Product Reviews
September/98
Reviews By
Dave Hanson
Clive Apps
Laurie Dadswell
By Dave Hanson
COMING TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15-98 …. CLICK! BOOM! CLICK! A click of the button and you're up and running again. Your hard drive blew up. You lost your tax spreadsheets, your addresses, that critical business proposal, not to mention your sanity. You had your whole life contained in a few gigs. Which is why it's a good thing you used new drive Image 2.0 from PowerQuest. In minutes, you were able to make a complete backup of your hard drive on a Zip, JAZ, or almost any other removable media. When disaster struck, you simply reloaded the copy of your hard drive and you were back in business. Now, restoring your hard drive is as easy as blowing it up. Septembers guest presenter will be Gene Barlow from PowerQuest Coroporation, the makers of PartitionMagic.
PowerQuest has just announced a number of exciting new products that will be introduced to your user group, including Guardian Angel, the only product that prevents PC problems before they occur, restricts changes by unauthorized users and protects against systems configuration changes made while connected to the Internet. Gene has a knack to keep his audience interested and alert. He has promised to bring informative handouts for all, door prizes, and a special user group price for those wishing to purchase this exciting product at the meeting. September's meeting will be a super event. Don't miss it!!
Dave Hanson is on the Board of Directors and the Program Manager for the General Monthly Meetings.
By Clive Apps
I have used Partition Magic for almost three years and have found it to be a great time saver, and an excellent tool to enhance my productivity in helping my clients.
I use Partition Magic Version 3 to resize partitions, add more operating systems, make space for other partitions, and regain space lost in unused sectors caused by operating system inefficiencies.
The graphical interface is so easy to understand that even the novice user can feel comfortable using this product. I run the product in text only mode from a bootable floppy disk, allowing me to bring it with me on service calls and freeing me from installing it from a CD. To better help my clients, the use of PartitionMagic comes in quite handy, because I find I will always use it to manipulate the size of my clients hard drive partitions.
I would recommend PartitionMagic to anyone who does a lot of work with hard drive installations, who uses more than one operating system, or who is a single user needing to reorganize their hard drive to gain a little space or add a partition to keep files, or software separated from the rest of their hard drive.
If you have any questions about the product, feel free to call me at 416 510-0020
Clive Apps is owner of Techno-Logicals a company specializing in custom built, PC based computer systems for business and home users. Clive also runs the PCCT Hardware SIG.
By Laurie Dadswell
Partition Magic, by PowerQuest, is a great way to partition your hard drive and better manage your computer's space.
WHY PARTITION?
Partitioning your drive, especially the larger drives available today, allows you to reclaim wasted disk space by enabling you to use smaller, more efficient cluster sizes. As well, I found I was able to better organize the files on my computer by designating separate partitions for different uses.
I decided I wanted to Partition my drive as follows: C: Windows operating system; D: Applications; E: Data.
I run a business on my computer, and by having a separate partition on my disk for data only, I figured that backing up that most critical information would be a breeze. On the data partition, I keep my invoices, correspondence, work in progress, and all of the other bits that would be disastrous if I had a hard drive crash. Keeping my applications in a separate partition just keeps things better organized. I keep my Windows partition as clean as I can, not mucking it up with application files and folders any more than necessary. (Some programs, including Partition Magic, insist on installing themselves on the boot drive.)
INSTALLATION
You can install Partition Magic on your current computer setup. No need to reformat and reinstall all your applications, etc. The software comes with a 200+ page manual. Although you may find this somewhat daunting, you'll find that by the time you've reviewed the first 25 pages or so, you'll have a good understanding of what the program does and how it works. It is, of course, recommended that you back up your hard drive before making any changes to your drive using Partition Magic. Although the program makes partitioning a much more simple process than doing it in DOS, there is still the possibility of making an error that will require a re-format. So back up your system first, and set aside about two hours to complete the work you'll want to do with the program. Pick a quiet time when you won't be disturbed and are able to devote all your attention to the task at hand.
Decide how many partitions you would like and the size of each partition before you begin. Run Partition Magic from Start/Programs. You will get a screen advising you that PM works in DOS and the program will close any open Windows. Don't worry...no black DOS screen and command line interface here. When PM opens, you'll see the Partition Map. This will be familiar after reviewing the manual. The manual provides clear, step-by-step instructions to add and/or resize partitions, and how to set up your drive to handle multiple operating systems.
Basically, the tasks involve clicking on the partition you want to alter and then clicking on buttons below the partition map to tell the program what you want to do. (Resize, move, create). Drag the edge of your C drive partition to the left to create free space at the end of your drive. Then click in the free space area and click on the "Create" button to create a new partition. Tell the program what kind of a partition you wish to create (It's explained in the manual) and enjoy that warm, fuzzy feeling as you watch the magic happen before your eyes. You've created a partition! Create any additional partitions you want, then reboot the computer.
REMAP YOUR DRIVE
Don't run off…you're not finished yet. If you've added partitions to your drive, the partitions appear as though they were separate drives. In my scenario above, I went from having one large C:\ drive, to having a C, D and E drive. My CD-ROM became F. Windows, however, doesn't yet know what it is I've been doing. If I were to put a CD in my CD-ROM drive, it would not work. If I tried to start a program that requires access to a disk in the CD-ROM drive, Windows would not find it. Right now, it's still expecting to find my CD-ROM as the D drive, but, because of Partition Magic, we've changed the drive letters. Not to worry…Partition Magic has provided a utility called Drive Mapper to get Windows back on track. Run the Drive Mapper utility and follow the on screen instructions. You are essentially telling Windows that you have new partitions and where to find the CD-ROM drive. It won't take any more than five minutes to complete this little task.
NOW....GET ORGANIZED!
You've partitioned your drive and now you need to move things around to get them into the right place. Partition Magic makes this a simple job too, by providing you with a utility to move your applications and all the references and pointers to the correct partition. On my version of Partition Magic (3.0), they included MicroHelp's Uninstaller Mover, a part of MicroHelp's Uninstaller program. PowerQuest's web site now offers an alternative utility called Magic Mover. I have not downloaded the Magic Mover utility. The Uninstaller Mover, though a bit slow, works well enough for me. Use the Mover to select the applications you wish to move and tell the program where to put them. Reboot one last time.
Your job is done. New partitions are mapped, and applications and data organized. (If only reorganizing your home were so easy!).
UPGRADING TO WIN98?
Partition Magic was a lifesaver here. My C partition held Windows 95, with about 100 MB free to account for temp file and cache expansion and swap file space. Once I installed Windows 98 (over top of 95) I was getting "Low disk space" warnings on C (because Windows 98 takes up so much more additional space than '95). It was a simple task to decrease the size of one of my other partitions and give the space to C. Without Partition Magic, I would have been forced to do some reformatting.
WHAT ELSE DOES IT DO?
Allows you to set up a dual boot system, if you cared to run, for example Windows 95 and OS/2 on your system.
Allows you to change cluster size in any or all of your partitions in order to optimize your hard drive space. Partition Magic analyzes your system and cluster sizes and reports back details of the cluster size you currently have, the recommended cluster size and the amount of space that will be saved by making the recommended adjustments.
When I purchased Partition Magic, it was considerably more expensive than it is now. Although that causes me some pain, I must say I haven't regretted a penny paid for this program. Just for bailing me out of my Windows 98 hang-up alone, the program has earned it's keep in my system.
WHO NEEDS IT?
Well....anyone who would like to save some drive space and likes the idea of partitioning a drive for more efficient, organized operation. I have recommended and installed it on computers for clients that I provide computer support for. The client may not care about it, but people trying to maintain computers sure do appreciate it! Although I do reformat my system a couple of times a year just to get rid of all the debris that accumulates through my ceaseless installing and uninstalling of programs, shareware and other internet downloads (screensavers, pranks, desktop themes, etc), Partition Magic has saved me a couple of times by allowing me to resize partitions as necessary without reformatting.
Furthermore, I'm not happy dealing with that intimidating DOS interface. (Sit down, you guys at the back of the room!) If I can find a utility with an interface that hides that scary C:\ prompt, I'm all for it!
Laurie Dadswell is owner of Information Please! a research and computer consulting firm.
See also what other User Groups have said about Partition Magic