Easeus Partition Master Free Edition

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on August 29, 2012

When you add a new hard drive or SSD to your system, you must format and partition it before you can use it. The best tool for the job is a full-featured disk partition manager, which can not only format and partition drives but repartition them, too, or change the partition type when your needs change; for instance, if you should move your C drive to an SSD, you can repartition the old drive for media storage. EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition is just such a tool. Unlike some so-called free disk partition managers, EaseUS Partition Master is a full-featured disk utility that is powerful enough to actually be useful.

We liked EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition the last time we looked at it, but it's easier to use than ever. The start screen includes an optional User's Guide, which we opened. Its headings describe what Partition Master can do: Extend System Partition, Merge Partitions, Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk, Convert Primary to Logical Partition, and Copy Disk. Each operation is explained in both video and step-by-step tutorials. Next we clicked Go to Main Screen, which opened a clean, attractive interface sporting a classic disk manager layout, including table and graph data views, and with a welcome absence of oversize graphics. In addition to the main functions, Partition Master can also change labels, defragment disk and partitions, check your partitions, and create bootable CDs. A toolbar icon labeled Backup Tool doesn't access a feature but instead opens a link to download EaseUS Todo, a free backup tool we've used and recommend. You can also set a password to protect your disks, if necessary (or merely prudent).

EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition lived up to our expectations. We recommend starting with the Wizard menu, which provides easy-to-understand wizards for the three of the trickiest yet commonest tasks: Cloning a disk, copying a partition, and recovering a lost or damaged partition. And remember to back up any data you want to keep before you tinker with a partition! We like EaseUS Partition Master enough to make it our No. 1 partitioning tool.