Windows 7: Best program for partitioning?

Hi.

I just moved some stuff to an external and want to take some space off one of my internal partitions and add it to another partition. I've been using Device Manager>Disk Management. Being that its windows software i'm assuming its the best to use. What I mean by "Best Program" is

1.) Ease of use.
2.) Is it Stable?
3.) Is it safe?
4.) How Fast is it?



Thanks!

It's safe and works well for most situations. If it can do what you want, no need to use anything else. The interface is intuitive enough and speed is fine.

It does not have certain advanced features which you may not need. But for the stuff it can do, it's all you need.

It may not allow you to shrink a partition as much as you might want to.

It can generally only expand a partition into unallocated space to the right--but not to the left. If your unallocated space is to the left of C and you want to expand C, I think you have to use another third party app.

Other than that, I can't think of shortcomings. It's all I use.

But some people end up with goofy partition layouts, so you may have to get another app if your situation is unusual.

This is pretty handy - especially the bootable CD/stick version. BEST FREE Partition Manager Software for Windows supports all 32-bit & 64 bit Windows No-server OS. It can do things that are not possible with Disk Management.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say unallocated space is to the left of C and you want to expand C. So, if I have a drive F i want to add space from Drive E, it would work (since F is to the right of E in the alphabet?) but i wouldn't be able to do it visa versa?

Sorry..


I'll check out that program and see what its about. I wanna make sure i'm using a program that will put as little stress on my HDD as possible. Errors SUCK. LoL

When you look in Disk Management and the free space is to the left of the partition you want to extend, than that is quasi impossible with Disk Management. With Partition Wizard, however, you can do that.

PS: always backup the partitions before you manipulate them. There are many ways to muck things up.

The Disk Management "map" can be taken fairly literally:

Reading from left to right in it you might see:

C D unallocated space E unallocated space F

In such a case, you could NOT attach any unallocated space to C because D is in the way.

You COULD expand D into the unallocated space immediately to the right of D.

But you could not attach the unallocated space between E and F to D.

Any partition can be expanded ONLY IF it has unallocated space to its IMMEDIATE right.

And so forth.

The better third party apps can get around this.

Partition Wizard is a very useful part of your toolkit. I find the bootable version is generally more robust than the installed mini Wizard version.
Unfortunately Windows Disk Management can sometimes (rarely?) misinform. Partition Wizard is a good check for situations that don't appear to make sense when viewed with Windows Disk Management.

This thread is an example of Windows Disk management getting it wrong.
500GB Drive Only Shows 258GB

Excellent responses for someone just now starting to understand hard drives.