Others say...

"Well it worked for me"
I'm not a techie and had no chance of getting technical assistance where I live but I did have an XP based computer with a ridiculous 10GB C drive and 160GB D drive partition so it gave the impression that there was lack of memory where it needed it most.

Reading the reviews, they seem to split between "works well" and "scrambled my hard drive" but, with no alternative, I took the gamble.

Anyway it worked first time and I found it easy to use. Beginner's luck maybe

"works great for resizing"
Running XP. I needed something to resize my partitions and this did the trick. My C: drive had been at 95%+ capacity for quite some time. I was able to re-allocate space from the D: drive to here. Problem solved. I didn't have to create a backup either (though you may want to just in case..). It did take a while, approximately 3 hours to re-allocate 15G. There may be less costly options, but when you consider you are messing with your hard drive stick to a trusted product.

"Lifesaver"
I was so not looking forward to wiping everything off my computer in order to repartition. My C drive was way too small. But a friend recommended the Norton Partition Magic and it worked wonderfully. It took three times as long to make the back ups as it did to use the product. I would recommend it to anyone that needs to make a partition larger or smaller without having to backup everything and try to restore it.

"Another great product neglected by Symantec"
I've used PM since version 3 over twelve years ago. It has been a reliable product but its features have not kept up with Windows (dynamic disk, etc.) For version 8 they seem to have added one feature (ext3 support) - big Whoop. I've installed and used version 7 on WinXP SP2 and static disk partitions without problems so far.

Despite what its product page says, it does NOT support external (USB, Firewire, eSATA (?) drives except from a Windows installation. This exposes its biggest limitation - it does NOT give you an easy way to create a fully functional, standalone bootable CD. You can cobble one together using the DOS mode floppy disk (hey, still have one of those?) and a burning program such as Nero. However, DOS support of external drives is very problematic and is not included.

WARNING TO NON-TECHIES: Partitioning a hard drive is inherently risky. It is strongly suggested that you read up on how the boot process works.

Of course, BACK UP YOUR CRITICAL DATA FIRST!! DO NOT be too hard on Acronis or even Symantec for not working well with UNDOCUMENTED, PROPRIETARY uses of hidden partitions and boot records by computer vendors *cough*HP*cough*Dell*.

Run the partition utility from the boot CD, NOT from within Windows. Files in use on a partition PREVENT the utility from changing the partition. Computer geeks would say, DUH.

If you need a modern repartitioning utility, look at Linux based Acronis Disk Director or the free System Rescue CD (now at version 1.0.1).

"4 to 5 star product, (when use correctly) but it is really showing it's age."
I first hear about PQ = partition magic by Power Quest back in version 2.0. Then it cost maybe $100 ($160 inflation adjusted). I flat out did not believe it was possible. I bought ver 3.0 in ~ 1996 and was amazed!! No one else had anything like it. I never saw a windows like GUI in DOS! I have been using it ever since to version (ver) 8.0.

Then Symantec bought it to get rid of a rival product similar to partition magic called "Drive Image" it did the same thing ghost did BUT is/was licensed per user. Basically, a corp. would spend $800 per license for Drive Image but could then make unlimited copies of windows while Norton ghost requires a fee to be paid every time a windows pc is duplicated! (needless to say even the biggest pay for software zealots violated that because there is no practical way for Norton to enforce it). BTW (by the way) Ghost was it's own company that was bought by Norton -> Symantec.

So in an anticompetitive move Symantec bought power quest about 5 years ago and since that time version 8.0 has never been updated.

Great product yes!!!! Far ahead of its time and still the easiest interface of any drive partitioning software/copying software BUT.... it is really showing its age: won't support windows 2003 server partitions, w2k/2003 dynamic partitions etc. So I use it in combination with Partition Commander v10 and System Commander v8.20 by vcomm.

One problem that pq8 has always had is free space. If any hard drive is more than ~ 60 to 70% full it is NOT SAFE to resize it. I normally clone the entire hard drive to an second drive using ghost THEN format partition a new blank drive then ghost /copy the data the info back down.

Size limit: FAT32 supports 2Terabyte partitions but PQ8 will not resize a fat32 partition past 200GB however if partition commander is used it will make fat32 all the way to 750GB and larger. This is not pq's fault when version 8.0 cam out the largest hd was maybe 160GB or 120GB and Symantec won't allow the product to be updated and won't release a newer product because it competes with existing Norton products (so much for enforcement of an obvious anti-trust violation).

Finally, partitioning software requires advanced knowledge that most user's lack - call your local "computer guy" and back up first then get professional help - doing it on the cheap and with no backup is just rolling the dice.

Tech note: the product is not fully 48bit LBA compliant, it is good up to 300GB, and maybe 500GB?

Sincerely,

PaulC / MrBios
San Diego Ca