creates two diskettes, which are used to boot the system (in a special version of DOS) and start the program.

Operation
The first surprise was that even in DOS mode, there is a nice graphical interface showing the accessible disks and partitions (figure 601). I had already four partitions set up and needed to create a fifth to test the installation. All I had to do is to move pointers to reduce the last partition (F:) by 600MB, then click on the now unused space and select "create." After entering the desired partition information (figure 603), the new layout is pre-sented. The second surprise is that at this time, the new layout is only pending, nothing has actually been changed. Click on "apply changes" and the list of ac-tions is displayed, ordered in the sequence of execution. Still time to cancel or modify! Since I really wanted the changes, I selected "Apply" - and after some disk grinding the additional partition was created. During the process, the program checks disk and data integrity in each step. In the years of using PartitionMagic, I never had a problem with the losing data or corrupted disks.

Documentation
The excellent User Guide is very detailed about the in-stallation and operation. It includes sample screen im-ages, an extensive list of potential error situation and corresponding solutions and support contact listings.Partion Magic Interface

Overall
I can't imagine having computers without dividing the hard disks into more manageable partitions. As Gene Barlow of User Group Relations in his presentation to our group has demonstrated, it makes so much more sense to assign separate partitions for the operating sys-tem (C:), for application programs (D:) and for data (E:). I always add another partition for temporary files (F:). While the good old FDISK command will divide the disk for you, it would do so at the total loss of anything on the partitions. Absolutely unacceptable, and a very good reason for PartitionMagic!Operations Pending