EaseUS Partition Master Review

Disk and partition management is (of course) one of the core features of Partition Master and it is here that we find a full suite of tools capable of extending the basic set of partitioning tools available within the Windows operating system itself. This begins in the main Partition Master application window (see below) where we can see all disks and partitions available to the current PC, their current status and also access the full range of disk partitioning tools available.

NB – Whilst the Windows OS does feature some disk partitioning tools (found within the “Disk Management” utility), these tools are basic and lacking some of the advanced functionality found within Partition Master (e.g. not supporting the re-ordering of partitions on a disk nor conversions from GPT back to MBR without first deleting partitions).

Starting off with a commonly used partitioning task which sees a new disk drive being initialised (installed) in the system and a new (initial) partition created. Right clicking on an unpartitioned disk (“Disk 1” in this case, as can be seen above) and selecting the “Create” option will open up the tool for creating and specifying the parameters of this new partition.

NB – Partition Master will detect the presence of a new disk once connected and provide the option to use a wizard for handling the initialisation and (if required) initial creation of partitions and formatting if such a wizard-based approach is preferred.

As can be seen above, whilst creating a new partition within Partition Master can be as simple as just clicking through with the default options (which will create a partition spanning the entire disk), we also have available multiple advanced options for specifying the exact partition structure required. Such options include being able to specify a fixed size of partition and the free space to be left before and after this partition (effectively physically positioning it on the disk), setting of the partition type (primary or logical), specifying the file system, cluster size and drive label (amongst other options) making this a partitioning tool which goes over and above the default Windows offering.

Once all options are configured and confirmed, it is important to note that Partition Master will not start performing such operations straight away. As can be seen below, once any operations have been specified (creating a new partition in this case), we must then confirm to the software that the work is to begin by pressing the “Execute 1 Operation” button found at the top of the application window.

Whilst running, Partition Master does a good job of keeping users informed of the status of each job (more than one can be run in a sequence, as required) thanks to the progress page which is shown. In this case, once complete, we can see the detailed view of the physical disk in Partition Master (with the additional free space which is still available) and, as is pointed out below, the new partition which is now ready for use with a Windows drive letter assigned.

Having now created a new partition, selecting this partition (or any other existing partition) within the main view of the Partition Master application will show the full set of available tools in the right sidebar menu (as is pointed out below).

As can be seen above, Partition Master offers a lot of partition related functionality. This includes some advanced tools not found within Windows itself such as those for splitting the partition into multiple parts, changing (re-ordering) it’s position on the physical disk alongside various other tools related to the size of the partition on the disk itself (which can easily be increased or decreased as required).

NB – Whilst extending the size of a partition or changing its position on a disk are generally safe operations, be sure to always make a backup of all important data on such disks before attempting any disk or partition related operations.

As can be seen above, resizing a partition is as simple as clicking and dragging the graphical representation of the partition until it meets the new size (or simply entering the desired new size in the box below) and then applying the operation (as was seen before to start the process working). Moving on and another useful tool is the “Split Partition” tool used for splitting an existing partition into multiple parts (a tool which actually divides any given partition into two parts, but can, of course, be run multiple times is required).

When splitting a partition in Partition Master, we see much the same tool and graphical layout as was available when creating a partition from scratch earlier on (the main difference here is that this tool takes the available space for this partition from another (existing) partition rather than any unallocated space on the same disk). With the new partition size specified we can, again, also specify other options such as the file system to be used and (optionally) also assign a drive letter for use within Windows.

Having now created a second partition on this disk, we can see the partition moving capabilities of Partition Master in action via the “Resize/Move” tool. This is a tool which, as well as being able to resize any given partition, allows the physical position of a partition to be moved and the order of any existing partitions on the disk to be rearranged.

As can be seen above, we can physically move and rearrange partitions on a disk all from within the Partition Master interface. Whilst such an advanced operation will (undoubtedly) be irrelevant for many PC users, anyone seeking advanced performance form a mechanical hard disk could look into moving selected partitions to the inner or outer tracks of the disk when seeking higher IO performance or higher sustained read performance.

In addition to the splitting, moving and resizing of partitions as has been seen so far, also supported within Partition Master is the ability to merge multiple partitions into one as well.

The “Merge” tool (see above) allows multiple partitions to be selected and then merged into a single existing partition (with the base partition to keep being selected form the drop-down menu). Once one or more partitions have been selected, the work can be set in action in the same way as with other tools with the result of the operation eventually visible in the main Partition Master application.

Finally, as can be seen above, whilst many of the operations from such a disk management tool are focused on the partitions each disk contains, there are still some advanced tools available relating to the physical disk or SSD device itself. I will be looking in more detail at the disk type conversion, secure wiping and cloning functions more in the following sections, but also included within Partition master are specialist tools for specifically checking 4K alignment and checking the surface of mechanical disks to ensure reliable operation.