Rating: 
Summary: Good, but worth trying other products
Review: Overall seems to work fine, although using the floppy-boot features to resize Fat32/NTFS partitions -- which is the only useful feature in my book -- seems to take a lot longer than even version 6. Version 6 if you unchecked the bad sector box under preferences, was pretty speedy. Allow an hour at least to resize a 40gig drive. On the whole, worth trying the competition including Acronis as noted in a previous review here.I am not sure about current licensing on this product, but formerly Powerquest has wanted a license purchased for each use of the product (similar to Symantec Ghost), which is really absurd. Hopefully Acronis avoids this morass, or they should. Imagine if Microsoft Office required a license every time you used it!! Always check the "fine print" in licensing before buying for a business environment. This information is not always easily found on product websites.
Rating: 
Summary: A big disappointment under Windows XP
Review: I've used PartitionMagic in the past and been satisfied. However, when I moved to Windows XP Pro, the installer warned me when installing my old version (6.0), that the product had known difficulties under XP. So I purchased 8.0 and installed that. The program failed on startup due to what it termed a "partition table error" on one of my drives. The documentation explains what might be responsible and then tells me that to repair it, I need to use the Windows/DOS tools! Being told to use the very (free) tools I was attempting to get away from in order to fix problems before the new, supposedly more-capable program can run strikes me as absurd.
Rating: 
Summary: The definative windows based partition tool
Review: I first use PM in 1997 to partition a laptop to install NT and Red Hat 5.2. It was easy and simple then and it is easy and simply now. I have recommended this to people who are planning to do the same thing now as I did then. The interface is easy to use and Powerquest's support is reliable and helpful. I have never had a problem with this product and niether has the less computer litterate friends I have recommended it to.
If you are familier with Windows (who isn't?) and are moving to or trying Linux (or even BSD), this is definatly the tool to use that will do the job safely and without hassle.
Rating:
Summary: I have switched to Acronis OS Selector 8.0
Review: I have tried to use Powerquest's products for years. I have purchased the last three PartitionMagic versions. I usually needed to purchase the next PartitionMagic upgrade after installing a new OS version, because the previous version of PartitionMagic didn't support a new file system type. That isn't too unusual - but ... I also needed to upgrade because PartitionMagic didn't correctly run under the Windows versions that were supposed to be supported, either. I have needed to call Powerquest tech support 4 times because I couldn't run PartitionMagic properly under a "supported" Windows OS. I currently own Partiton Magic 8.0, and it doesn't run properly under Windows XP. I can run Partiton Magic 8.0 using their DOS boot disks, but it is *extremely* slow. (BTW, Powerquest wanted to charge me for 2 of the 4 tech support calls. After a lot of screaming, I was not charged for any of the calls.) My current dual-boot system has Windows XP and Linux 8.0. Under Windows XP, I get an "Error 117: Partition's drive letter cannot be identified" fatal error. The Windows version of PartitionMagic then aborts. I tried using the Windows version of the PartitionInfo program for tech support, but that won't run properly, either. Using the DOS boot disks, I was able to get the DOS versions of PartitionMagic and PartitionInfo to run. However, The PartitonInfo data file that I e-mailed to Powerquest tech support came back with a "we didn't find any problems with your partitions - you may need to reformat your hard drive" response! Also, it doesn't seem like UltraDMA/Bus Master drivers are loaded under their DOS disks, so everything runs *very* slowly. At this point, I decided to search for a new product. I ran across a few reviews of Acronis OS Selector 8.0, which got very positive responses. Acronis OS Selector 8.0 is Linux-based, so you are loading a real OS kernel at boot time that looks like it supports UltraDMA and Bus Mastering (unofficially based on my partiton moving/resizing times). The GUI looks somewhat like the Windows XP GUI. It is *very* easy to use and runs quickly. The OS Selector GUI starts quickly at PC bootup, and has all of the necessary functionality (Boot manager and partition management) available at that time. OS Selector doesn't really run under Windows - because it doesn't need to. Also, no "You must reboot your PC" messages occur while changing partitons! Best of all, Acronis OS Selector 8.0 is cheaper than any of the competition! Check Acronis Selector 8.0 out. I also purchased Acronis TrueImage 6.0 the same day - an excellent partition back-up product, though it doesn't support DVD writing as described in some of the reviews ...
Rating:
Summary: downoad includes neither Boot Magic nor a serial number
Review: I purchased this product intending to register it and for the highly advertised Boot Magic feature of Partition Magic 8.0. My download from amazon.com was extremely disappointing, as they don't say they deliver the product without a serial number and with key features missing. My recommendation: don't purchase the download version.
Rating:
Summary: Partition magic 8.0
Review: Product worked as stated to remove partitions from my hard drive. I have an 8 gig divided into 4 drives and C was filling up. Beware! you must run Drive Mapper (in tools) before you open any programs that were in partitions that you eliminated or even shortcuts if they are in other partitions. There is not a warning to do so and caused me a full day of fixing the problems. Also run defrag when you are finished. It took 17 hours to run mine (Win 98, 300 mghz Pent. 3)
Now that it's over, I am pleased with the product. Make sure you know a computer person. This is not for amaturers
Rating: 
Summary: Saves me a lot of grief
Review: I have not used a partitioning tool before and I was not sure if it would be useful on my Win XP Upgrade. However, after having to reformat my hard drive when I, nor technical support at Gateway, could not resolve a problem, I decided to partition the hard drive so that I can keep my OS and applications separate from my data. I had read that partitioning could be difficult or confusing. But that was not the case with this version. It was relatively easy to set up and put to use right away. Later I discovered that I needed to resize one partition and it was really simple - without problems. I recommend this product for intermediate users and above. It might prove to be a little confusing for beginners.
Rating:
Summary: Nightmare for Win 2000
Review: It sounds too good to be thru.
Due to a lack of "working space" on my C: drive PM 8.0 was unable to perform the task of enlarging that partition. The bummer was that it didn't tell me it needed more space, so it started the process only to crash in the middle of it, corrupting the whole drive. Bottom line, I ended up re-formatting the complete drive and spending about 2 full days re-installing all my software/settings etc...
I'm not touching this stuff anymore...
Rating:
Summary: Customer Service Very Good
Review: I rated Partition Magic 8 only 1 star previously.
That applied to the Boot Magic part of the software. It still does.
The Partition part is very good though.
Unfortunately for me, I bought it for the Boot Magic portion only.
Customer service (and a technician) were very helpful in uninstalling Boot Magic.
The program should have had an internal uninstall.
Rating:
Summary: PQ Boot Magic is Terrible
Review: The partitioning part of PQ Magic 8 seems to work ok.
The Boot Magic part is very very very bad.
First it did not work at all.
Second, I could not load Win2000/Prof as an alternate system. I have Win XP/home. I followed (rather very complicated) instructions carefully.
There is no uninstall option, so when I tried to uninstall it,I was left with a bug in the boot process for Win XP(It is easy to get around it, but it occurrs on every bootup).
I cannot even reinstall it. It refuses to be reinstalled unless I correct the problem FIRST.
Finally, Power Quest is NO help whatsoever. They do NOT reply to my E-mail for help on their support site.
If you had a minus 10 rating, I would rate it minus 10.
| 
