Description:
When it's time to divide and conquer, the right tools are vital. Whether partitioning to create a multiple-OS machine or just to improve efficiency, users of PartitionMagic 7.0 will get the job done quickly and easily. Still, novice computer users should be extremely wary of trying this--or any other low-level operation--without patient and trusted help, as it is all too easy to make serious, irrevocable mistakes and lose precious data. That said, most who know enough about hard drives to know they need new or resized partitions should find PartitionMagic simple and headache-free. Designed for Windows XP, PartitionMagic 7.0 does fine with earlier Windows versions and supports hard drives up to 80 GB. The BootMagic utility makes switching between operating systems as simple as rebooting. While this wizard-driven software might make power users suspicious, it does make life much easier for all users and is still flexible enough to arrange partitions to everyone's satisfaction. While many folks will use this package once and never see it again, experienced users can resize partitions on the fly and tweak to their heart's delight. It's inevitable that some hardware configurations won't work with PartitionMagic, and that this can occasionally lead to catastrophic errors; it is absolutely essential for all users to back up crucial files beforehand. PowerQuest is generally good about providing support and patches for configuration problems, so it's best to check their Web site for information before running it. Despite all the caveats, this is simply the best set of tools available for quick partition management. --Rob Lightner
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