Partition Magic is a partition management utility whose latest version was released a few years ago. However, even though it is no longer compatible with more current versions of Windows, we are going to show you how to use Partition Magic on those systems.
If you try to download Partition Magic for Windows 7, 8 and 10, you will be able to install it, but you will find that you will not be able to use the application, as the utility was discontinued for a long time and it is not compatible with any of the new versions of Windows.
Faced with this scenario, there is no choice but to use alternatives to Partition Magic for Windows XP onwards, where we can include Windows 10. One of the most complete options and the ones that most resemble it is a free utility called NIUBI Partition Editor .
Like Partition Magic, NIUBI Partition Editor is partition management software with which you will be able to execute a wide variety of actions on them. It is free and it is in the English language, but it is not a problem because it is very easy to use.
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What is a partition?
Before proceeding to show how to use this alternative to Partition Magic, it is convenient that you know a basic concept, the partition. It is about each of the parts in which you can divide a hard drive , which can have more or less capacity.
To be better understood, a cake would be the hard disk, while the portions in which you could divide the cake would be the disk partitions, which can be more or less large, but in the case of hard drives you can vary them whenever you want.
NIUBI Partition Editor allows you to do the same, that is, make partitions to a hard disk by assigning them the size you prefer , eliminate them, reduce or expand them over time and much more. Specifically, you can use this utility to do all of this:
- Partition management: you can create, delete, format, copy a partition, change the partition label and even the drive letter or make it active, etc. You can also reduce, extend, move or combine two or more partitions.
- Conversion: you can convert a logical partition to primary, from NTFS to FAT32, from an MBR disk to GPT, etc.
Not only do you have the possibility to execute these actions on the partitions, but there are also more options to use; defrag partitions , explore bad sectors, view properties, hide or erase partition data, clone, migrate operating system, etc.
Being clear about everything that NIUBI Partition Editor offers , the most interesting alternative to Partition Magic, we are going to show you various tasks that you can do, although first you will have to download the application for Windows from the link below.
- Download for NIUBI Partition Editor Windows
Once downloaded and installed, as soon as you open it, you will find an overview of all your disks with each of their partitions , in case they had been made, in our case we have 3 disks.
On the left you see all the options and some more of the ones we have mentioned above. Knowing now where the tasks are, we are going to show how to use some of them.
How to partition your hard drive
Partitioning a disk in NIUBI Partition Editor is very easy. In ours we are going to divide the main hard disk , the one that has the operating system, into another extra partition in the storage that is free, but for this we must reduce the size to create the additional partition, for which we would follow these steps:
- Click on partition C: (NTFS) of “disk 0” and click on the option “resize / move volume” .
- In the new advantage that opens, we can move the upper yellow bar to reduce the size of the partition that we are going to divide in turn into another, with what will be another “free” partition, as you can see in the image called “unallocated ”.
Assign label, letter and format partition
That new partition is now free and unformatted, it cannot be used until we assign it a name or label, drive letter, and format it so that we can store data of any kind. Do the following:
- Right click on the “unallocated” partition and click on “create volume” . In the new window you will have to give it a name, give it a letter, the type of file (NTFS or FAT32, the first option is more recommended) and if it is primary or logical.
- When you have it, click OK and you can now click on the “apply” icon at the top to execute the creation of this new partition, then you can see how a new disk appears on your PC to start using it.
It is a somewhat slow and delicate process, which recommends whatever you are running on your computer to avoid problems, so be patient.
Defragment, check, rename and label
More things that we are going to show you to do with this alternative to Partition Magic , we are going to see how we can defragment a partition, check it for errors, change the label and even the name of the new unit.
- Defragment: right click on the partition to be defragmented and click on “defragment”, then click OK and wait a few minutes.
- Check disk: right click and click on “check volume” and select the option “fix found errors” and “try to fix found bad sectors”, although in this case you can choose mark one or both options.
- Change drive letter: again you will have to right click on the partition you want to change the letter of and click on the option “change drive letter” to choose the letter you want.
- Change label or name: right click and click on “Change level”, now you will have to put a new name.
When using and executing any of the previous actions, then you will always have to click on “apply”, an icon that is at the top of the program.
Partition Magic no longer exists and you will not be able to use it in Windows 10, but you have alternatives as good as NIUBI Partition Editor that you already know how to use , as you can see, you have many possibilities and you will be able to perform many actions on your disks and partitions.
