If you have ever attempted to format a hard drive, work with its partitions, create or move partitions, change partitions between FAT and NTFS or explore your drive’s structure, you have probably come across some difficulty. The tools built into operating systems don’t give you full accessibility over your drives, and having a handy piece of software to help you can be a godsend.

IT administrators would find a tool like EASEUS Partition Master 3.5 Server Edition valuable for managing their servers. It gives the user simple control over a wide range of tasks, from straightforward procedures to advanced partition management

Specifications:

EASEUS Partition Master Server Edition

EASEUS Partition Master Server Edition is the best value server partition software to partition server disk for IT administrators. It manages windows server quickly and safely. You may perform basic and advanced partition operations on your servers without data loss, including: Resize and Move partitions, Copy Partition, Copy Disk, Create and Delete partitions, Format partitions, Convert partitions, Explore partitions, Hide and Unhide partitions, set active partition, etc. Changes of server partition can be previewed before applying to hard disk and all data is completely protected during any operation.

EASEUS Partition Master Server Edition is compatible with Windows Server 2000/2003/2008 and Non-Server 2000/XP/Vista 32 and 64 bit systems on one machine – single licensed, which provides more comprehensive functions

EASEUS Partition Master Server Edition helps you to:

Basic server partition features:
Resize/Move partition: Easily resize/move server and non-server partition without data loss to optimize the usage of your disk.
Create, format, delete server and non-server partition by using a friendly disk map in an amazing easy way.
Convert FAT to NTFS.
Explore FAT/NTFS partition.
Hide/unhide partition, set active partition, label drive letter, etc. – Change partition properties.

Advanced server partition features:
Hard Disk Copy or Partition Copy Wizards: Easily upgrade/migrate server hard drive or copy server partition to protect data; easily system partition copy for upgrading your server system partition.
Hardware RAID supports: It works perfectly with hardware RAID to partition Windows Server.
Bootable CD/DVD: Creates a bootable CD/DVD to manage Windows Server partitions when there is a boot failure caused by virus or any other unexpected affairs.

Copy wizard:
Partition Copy: Fast file-by-file copy to save your valuable time as well as protect your data on Windows Server before any operation.
Hard Disk Copy: Automatically copy the files file-by-file (fast) or sector-by-sector (each sector be exactly the same as the original one) after checking Windows Server partitions to make a backup.
Notes: Do backup your partition or disk before any partition changes with Partition & Disk Copy built in EASEUS Partition Master.

Usability Features:
Operating System – Easy to Resize/Move Windows Server 2000/2003/2008 and Non-Server 2000/XP/Vista 32 and 64 bit system partitions.
Virtual Operations – Each operation is listed on the left column "operations pending" and will be performed after click on Apply button and withdrew step by step by clicking Undo.
Disk Map – Visually demonstrates your disk/partition configuration; preview the changes before applying.
Up to 32 hard disks – Can handle up to 32 hard disks under Windows Server systems.
Supports 1.5 TB hard disk for Windows Server partition.

Installation is simple and quick with Vista, and once installed, the software requires around 70MB of hard drive space. The software is compatible with Windows Server 2000/2003/2008 and Non-Server 2000/XP/Vista 32 and 64 bit systems, so most users won’t have any trouble installing. There is a free trial available and the single-license version is $149. A $399 Enterprise version is also available for unlimited system usage.

Partition Master boasts a very simple interface. It looks like an old school program that utilizes Windows’ design, but this presentation is effective and straightforward, and makes it easier for people who aren’t as skilled with partitioning and formatting to understand what is going on. It also encourages a slick and smooth operation, which is what you’ll get. Be aware that this software supports up to 1.5TB.

Tools along the top, drives along the bottom, stats along the left side – that’s your interface.

It shows the hard drives available for partitioning. Plugging in an unallocated USB drive, it showed up:

I first wanted to format this unallocated drive to NTSC and create a large partition. This is as easy as selecting the drive, going to Partitions > Create. Here, the screen allows you to label the partition, drag a slider box to tell it how large to make the partition volume, assign it a drive letter, choose its file system and cluster size, and execute. This is all really obvious and clean; a fantastic design for ease of use. You can also use a lot of these functions on your already-existing partitions, if you need to change the drive letter or make the other modifications.

After doing so, it changed the screen to show my selections. Note that it didn’t actually do the process, but puts it into an ‘Operations Pending’ queue on the left. This strategy allows you to work with your drives and get everything ready before you actually commit to the choices. Handy – especially if you are creating a bootable CD, which Partition Master can do. It allows you to keep track of the process you’ve come up with so far.

You can create several partitions, destroy them, change them, and otherwise work with them before you commit. Partition Master does lack a recovery element, so you need to be certain, and perhaps have a backup.

Then, when you decide, it does the process with great speed and ease.

See the before and after shot of my Computer screen to see how it turned my unallocated drive into a partitioned drive that I could access in a matter of seconds (Drive K):

Being able to convert FAT drives to NTSC essentially with one click is a great tool, and is something this software handles. NTFS is an advanced system that most users will prefer, thanks to its security and dependability. This software allows you to change a FAT drive to NTSC without formatting it, keeping all of your information in tact. This is great, and also saves time.

You can also resize and move your existing partitions with the same slider process as creating them:

And you can use the Explore tool to look at the contents of a particular partition, the way you would through Windows:

There’s more than just that

A handy Properties option can tell you all sorts of info about your partitions, from the usage of the drive, its geometry, stats related to cluster size; even its serial number and password protection settings.

The bootable disc feature creates a disc in NTSC of FAT that will suit Windows or Linux users. It’ll only create a disc and not a bootable USB drive. Some won’t like this, because USB drives are faster, but that’s the way it is. There is some other slightly more expensive software available that can create bootable thumb drives and otherwise work similar to this product, but that’s only necessary for more speed-greedy users.

Conclusion:

Really, EASEUS Partition Master is very handy stuff. This software aims to help ease the process of working with drive partitioning, and eliminate the risk of losing your data in the process. It’s quite easy to use and since nothing actually happens until you choose to apply your tasks, it allows less experienced people to work with it and handle a bit of a learning curve in the process.

The software makes it less frightening to work with partitioning and formatting and offers great management tools for large numbers of drives. It’s a very nice program with solid design that boasts a nice number of features.

Pros:
Easy to use, intuitive
Allows you to work before applying all your changes

Cons:
No partition recovery
No creating a boot disk on USB drive

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance