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A program for reading an external hard drive. Hard disk service - review of the best programs for working with partitions

Partition Assistant is a program for managing disks and disk partitions in FAT and NTFS formats. Using this application, you can check the disk for errors, check the disk surface for bad sectors, change the disk size (increase or decrease), merge disk partitions, create, hide, format and delete disk partitions. Partition Assistant includes a wizard for copying an entire disk and a separate disk partition using space and by sector, as well as a wizard for restoring a disk/partition from a previously made copy. The advantage of Partition Assistant is that it is a free program for private (home) use, and as you know, tools for administering disk partitions cost a lot of money.

Disk management program

Using Partition Assistant, you can make a bootable USB drive, convert media from NTFS to FAT32 and vice versa, change the drive letter, delete information from the disk permanently, split the disk, expand the disk partition using unallocated space or using another partition, Moreover, you can expand or reduce the size of the system partition. The utility will help you transfer your current OS from a solid-state (SSD) to a regular HDD and vice versa. Partition Assistant will tell you in detail about all the properties of the disk - information about the file system, the number of physical sectors, the total size, the first and last sector used, it will show the name and mount point of the volume. With this program you can also restore the MBR partition of a disk.

Screenshots of the Partition Assistant program


There is a method that allows you not to wander through folders, but use one command to call the Disk Management service.

“Command Line” is a powerful tool for calling absolutely all services on your computer, launching applications and executable files. Disk Management is no exception.

To do this you need:

Why doesn't Disk Management open?

A rare situation, but it still happens. This can happen in two cases:

  • service disabled;
  • the service has been deleted.

If for some reason your Disk Management service is disabled, the fix is ​​quite simple:


The service can be deleted if your antivirus has deleted the dmserver.dll file. This happens if an emulator program interferes with the operation of this service. Then you will have to restore this file from your antivirus quarantine. It is possible that this file did not exist in the first place. Some pirated assemblies are problematic due to their unreliability in the operation of some Windows services. Reinstalling the system to a more reliable one can help here.

How to manage hard disk partitions

The Windows 7 system allows you to carry out some procedures with hard disk volumes: compress and expand space, rename, etc. This can help make using your computer more comfortable and even faster. After all, if you don’t need to search in one large section for a movie that is buried behind seven folders, you can save time.

How to properly create a hard drive partition

So, let's imagine that you have unallocated space on your hard drive that you would be happy to use for another partition. And there is no point in keeping unused space on the hard drive.

To create a new partition:

  1. Right-click the unallocated space on the disk where you want to create the partition and click the Create Simple Volume button. The Create Simple Volume Wizard will launch.
    The “Create simple volume” command allows you to create a hard disk volume from unallocated space
  2. Click "Next".
    Create Simple Volume Wizard - a service that performs operations to create a new volume
  3. Check the future size of the new volume and click Next.
    Setting that selects the size of the new volume
  4. Check the drive letter that will be assigned to the new volume (it must be different from those already used on your computer), click the "Next" button.
    Settings window that specifies the name and path to the volume
  5. Make sure the file system is set to NTFS and click Next.
    A setting that specifies the file system setting in which the new volume will be formatted
  6. Click the "Done" button.
    Confirming all settings and starting the creation of a new volume
  7. The volume will begin formatting and all settings will be applied once it is complete.
    New created volume in Disk Management

Compressing space on a hard drive partition

The procedure for shrinking a partition allows you to unpin an area from it that is not currently in use. This space on the HDD becomes unallocated, that is, available for creating a partition and its further use as an independent local disk.

To compress space on the disk you need:


Video: the process of compressing a hard drive partition

How to merge and expand disks

The standard Windows 7 system for combining HDD partitions is not ideal, as it has a flaw - the joined partitions will completely lose the information stored on them. Therefore, take care in advance to save important information.


Video: how to expand a hard drive partition

Other disk functionality

You can also change the letter used to designate a particular partition of the hard drive. To do this, just select “Change drive letter or path” and specify a free letter of the Latin alphabet. You need to remember that if programs or games are installed on this disk, the actual path to them will change. This means that shortcuts and other systems for accessing these programs will no longer work correctly.

The Change Volume Letter command allows you to change the volume letter and path

In the "Disk Management" menu, you have access to the function: "Make disk active". It means that the computer will try to load the operating system from this particular partition. And if there is not one on it, it will try to load from each volume in alphabetical order until it finds the necessary download files.

It is very functional, has more than 10 disk operations, and is completely free. All changes you make are virtual until you commit them, which means you have room for “error” and viewing the result. Among the minuses, perhaps, is only that the program does not have a Russian interface.

Acronis Disk Director is the most popular disk management program. It has huge and powerful potential, the ability to work from a boot disk and many other advantages. He is a long-time leader in working with hard disk partitions. For home use it is distributed free of charge.


Interface of the Acronis Disk Director program for quickly resolving issues with hard drives

Our instructions will help you master and save information on your computer and will make working with hard drives more convenient and comfortable.

Hard drive partitioning is the process of dividing one drive into several logical drives. In this article we will look at popular programs for partitioning a hard drive.

The Windows 7 operating system is equipped with a built-in utility for partitioning disks. To launch it, follow the path: Start - Control Panel - System - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management.

By launching the Disk Management utility, you will have access to all the necessary functions. For existing disks, you can perform: delete, format, change letter, compress and delete the disk. If you have a new, unpartitioned hard drive connected to your computer, you can partition the drive.

If the capabilities of the built-in disk partitioning utility are not enough for you, you can use third-party programs.

Wondershare Disk Manager Free

There are not many high-quality free disk partitioning programs. One such program is Wondershare Disk Manager Free. This program allows you to create, delete, copy, and convert partitions. The program has a very simple and intuitive interface. Thanks to this, even the absence of the Russian language will not complicate the process of working with the program, even for not very experienced users. To install this program, you will have to go through a free and extremely simple registration on the manufacturer’s website.

Paid programs for disk partitioning

One of the most popular and well-known programs of this kind is Partition Magic from Symantec. This program can run from a boot disk, which greatly simplifies the partitioning before installing the operating system. Partition Magic supports NTFS and FAT file systems. In addition to basic operations such as creating and formatting, Partition Magic allows you to convert file systems, resize partitions, and merge partitions.

Paragon Partition Manager

Paragon Partition Manager is a powerful program for hard disk partitioning, backup, and operating system management. Unlike the previous program, Paragon Partition Manager has a wider range of features and functions. Thus, this program is one of the few that allows you to work with disks for virtual machines (MS Virtual PC, VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion and Sun VirtualBox).

Acronis Disk Director

Acronis Disk Director is another advanced program for hard disk partitioning and disk management. Acronis Disk Director consists of three parts: the disk management module, the Acronis Recovery Expert module for recovering lost data, and the Acronis OS Selector module for managing multiple operating systems. Acronis Disk Director is equipped with all the necessary functions for disk management, and the program supports all modern file operating systems.

Creating, deleting and formatting computer disk partitions is only part of the possibilities hard drive management applications. Today, they make it possible to securely perform operations that previously required data deletion or other mind-boggling combinations.

Many of the tasks performed through the Partition Manager can, in theory, be accomplished using Windows' built-in Disk Management tool. However, it is not as intuitive as the programs discussed here.

A good disk management application consists of several modules. They are used to create, delete and format partitions. Apart from these functions, they also have functions for copying and moving partitions, creating images and backups.

Additional modules support system migration, merging and splitting partitions. Supports various partition schemes, dynamic disks, RAID configurations, various file systems and boot records.

Attention! Whenever you work with hard drive partitions, you need to plan everything carefully, back up your data, and make sure you select the correct hard drive or partition before pressing Enter.

Attention! All operations carried out on partitions are fraught with risks. The editors recommend extreme caution and are not responsible for possible loss of data or other damage incurred by readers.

EaseUS Partition Master Disk Management

One of the most popular programs for managing hard drive partitions in Windows. Ensures the allocation of new partitions without data loss.

Benefits of EaseUS Partition Master

  • Easy conversion of partition type, primary to logical and vice versa
  • Recovers deleted or non-existent partitions
  • Supported hard drive capacity up to 8 TB

Flaws

  • Inability to transfer data from HDD to SSD in the free version

License: freeware
Price: free

AOMEI Partition Assistant Disk Management

Also popular. Creates, divides, connects, copies hard drive partitions, changing their size, while saving files. System transfer is possible.

Benefits of AOMEI Partition Assistant

  • Convenient wizards for every operation
  • Supports all the most popular file systems
  • Displays accurate information about supported media
  • Allows you to create a bootable CD with the application

License: freeware
Price: free

Disk Management in GParted

A tool for managing computer hard drive partitions. Distributed as an ISO file. Install it on a flash drive or burn it to a CD and start your computer from it.

Benefits of GParted

  • Does not require installation and does not take up disk space
  • Attractive free offer for companies
  • Wide range of partition management capabilities for almost any file system

Flaws

  • Mastery takes time
  • Only available via Live CD

License: freeware
Price: free

MiniTool Partition Wizard

Performs all operations with hard disk partitions and also hides it. Copying the contents of the disk and changing the file system.

Advantages of MiniTool Partition Wizard

  • Lots of tools, including disk cleaning and checking
  • Convenient visual wizard for each operation
  • Allows you to convert NTFS to FAT32 without formatting, change the disk type from MBR to GPT

License: freeware
Price: free

Active@ Partition Manager

Performs operations on disk partitions. Formats the flash drive in FAT32 and NTFS. Fixes MBR disks. Converts MBR to GPT and vice versa.

Benefits of Active@ Partition Manager

  • Disk Imaging Tool
  • Convenient wizard for creating and changing partitions
  • Built-in boot sector editor, allows you to manually make changes
  • Shows S.M.A.R.T data. for hard drives

Flaws

  • English only

License: freeware
Price: free

For normal and stable operation of the operating system of any personal computer or laptop, it is necessary to correctly partition the space on the hard drive (partition the HDD). Often, when buying a computer in a store, you may encounter the fact that the entire hard drive space is allocated to only one system drive (usually the system drive “C”). This setting for HDD memory allocation is not entirely correct. In addition, this can negatively affect the operation of the computer, because important documents and system files may be at risk of disappearing (it is recommended to use a separate partition on the hard drive for such data).

Therefore, in order to avoid any troubles associated with improper use of the computer’s HDD memory, it is customary to split it into several additional partitions (disks), one of which is usually allocated for the needs of the operating system. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that the process of partitioning a hard drive itself is a very responsible and scrupulous procedure. Before starting it, it is recommended to back up all important documents to a USB flash drive or other storage medium, and then proceed directly to changing the size of the disk space.

So, in order to partition a hard drive, you have to go through several step-by-step procedures. First of all, you should select the disk partition that needs to be divided into subpartitions. After this, you must specify the size of the new partition that you want to create, indicating the file system type. Having gone through all these points, you can start the HDD partitioning procedure itself. As a result of successful completion of this operation, the program will display a list of changes made. It is also worth noting that most modern programs for working with hard drives will help you not only partition the HDD, but also merge them, perform deep formatting and other complex procedures.