subject: Take Control Of Your Hard Disk [print this page] With Easeus Partition Master With Easeus Partition Master
Partition programs let you divide a hard disk into individual sections called volumes, and allocate each one with a separate drive letter. You could, for example, create one volume for photos, one for documents and another for your Windows installation. Easeus's free partitioning software, Partition Master, also lets you copy disks and volumes, resize existing partitions, recover data, rebuild a damaged or missing master boot record, and wipe a drive. It's not without risks, though, so back up any important data before starting.
Easeus Partition Master offers a range of powerful partitioning features. Here's how to use its best tools:
1. When you run Partition Master, it scans your system looking for any connected drives, including USB devices, and will display found partitions in the disk map. Drives are color-coded according to the file system they use. The disk map displays how much free space there is on each drive via a disk-space bar.
2. The information underneath the disk map provides details of each partition, including the drive letter and volume label, D file system, size and used and unused space, and status. Dynamic disks provide features not found in basic disks, such as the ability to have volumes spanning multiple drives.
3. Actions you can perform are shown on the left in three categories -Wizards, Partition Operations and Disk Operations. Select a partition on the right to hide a disk module or select a disk to hide the partition module instead. If no actions can be performed, the program will grey them out.
4. Common operations can either be performed from the toolbar or by right-clicking a disk or partition and choosing an option from the context menu. Label lets you rename a drive, Explore lets you browse its contents and Properties displays the disk usage and partition info.
5. The Wizards module lets you copy a disk or volume, and recover deleted or lost partitions. Select the wizard you want to run and click through the steps. When recovering a partition, you have the choice of two modes: Automatic handles everything for you, but Manual gives greater control over the process.
6. To move a partition or change its size, select it and click the Resize/ Move link on the left. In the window that opens, either use the slider to adjust the partition size or change the details in the boxes. When resizing a partition, leave at least five per cent free so the program has room to copy data.
7. Creating a new partition is a similar process. Click Create Partition and give the new volume a name. Choose the type of partition you want and select a drive letter for it. Pick a file system type and optionally a cluster size, then set the partition size and position.
8. Click OK to add the action to the Operations Pending queue and the relevant volume will be locked to let the software do its work. Click Apply to make the changes, or Undo to clear the queue. To avoid potential problems, disable your anti-virus software before moving, resizing or creating a partition.
