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.

Publisher's Description

From Chengdu Yiwo Tech Development:

As Partition Magic alternative, EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition is a ALL-IN-ONE partition solution and disk management freeware. It allows you to extend partition (especially for system drive), manage disk space easily, settle low disk space problem on MBR and GUID partition table (GPT) disk under Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7 (SP1 included) and Windows 8 32 bit and 64 bit system. Easeus Partition Master Home Edition is an all-in-one partition solution and disk management freeware. Three main features: Partition Manager, Partition Recovery Wizard and Disk & Partition Copy to solve all partition problems under hardware RAID, MBR & GPT disks, removable devices. The program allows you to drag and drop on the disk map to simplify your job. It doesn't require a reboot when extending NTFS partition to minimize computer downtime. New feature: Upgrade system disk to a bigger one with one-click.