Version reviewed:
v5.5.1
System Requirements:
Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7 (x32 and x64)
Price:
$39.95 (USD) but you can get it for free for a limited time at Giveawayoftheday.com!
Software description as per the developer:
EASEUS Partition Master Professional Edition is an ALL-IN-ONE partition solution and disk management utility. It allows you to extend partition, especially for system drive, settle low disk space problem, manage disk space easily under Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7 (both 32 bit and 64 bit). The most popular hard disk management functions are brought together with powerful data protection including: Partition Manager, Partition Recovery Wizard and Disk & Partition Copy Wizard. Moreover, you can create bootable CD/DVD in case of system boot failure.
Ashraf's Note:
Many dotTechies may be familiar with EASEUS Partition Master because I have talked about it multiple times before here on dotTech. For those dotTechies that have seen this software before, here is a highlight of the major new changes/features in v5.5.1:
- EASEUS Partition Master now includes
- Ability to "Rebuild MBR"
- Disk defragmentation capabilities
- Ability to securely delete/wipe hard drive
Table of Contents
Quick Pros and Cons
The Good
|
The Bad
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Rating (out of 10)
Ease of Use
Basic technical knowledge is needed (just like you need basic knowledge to use any partitioning program) but overall very easy to use. The only real "chinks" in the armor are minor: 1) There is no option to not show existing files when using the file/partition recovery feature 2) The defrag feature does not allow users to view any sort of "analysis" before conducting the actual defrag, so you can't determine is a defrag is needed or not 3) Users can only securely wipe whole hard drives - can't chose to wipe individual partitions.
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8 |
Performance
Works at a good pace, and works well.
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10 |
Usefulness
People who want to/need to mess with their partitions will find this program useful. However there are many people who don't want to/never do so they won't find this program useful. Also, because it only supports FAT, FAT32 and NTFS formats there will be a some people, mainly Linux lovers but even fellow Apples, who will not find this program useful.
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6 |
Price
$39.95 is a fair price and in-line with what other commercial partition manage software cost. Plus there is an almost identical freeware version available. However, to make it a sweeter deal, a drop in price of maybe $10 would make this a more attractive deal vs. other similarly priced but more featured filled software.
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7 |
Final Score |
8 |
Quick Verdict
Full Review
EASEUS Partition Master Professional Edition is the commercial version of EASEUS's popular and acclaimed freeware partition manager EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition. The only two differences (aside from licensing issues) between EASEUS Partition Master Professional Edition and EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition is Professional Edition supports 64-bit Windows and allows you to create a boot/rescue disk while Home Edition does not.
That being said EASEUS PM it is a good partition manager that allows you to do the basics of partition management (resize, format, delete, etc.) but also adds in a few "bells and whistles" such as copy partition/disk, hide/unhide partition, the ability to recover deleted/lost files and partitions, and - most recently - the ability to "rebuild MBR", defrag capabilities, and a feature that allows users to securely delete/wipe hard drives.
This is what EASEUS PM looks like:
The interface is nothing too flashy; it is simple and straightforward (this simple and straightforwardness helps the software by being fairly light on resources - sitting idle EASEUS PM only uses about 1.6 MB of RAM and virtually no CPU).
With existing partitions, you can do all of the following:
(This menu is accessible by right-clicking on an existing partition or selecting a partition and using the "Partitions" drop down menu located in the menu bar at the top of the main program window.)
"Copy" literally will copy your whole partition to an empty partition on your hard drive. "Label" just allows you to change the label/name of your partition. "Set Active" will set the partition to be the boot partition. "Check Partition" allows you to check for errors on the partition:
Also note that since v5.5.1 EASEUS PM has the ability to defrag. However, the defragging is done in one fell swoop; in other words, once you tell EASEUS PM to conduct the defrag, the defrag starts - you are not given any sort of "analysis" which you can use to decide if you actually need the defrag or not.
When you select one of your hard drives (i.e. "Disk 1", "Disk 2", etc.), you can do the following:
(This menu is accessible by right-clicking on a disk or selecting a disk and using the "Disk" drop down menu located in the menu bar at the top of the main program window.)
Note that "Copy" for disks is different than copy for partitions in two ways:
- "Copy" will copy the whole hard drive to another empty hard drive.
- "Copy Dynamic Volume" will copy a dynamic disk to a basic disk. (Click here to learn about the difference between dynamic and basic disks.)
Also realize that "Wipe Disk" is a feature that allows you to securely delete/wipe your hard drive. When using this feature, you will be asked to select how many times to conduct the wipe:
You can tell EASEUS PM to conduct a wipe as little as 1 time, or as many as 10 times. Each "wipe" consists of alternately overwriting the disk by 0x00 and 0xFF. The more wipes you use the more securely the data will be deleted, but more wipes will take more time also.
If you have unpartitioned/unallocated space on your hard disk, you can partition it and format it to FAT, FAT32 and NTFS formats. Just right click on some allocated space and click on "Create" (in the above screenshot you see "Create" grayed out because I right clicked on an existing partition instead of unallocated space for the screenshot). A window will popup where you can name the partition, chose a letter, chose the file system and chose the partition size:
Keep in mind that whenever you do an action/task with EASEUS PM, for example format or delete a partition, the action is not done until you hit the "Apply" button:
How EASEUS PM works is that all actions are "recorded" in a "to-do" list. To actually do the actions in the "to-do" list you must click on "Apply". Clicking on "Apply" tells EASEUS PM that you really want to do everything on the "to-do" list and you did not, for example, tell EASEUS PM to delete your G:/ partition by accident. You can view your "to-do" list from "View" -> "Operations Pending":
All the actions you told EASEUS to take will be listed one after another.
Before you hit "Apply" and confirm you want to do all the tasks (you may have to reboot your computer to complete one or more task) be sure that you really want to do them all because once you do them they may not be undoable (such as delete a partition) - the "Undo" button will only remove actions from the "to-do" list.
Other noteworthy features of EASEUS PM are:
- Since v5.0.1 (currently the latest version), EASEUS PM includes a "Partition Recovery Module". This module allows users to recover deleted/lost files and partitions:
"Complete Recovery" is specifically aimed at recovering files. It looks for recently deleted files (i.e. from the MFT) but also looks "under the file system" and tries to recover files that were deleted in a format, or such. When using "Complete Recovery", you are asked to select a partition to scan:
You also have the option to scan a disk image instead of a real partition.
After you have selected what partition/disk image to scan, the scanning occurs. The scans are not particularly fast (it took me just under 5 minutes to scan a 10.4 GB partition) - I have used faster file recovery software - but file recovery is a process that tends to be slow by nature. The computer resource usage are also average - not too insanely high or insanely low - while the scans occur: ~65% CPU, ~20 MB of RAM.
Once the scans have finished, you are given a list of partition that are found (I am not particularly sure why it shows a list of partitions instead of just the files found) and you must select which one you want to look for files from:
One thing to note is that before you select a partition to look for files, you can change any options if desired:
After you have selected which found partition to look for files in, it takes about 30 seconds to "build" that partition, and then you are shown the files list:
You can preview files and recover them - individually or in batch - as you please. Other handy feature is the ability to search for files.
By far the biggest problem with this file recovery feature is the fact that all existing files are shown with deleted/lost files (I have not been able to find a feature that turned this off). So if a user is not careful, he or she may think existing files are deleted files and try to recover them. Fortunately, though, EASEUS provides a key so users can know which files are already existing and which ones can be recovered:
In terms of performance (i.e. finding and recovering deleted/lost files), "Complete Recovery" performs fairly well (does particularly well when looking "under the file system" - found thousands of files for me there), but again, I have seen better software that specialize in data recovery. Nonetheless, this new feature is a welcome addition to EASEUS PM.
The "Partition Recovery" works similar to"Complete Recovery"; in fact I am not even sure what is the main difference - in terms of features - between "Partition Recover" and "Complete Recovery" (except for the fact that with "Partition Recovery" you can select external hard drives and are not allowed to select individual partitions) because they both work and perform similarly (you don't recovery partitions in an orthodox manner with "Partition Recovery" but rather recover individual files like with "Complete Recovery").
- You can create a boot/rescue disk:
(Go to "Tools" -> "Create Bootable Disk" to access this feature.)
What happens when you create a boot/rescue disk is you get to put literally put EASEUS PM on a disk. So whenever you put in the CD and reboot your computer you can use EASEUS PM from the disk (your BIOS must support booting from CD; the newer computers will be able to do this automatically but the older computers may need their settings changed in the BIOS) without ever booting into Windows. The advantage of this feature is if you are unable to boot into your Windows for any reason, you can still manage your partitions; for example you could resize your defunct Windows partition to make room for a different OS.
Note a couple of things about the boot/rescue disk:
- The bootable/rescue disk does not include the file/partition recovery or defrag features. Lack of the defrag feature is not too big of a deal, considering defragging from within Windows is the norm and fairly safe to do. However, the lack of the file/partition recovery features is a big con - typically recovering files/partitions from outside of Windows - which a boot/rescue disk would enable you to do - is better than from within Windows.
- The boot/rescue disk has a few limitations:
Keep in mind this boot/rescue disk is one of the only two features which are different between EASEUS Partition Master Professional Edition and EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition (Home Edition is freeware).
- You can password protect EASEUS PM: go to "General" -> "Set Password".
Overall I give EASEUS Partition Master Professional Edition a thumbs up because it is a good partition manager. It works fast and gets the job done; and with the new features that EASEUS is adding with every new release of EASEUS PM, EASEUS PM is quickly closing in one the gap in "bells and whistles" between it and the likes of Paragon Partion Manager Professional (plus EASEUS is only a ~40 MB download while the Paragon is over 100 MB).
That said, though, for all the good of this software there are, still, a couple of genuine things I found "wrong" with this program (other than what I already mentioned above)...
- One of the new features made available in EASEUS PM in v4.0.1 is being able to "extend NTFS partitions without reboot". EASEUS claims that now EASEUS PM is able to make NTFS partitions larger without forcing your to reboot your computer (it has always been able to make NTFS partitions larger but you needed to reboot your computer). Now this works for most of my partitions: I am able to successfully make them larger without having to reboot. However for the life of me it will not work on the C:/ partition (my main Windows partition). I followed EASEUS's direction to the letter. I closed all open programs... even explorer.exe! I opened up task manager and terminated all possible programs I could. Yet it still asked me to reboot my computer before I could extend my partition (a # by a pending operation means you must reboot your computer):
Now this does not mean EASEUS lied about the feature nor does it mean EASEUS PM sucks because technically speaking it is acceptable if an in-use partition is unable to changed without reboot. Rather I just wanted to tell you my story on this because I want you to recognize you may not always be able to extend your NTFS partition without reboot. It will vary from time to time heavily depending on what programs you have running and how much of them you can close.
- EASEUS PM crashed Windows for me once. What happened was I wanted to format my F:/ partition. First I expected to be able to format it without rebooting my computer (since it was not my main partition and I had nothing running from it) but EASEUS forced me to reboot my computer. This ticked me off but I got over it and rebooted my computer. After my computer started up again EASEUS formated my F:/ partition in about 20 seconds and then tried to reboot my computer again. This is when Windows crashed. When EASEUS tried to reboot my computer after formatting my F:/ partition I got the "Windows could not start properly" screen and was told to pick from "Safe Mode, Safe Mode w/ Networking, Safe Mode w/ Command Prompt, or Star Windows Normally". I started Windows normally and Windows booted up fine. Also, the F:/ partition was formatted. What I find weird, however, is that I was unable to replicate this error. Every time after that I tried to format my F:/ partition (I even put back the same files that I had on it before) EASEUS formatted it just fine without asking me to reboot my computer.
Since I was unable to replicate the error/crash, please don't think EASEUS PM will crash on you every time. Chances are this was just a fluke accident that is an exception to the rule rather than the rule itself; I just wanted to tell everyone about it.
...and a few things that irk me:
- It only supports FAT, FAT32 and NTFS formats. For a person that only uses Windows this is okay, but there are increasing numbers of people that are using Linux. Not supporting Linux partitions (ext2/3/4) is annoying. Same thing with the lack of Mac partition format support.
- Every time I run EASUES PM it starts up with a fully maximized window. Even if I resize it before I close it, the next time I run EASEUS PM, it starts up with a fully maximized window again. This is very annoying especially considering I don't need the window to be maximized.
This review was conducted on a laptop running Windows 7 Professional 32-bit. The specs of the laptop are as follows: 3GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 2600 512MB graphics card, and an Intel T8300 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor.
Free Alternatives
EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition
As I already mentioned, EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition is the freeware version of EASEUS Partition Master Professional Edition. Home Edition has all the features of Professional Edition with two exceptions:
- Professional Edition can create a bootable disk while Home Edition cannot.
- Professional Edition works on 64-bit machines while Home Edition does not.
Paragon Partition Manager Free Edition
Paragon Partition Manager Free Edition is a new, feature limited, freeware version of Paragon's famous Partition Manager software.
Partition Wizard is a freeware partition management software by MT Solutions (a Canadia based company).
GParted is one of the gems that came out of Linux development; while it was meant originally for Linux it also works with Windows partitions. It is also an excellent partition management tool. The only problem with GParted is that you must create a bootable CD and use it whenever you want to use GParted. In other words, you must reboot your computer everytime. Well technically this isn't really a "problem" because to be 100% safe, managing partitions is best done from a boot disk. However this is an "annoyance" because I, personally, want the ability to use a boot disk for the major partition operations and the ability to perform minor partition operations directly from within Windows.
amozai
Terrific review Ashraf.
Thank you so much.
realrisk2
I tried the home edition a few months ago for my laptop. My c-drive was almost full in spite of the fact that I don’t install programs in this partition. But some applications insist to put a lot of data in the c-drive even if you install them in a different drive.
Anyhow, with my heart beating like a Santana song, I tried Easeus. It worked like a charm. And I even changed the FAT32/NTFS problem of my external hard drives in order to partition them.
Thumbs up for Easeus!
Sandeep
Thanks Ashraf.
I already have Paragon Partition Manager v9 Professional so won’t download this one.
CPUSRVC
Ashraf, how did you determine that this supports RAID? I could not find RAID mentioned anywhere on their website nor in their help file.
TIA
Ashraf
@amozai: You are welcome =).
@realrisk2: Glad to see you enjoy it =).
@Sandeep: You are welcome =).
@CPUSRVC: On their website it mentions “Support all hardware RAID.” I should clarify to make it say “hardware RAID”.
sys-eng
“Do note one thing: Right now the bootable/rescue disk does not include the new file/partition recovery features. However, my EASEUS contact informs me they will add it in future versions.”
This is a much bigger shortcoming than the program always starting in a maximum Window size. (Window size does not bother me a bit) If the file to be recovered is a system file, then Windows may not start. If Windows does not start, EPMP cannot perform recovery — a catch 22. I truly do not understand how the product was release with this problem. An additional issue for us is that people who install this free offer will not be able to take advantage of the fix when it is released.
Ashraf, did you have indexing enabled for the partition that you tried to manipulate without rebooting? That is often the culprit when Windows says a partition or file is still in use. Antivirus programs must also be paused so they are not scanning the partition.
Thanks for the review. Great as usual.
Aaron
I have found a lot of your entries near the top if not the first entry of each give away of the day offering. Why don’t you start your own site without leeching for viewers from another site? This is because your trying to make money or get attention by supplying an opinion on software that anyone can get the exact same results that you publish, elsewhere on the web.
I think you need to get your own idea/site going and get your own business going rather than leeching off a popular site. GAOTD has far too many losers who have nothing better to do than tell others about software before they try it themselves. Your one is certainly doesn’t need.
mark
Speaking of losers, there’s one now! (#7)
Giovanni
Hey Ashraf!!
What’s the main difference between this GAOTD and the freeware PARTITION WIZARD, apart from the installer size??
jimvandamme
It’s easiest for me to just use GParted from Ubuntu. Nice to know it can work on Windows partitions too.
Ashraf
@sys-eng: While the fully maximized window does bother me – a lot – I agree with you. The fact that the bootable/rescue disk does not have the recovery features is more of a con than the annoying maximized window issue.
In my opinion, I think EASEUS just “forgot” to update their bootable disk when they added this new feature. In that regard, I didn’t even think about if the bootable disk had the new feature or not until I was well in my review. However, they did promise me it would be added, so late is better than never, right? It is true that people who take advantage of this free offer will not be able to upgrade to the newer version that does have the recovery features in the bootable CD, but EASEUS runs a promotion of this software so often, the fact that people who get this from GOTD won’t be able to update isn’t that big of an issue. In fact I already have information of future plans when EASEUS is going to run promotions again =).
@Aaron: Here on dotTech I encourage everyone to express their opinion, as long as it is in a remotely respectful manner, so your opinion is welcome. However, to everyone his/her own. You may not appreciate my opinions and work, but many, many people do. In fact, many people have often stated they wouldn’t even bother with a GOTD download until they heard what I have to say about it. So gather from that what you will.
To your assertion that I am “leeching” visitors: Yes it is true many dotTechies came to know about dotTech from GOTD, and dotTech continues to get a large stream of visitors from GOTD. However, I would hardly call it “leeching” taking into consideration that I add value to GOTD (by providing valuable feedback to developers and providing reliable opinions to GOTD’ers) by writing reviews on GOTD.
@mark: Lets all play nice now =).
@Giovanni: Aside from the main features, there are some “extra” feature differences. For example, EASEUS has file/partition recovery features while Partition Wizard does not. At the same time, Partition Wizard has secure deletion features while EASEUS does not.
One thing I did notice, though, is that I found EASEUS’s bootable media to be a bit more reliable than Partition Wizard’s. However, I have not had too much extensive experience in that particular area so I can’t really lay judgment.
Hope that helps.
@jimvandamme: GParted rocks. However, most of us don’t run Linux =).
Al LIPSKY
Keep up the great work.
I don’t download till I read your assment.
Al
plund
I would very much like to have Easeus PM, downloaded and installed at 01 GMT on 6 February. The offer should be open until 08 GMT on 6 Feb, if I counted right.
When I start the pgm, I get the full window, but my disk does not show up.
What can be the problem?
Any helpful hint would be much appreciated.
Reality Check!
This giveaway is another one from EASEUS that engages in malware tactics.
This giveaway includes a browser hijacker that repetitively tries to hijack your homepage.
Another giveaway AnVir TaskManager, has been worth its weight in GOLD at catching this EASEUS giveaway’s repeated hijack attempts.
Previous EASEUS apps didn’t repetitively keep trying to hijack the homepage, once antimalware apps prevented it, it didn’t recur. This giveaway however, keeps recurrently trying to hijack the homepage, forcing me to uninstall it because no matter how useful or good a prog might be, it’s not worth having at all if it contains malware or hijackers or engages in other malicious behaviors too.
Adrian
“Now this does not mean EASEUS lied about the feature nor does it mean EASEUS PM sucks because technically speaking it is acceptable if an in-use partition is unable to changed without reboot.”
should be
“Now this does not mean EASEUS lied about the feature nor does it mean EASEUS PM sucks because technically speaking it is acceptable if an in-use partition is unable to be changed without reboot. ”
Looks like typical Hong Kong “Chinglish”:).
WECH
I have an unusual question, maybe some of you techies have experience. long time ago(about the time of Win3.1) there was OS/2, which using HPFS, some dinosaur system still using it. Have you aware which application can handle those partition? (i.e. make disk image, clone to new disk–usually larger, much bigger)
Max
Hi everyone!
Must say that this one has been one of the best tools I ever had for dealing with my computers, as being said in the review it is really light on resources and easy straight forward to use. Myself have’nt notice any bugs more than one time, of some reason I’ve got unallocated space in the begining of one disk when made new partitions. Had to use one of Paragons tools to get rid of it. Sad just Paragon has’nt learn to make understandable ikons which make their software more easy to use. If they had half of the visual impression of what Easeus have I would probably use Paragon more frequently than I do.
For being Swedish I have to admit it took a quite long time before I understood Paragons idea to use “capsules” incredible imagination.
Was it an Russian invention?
Here we use that as caps on soda bottles:)))
Soda in computers does’nt cope very well..Wants some cola?
Would’nt think so:-)
The Living Spirit
Since someone was bound to ask at some point…
Ashraf, simple (but probably tricky to answer) question for you:
EASEUS or Paragon?
alan
Ashraf – I disagree with one detail in your statement :-
“Aside from the main features, there are some “extra” feature differences. For example, EASEUS has file/partition recovery features while Partition Wizard does not. At the same time, Partition Wizard has secure deletion features while EASEUS does not.”
Partition Wizard Business Edition V 4.2.2 has Partition recovery.
I have XP Home + SP3 on a 149 GB laptop H.D.
There are many evil things with Apple and its sabotage of Windows, especially the iTunes rubbish that comes with an iPod Shuffle. I disabled all its bonjuer junk services etc in my profile so it can now be plugged in for a battery re-charge without trying to send my credit card to iTunes etc.
Another dirty trick of the iPod is that when simply plugged in for a re-charge, it short circuits the USB data lines to extract maximum juice, which promptly shuts down my external 320 GB hard drive, and the event log shows multiple
“FTDISC error – data may be lost”.
So now I have an external powered USB HUB to stop these IPOD disasters.
I had IPOD under control – I thought.
Two weeks ago my daughter plugged in her IPOD for a re-charge, and I did not worry. A bit later I used Partition Wizard, which did NOT see the iPod as a thing it would touch. I changed the drive letter on 3 partitions, copied those partitions to empty spaces, and gave the new copies the original drive letters. I intended to compare Folders and files of the old partitions with the duplicated partitions – not mistrust of Partition Wizard – but things always go wrong if you do not check, and the only difference now we have computers is they are so much faster at destroying all data ! !
So I rebooted and my Laptop woke up “grumpy”.
I found that C:\ and one other partition were present, but the 3 old re-lettered partitions and the new copies were all missing from Windows Explorer, and neither built in Disk Management nor Partition Wizard could see them.
Both P.W. and the other junk would see the two remaining partitions and their sizes.
P.W. identified the rest of the drive as 85 GB of unallocated space, roughly correct.
The Windows junk also saw that, but in addition it saw another two partition spaces, each identical in size, which was about 800 GB. One had a description I now forget, and the other one was identical plus a suffix, which I think was “(spare)”. Suddenly the physical drive changed from 149 G.B. to 1.7 T.B. – I think not ! !
I previously downloaded many File recovery utilities just in-case. I never anticipated a need for a Partition Recovery utility.
I remembered seeing hundreds of Partition Recovery things when I did not want them. Now I wanted one I was very much afraid that I would choose one that was not quite right and would over-write/damage data on the sectors of the missing partitions, and then if a perfect recovery tool was used I would have my partitions, but all the data would be irreversibly destroyed.
In desperation I looked at the P.W. facilities, and to the left of the main partition display, below Partition Operations, was Disc Operations, the third option was Partition Recover.
I immediately decided to use P.W. There are many defraggers and things that proclaim they cannot destroy data because they use the official M.$. API’s, and I feared that any random choice I made from Partition Recovery utilities would either use the same junk which said my drive was 1.7 GB, or would do their own thing with their own code, which could be even worse.
Instant decision – but a few hours of anxious hesitation before I took the plunge !
I was surprised at how many partition were discovered, but I had no difficulty deciding which I needed, and the unselected items were then marked as “overlapped” so they remained old second hand “free space”. I stipulated the Driver Letters I wanted and then APPLY.
That was successful – so the next stage was Reboot. – NOT so good.
Only one of the partitions was recovered, together with its drive letter. The other partitions were not present.
I decided I was being too ambitious with so much in a single reboot, i.e. many partitions and also addition actions of adding letters.
I tried to recover the 5 missing partitions – perfect success.
I applied drive letters to the resurrected partitions – perfect.
New partitions where I wanted them, Old partitions where they were.
Once I took the plunge P.W. only took half an hour and 3 reboots to give an apparently perfect recovery.
After that I did the folder/file comparisons between old and new partitions, also perfect.
MY VERDICT :-
P.W. does a perfect recovery after 6 partitions have been lost.
The initial loss MAY in theory have been a P.W. fault, but it has never gone wrong or done me harm before, but the IPOD shuffle has done so much mischief in the past that it is reasonable to blame it for every disaster when it is present.
The only thing I do not like about P.W. is that I have not yet found a change log – but other products also disappoint me that way.
Incidentally Ashraf, a new review of P.W. would be nice, they have just gone to 5.0.
Max
Excuse me..even if their new banner looks terrific here on your site;)
Cool new image!
RobCr
I wonder if I could ask a slightly related question.
It is only related, because you mentioned defrag above.
When I use the Seagate DiscWizard to restore a partition, does that effectively do a defrag for me ?
The DiscWizard allows you to do an exact image of the drive OR creates backups of Partitions. When doing the latter, I figure it is reading all the files, into it’s image. Thus when I do a restore, I suspect that a previously fragmented mess, would be restored completely defragged.
Is my theory valid, or are you all wondering what I am smoking ?
Mags
Couple of questions:
#1 I have an Easeus Bootable disk from when I previously had this program in Vista. Can this be used in Win 7, or do I need to create another bootable disk? I’m assuming the later, but just want to make sure first.
#2 I saw this comment on GOTD #12 (I think)
“EASEUS Partition Master 5.5.1 Professional Edition can be made portable.
After installation copy program’s directory wherever you like (USB,…).The package is kind of huge ~73,6 MB. If you want to reduce the size :
1. Compress all exe and dll files in every directory. You can use UPX, it’s free (http://upx.sourceforge.net/) Size: ~73,6 MB —> ~53,8 MB
2. Open program and create/burn bootable disk (Tool –> Create Bootable Disc)
3. Go to bin directory and delete “image.iso” file Size: ~53,8 MB —> ~24,8 MB
Now you got Portable EASEUS Partition Master 5.5.1 Professional Edition size of ~24,8 MB (~ 73,6 MB —> ~24,8 MB).”
Is that true?
David Roper
Ashraf, you wrote to Aaron:
In fact, many people have often stated they wouldn’t even bother with a GOTD download until they heard what I have to say about it.
I am one of those people. No Ashraf, No GOTD.
Mags
Cancel my second question in comment #22, the person retracted that statement.
Pete C
This program does NOT support Windows 9X or Me.
What is the best free partition management software for those of us still needing to use one of these older (should I say obsolete?) operating systems?
alan
RobCr
If it creates an exact image, that will include empty spaces and all the fragments. What you restore will not be defragged.
Some things, such as Acronis, give a choice of sector-by-sector backups, or a file duplication which omits empty space, and can be restored to a smaller partition, and that will be fully defragged, and all free space will be at the far end.
alan
Mags
I see no problem with omitting the ISO once you have burnt a disc,
but there could be a special Gotcha waiting for you.
Using UPX will compress, and often the result still works perfectly.
Some applications do not work so well after UPX .
I cannot think of anything more “brave” that to run a Partition Manger after scrunching it ! !
alan
@Pete C:
I would prefer to say
“Windows 9X or Me does NOT support this program ” ! !
Partition Wizard gives a fully independent ISO for a Boot CD.
This works even if your Operating System is ancient or broken.
The same could be true of Easeus, unless it needs XP etc to extract what you downloaded.
mmybois
i just bought a 1.5 TB HDD to install in my pc. its a SATA drive and im replacing it for the IDE drive i have in there now. i bought an adapter to allow me to use it. what i want to know is will this program help me format and copy my windows xp from the smaller drive or what? i’ve been looking online on how to format the new drive, install xp, etc…. i also have an adapter that i used to back up that IDE HDD to my external via my older pc. had problems with the drive, recovery was corrupted and i bought recovery discs, but didnt need them when i reinstall the drive. it booted with no problems and i did a destructive recovery. this drive is only 160 GB and was full of stuff. the older pc only has a 32 GB drive. any help would be most appreciated. thx
Lamont Cranston
@Aaron:
This is Ashraf’s site, my friend you are so out of line with your comment!
To such an extent the question must be asked. You have not only insulted Ashraf, and the members’ , what on earth are you doing here?
Perhaps, with a comment like that, it’s time to go back to slashdot.
Dummy,
LC
plund
I downloaded, unzipped, ran the setup.exe, started the program, but there was no disk showing up!
Should I do anything more to activate the program and would that make my disk show?
I highly apppreciate all advices, thanks on beforehand!
alan
@plund:
Windows has its own native Disc Management system which does less than Easeus.
If that also cannot show you the disc then you need administrator privileges before you can do exciting stuff like Partition Managers.
benhenry
Easeus Part Man Pro v4 was the first software I downloaded from GOTD; but I didn’t install it until I read the review at dotTech. Every review I’ve read here has been accurate, thorough and fair. I’ve never been much of a joiner but the atmosphere and friendliness of dotTech forums and reviews persuaded me. I would just like to thank Ashraf and members; I hope it will help them ignore those posters that enjoy accruing negative karma simply because they are so good at it.
plund
@alan: Thanks for you r reply. The strange thing is that when I use Acronis Disk Director Suite and Acronis True Image Home (paid version), I can see all details of my partitions and unallocated space. Maybe I should stick to what I already have.
Just a bit curious to try the good offers by GOTD, especially after Ashrafs reviews.
Atik
Ashraf & all the dotTechies,
I have a question that someone here can answer. I already have an older version on this software installed. It is EASEUS Partition Master 3.5 Home Edition. Now to upgrade do i need to uninstall the existing and then install or will the installer automatically pickup and upgrade (uninstall old & install new) the software?
Looking forward to your responses.
Thanks!
RobCr
@alan:
Seagate’s free DiscWizard, is Acronis (it even shows the offer to buy the latest Acronis, at 40% off, every time you run it.)
When creating a backup, it too offers the choice of a sector by sector backup, or backup all the partitions (and MBR).
I choose the latter, so I suspect I will get the ‘defragging effect’ ?
Thanks for responding.
alan
@RobCr:
Yes, that will defrag for you.
If you use a defragger to ANALYSE but not fix, you will probably see a picture showing files with spaces between.
Using “Perfect Disc” I also see black borders on blocks representing files that are broken into fragments, and see an MFT zone about 60% away from the start.
When I take an image of the badly fragmented partition, and then restore that image, most of the black borders are gone, most of the spaces between files are gone, and the MFT zone is adjacent to the files, leaving one great big chunk of almost total empty free space.
I believe all the little imperfections are because M.$ does not keep a clean house, and scatters debris when it starts up and only stops scattering when it is shut-down.
Then I use PerfectDisc and that also leaves a few little imperfections because that is the way of Windows.
PerfectDisc gives a better defrag because :-
It optimises the sequential positions of some important files so that they are on the edge of the platter and have quicker access.
It will put the MFT zone back where M.$. recommend (I do not know why) so my free space becomes two similar sized zones.
NOTE :-
I defrag about once a month and performance stays good,
and then I make an Acronis FULL image.
I can then create faster smaller Differential or Incremental images which capture the sectors that have changed.
Unfortunately when I defrag, if there was a deleted file type of hole at the start of the disk then all sector clusters will shift up, so although there are no changes to file contents, the next Differential image can approach the size of the original FULL image.
Therefore immediately after a defrag I create a fresh FULL image as a basis for future differentials