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Hard drive management software that offers easy partitioning to keep your device's memory free of fragmentation

Hard drive management software that offers easy partitioning to keep your device's memory free of fragmentation

Vote: (2 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: AOMEI Tech Co., Ltd.

Version: 10.2

Works under: Windows

Vote:

Program license

(2 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

AOMEI Tech Co., Ltd.

10.2

Works under:

Windows

Cons

  • Doesn't work with Apple Partition Map-formatted drives

The standard edition of Aomei Partition Assistant is a simple tool for managing partition tables and creating new logical drives on top of a physical disk. It works with both electromechanical rotating hard drives as well as silicon disks such as SSDs. While Windows usually doesn't allow users to manipulate partition tables on removable media, Aomei's software solution may also permit some changes to these sorts of devices.

Though it's geared toward users of the Windows platform, Partition Assistant will actually work with file systems designed for other platforms. Native choices such as FAT32 and NTFS are available for any healthy disk slice created with the program. Power users are also free to create new logical drives that use the ext2, ext3 and ext4 file systems that are popular in the GNU/Linux world. They can also create an exFAT partition, which could be useful for sharing files between different devices.

Converting between Master Boot Record and GUID Partition Table formats is as easy as selecting a few options in a drop-down menu. Since most modern UEFI boot systems need a GPT table to boot, this is an easy way to restore an otherwise non-functioning Windows installation. Conversely, those who dual boot Windows with GNU/Linux may want to opt for a simpler MBR table and boot both operating systems from GRUB. Aomei's solution makes this process much easier than it would be with command line-driven tools.

Cloning partitions is every bit as easy, even if you have to share information between a pair of hard disks. Any disk slice that has extra space available could be shrunk, though this might take a little more time to accomplish than many of the other chores Partition Assistant is designed to accomplish. Though it doesn't work with SGI and APM-formatted drives, this shouldn't be an issue for most users as these legacy table systems have become increasingly rare outside of the workstation market.

Secure deletion is an option for any partition. Though it's possible to misuse this, it's an excellent feature for power users who want to be certain that their devices are going to be clean before they're disposed of. Partition Assistant can even check for bad clusters, which is useful for situations where a drive might be failing yet it isn't completely obvious what's wrong with it.

Server administrators and those who manage Windows-based mainframes might be among the most enthusiastic users of Partition Assistant for this reason. That being said, it's an attractive app for those who just want to set up a new PC they built as well.

Cons

  • Doesn't work with Apple Partition Map-formatted drives