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Free edition -- Easeus Partition Manager personal v1.6.4

It can be very useful to partition a large hard drive, if only to reduce the amount of time required by your antivirus software, to scan everything on your hard drive.
For example I store about 17GB of software, music, pictures etc. But because I have my drive split into three partitions, my antivirus only needs to scan my 8.5GB "C" Windows drive, which is naturally much faster than scanning the entire 25.5GB of data.
There are other benefits, creating a image of the "C" drive is quicker and uses less strorage, defragmenting can be quicker and stored data is safer, if Windows throws a wobbly.

Easeus Partition Manager is a very good free partition manager. Amongst other features, it enables you to create, delete, resize, move and format partitions.

I successfully reduced the size of partition "E", created a new logical partition "F", formatted to Fat32. Then deleted "F" and added the unallocated space back onto "E".
The software is very easy to use and experienced partitioners will hardly need the very good help file.
Easeus, reboots the computer to apply changes and then Windows insists on rebooting every time as well, which gets a little wearing, but everything does progress smoothly.
Only Fat and NTFS file systems are recognized, Linux formats are ignored, but this isn't a great problem, as most Linux distros come with their own partitioning software.

A useful feature is the ability to password protect Easeus, which prevents anyone you share the computer with, from fiddling with the partitions.
There is also the option to create a bootable floppy, or CD, which contains a basic version of the partition manager.

Easeus Partition Manager is very good and easily a match for Acronis Partition manager, which I usually use. It doesn't have all the features of the open source software GParted, but it is a much smaller download and its easy to use interface and useful range of features, make it a winner in my opinion.

Free -- Download size 4.53MB -- Win 2000 Pro SP4, XP

http://www.partition-tool.com/

WARNING. Like all partitioning software, this program can damage your computer if used incorrectly, do not use it unless you know what you are doing and have taken sensible precautions. I take no responsibility for any damage you may do to your computer.

Clone Genius.

Clone Genius enables you to copy your hard drive to another drive, a partition to another partition, or a drive, or partition to an image file and to restore the original.
Clone Genius runs as a live CD, so can copy and restore the Windows drive/partition, however it cannot write directly to a CD/DVD, so you will require either two hard drives, or two, or more partitions.
I image my Windows partition fairly regularly, as it makes recovering from problems, or refreshing Windows with clean and stable image, very quick and easy. I normally use Acronis True Image (version 8), which is reliable and easy to use. But I am always interested in trying the fairly rare freeware imaging programs.

Clone Genius is supplied as a ISO file and the excellent help files on the web site, clearly describe all the program functions, including how to burn a live CD.
When the computer boots from the CD, you are given the option of normal , or advanced mode, although both seem identical, apart from the option to choose your screen resolution and keyboard layout in advanced mode.
The main program window is very simple and retro looking (win 98 here we come) and the help file is very good.

I successfully created an image of my Windows partition "C" onto my "E" partition. I used the high compression setting, which unfortunately is very, very, very slow, taking about two and a half hours (with no cancel button!) to image a 27GB partition, containing just 9GB of data.
I then tried the low compression setting. this was a bit better, at about one hour. The difference in image size between the two compression settings was negligible, so I wouldn't advise using the high setting.
Restoration of the low compression image took about one hour and was successful, with no apparent problems.
The splash screen of the live CD says that this is a beta version and I did find one bug in the menu, where after canceling an option, it refused to let me select it again, but apart from that it ran okay.

Clone Genius doesn't come close to matching commercial imaging software such as Acronis, NG, or Paragon. It is much slower than Acronis, taking fortyfive minutes longer, also the image files are about 1.5GB larger (in 2GB chunks) and you cant restore images directly from a DVD.
However it does work and if you cant afford to purchase imaging software, it could be a viable option. But the freeware DriveImage XML is better, being much faster and allowing you to browse images. Although DriveImage XML can only copy the Windows drive/partition if you create a live CD using Barts PE Builder, which is more complicated (although not that difficult) than using Clone Genius.

Freeware - Download size 35Mb - Win 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista

http://www.clonegenius.com/

WARNING. Like all imaging software, this program can damage your computer if used incorrectly, do not use it unless you know what you are doing and have taken sensible precautions. I take no responsibility for any damage you may do to your computer.

Imaging Software -- DriveImage XML.

DriveImage allows you to create backup "images" of partitions, or to copy one drive to another.
An "image" is an exact copy of a partition, files, hidden files, free space, everything.

Imaging can be very useful, as you can copy the Windows partition, to another partition as an "image" file. Then in the event that a serious problem occurs in Windows, that would normally necessitate reinstallation, you can instead restore the "image" file, thereby avoiding the hassle of updating Windows, installing all your programs etc.

To use DriveImage you will need at least two partitions on your drive, or another hard drive.
DriveImage can create a "hot image" of the partition that contains the current operating system, but it cannot restore the "image" from within Windows, as it would be trying to overwrite the operating system while it is in use!

Instead you will need to create a boot CD, this allows you to create and restore "images" without starting Windows. ( I would recommend creating the image this way, rather than using the "hot image" method)
You create a boot CD by using Barts PE Builder and the DriveImage XML plugin. Instructions are on the web site, it sounds more complex than it is, just download both programs and run Barts PE Builder and let it search for Windows files, add the plugin, burn a CD and you are done, you can then delete the files created by Barts PE Builder.
Note: The DriveImage XML help files are not included on the boot CD version.

I would recommend turning on compression for your "images", otherwise they will be exactly the same size as the content of the partition that you have copied.
It is also a good idea to empty the recycle bin, internet caches, temporary files etc, before creating a backup, this saves backing up unneeded rubbish.

Although somewhat limited in functions compared to commercial programs, DriveImage does have one excellent feature up its sleeve, it is possible to browse "image" files and extract individual files, in some cases you can actually launch the file, without extracting it.

Overall DriveImage XML is a very good freeware program, reliable and with some useful features, but you will need to create the boot CD to explore its full potential.

Freeware -- System requirements: XP,2003,Vista.

DriveImage XML download size 1.6Mb
Plugin download size 1.2Mb
Barts PE Builder download size 3.1Mb

http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

WARNING. Like all imaging software, this program can damage your computer if used incorrectly, do not use it unless you know what you are doing and have taken sensible precautions. I take no responsibility for any damage you may do to your computer.

Partitioning Tool -- Partition Logic.

Partition Logic works with a simple graphical interface, similar to commercial programs. It can create, delete, format, defragment, resize, and move partitions and modify their attributes.
The actions it can perform depend on which file system you use and various restrictions are described on the web site pages.

The program is supplied as an ISO file, which you must burn to disk, creating a bootable CD. (A floppy version is also available)
You then restart the computer with the CD in the drive and the program will start.

In my tests using NTFS (XP), I reduced my "D" partition in size and created a new logical partition. The program cannot format NTFS partitions, so I restarted Windows and formated the new partition using Windows own disk management tool.
Everything seemed to work well, with no problems, Check Disc ran at start up, but this is common after partitioning.
I then reran the boot disc, deleted the new partition and resized the "D" partition to use the empty space.
On restarting Windows everything still worked okay, with no errors reported.

Partition Logic seems to be a useful tool, it is still in development, so there is some risk in using it and it will not run on all computer setups.
There is also no real help file, just the information on the web site, so it is not really suited to beginners, but if you have partitioned before, you should have no problems with the intuitive interface.
As with all partitioning software be cautious and backup important data to CD/DVD first, I always perform operations one at a time, committing the operation, before performing another, this helps to prevent problems.
Note: When resizing, Partition Logic is quite slow in comparison to commercial software, taking about 20 minutes to complete the task on my computer, so don't panic if the computer seems to have frozen.

Freeware -- Download size 3.5Mb

WARNING. Like all partitioning software, this program can damage your computer if used incorrectly, do not use it unless you know what you are doing and have taken sensible precautions. I take no responsibility for any damage you may do to your computer.

http://partitionlogic.org.uk/index.html

Partitioning Tool -- Cute Partition Manager v0.9.6

This is a fairly simple partitioning tool, lacking the features of freeware such as Partition Logic, the open source GParted Partitioner, or commercial software like Acronis PartitionExpert. It also assumes a knowledge of partitioning, providing a very basic faq on its web site.
However it does have some advantages, the download size is a dialup friendly 225k and it is possible to create a bootable floppy (info on web site) containing the program, useful if your computer can't burn CD/DVDs. Also, it doesn't require an operating system to run.

Cute Partition Manager can create and delete partitions, it can also change the boot flag and the file type (fat, ntfs, ext2, etc). It's biggest limitation is that it cant resize existing partitions.
Creating your boot CD is very simple just run the downloaded file and select Create CPM, a disc will then be burnt, restart the computer with the disc in the drive and once the program starts, navigate using the F1,2, etc keys, arrow keys, tab and enter.

I couldn't test Cute Partition Manager very much, as it cant resize, but I did delete my Linux swap file and then successfully recreate it, with no problems. The lack of a help file and the very basic display and navigation, restrict the programs use to more experienced computer users. But in some circumstances Cute Partition Manager could be useful.

WARNING. Like all partitioning software, this program can damage your computer if used incorrectly, do not use it unless you know what you are doing and have taken sensible precautions. I take no responsibility for any damage you may do to your computer.

Note: when run creates a folder CPM on the C drive, which can be deleted after use.

Freeware -- Download size 225k -- Win 9x,ME,NT,2K,XP,Vista, DOS, Linux, etc.

http://www.cutepm.com

Rob Goldfish Web Site