eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Paragon Software Group announced the release of new partitioning software.
Both home and professional editions of Partition Manager 15 handle all PC system and data partitioning tasks, such as resize, move, merge, and copy.
Operations are alignment-aware, and can be performed on solid state drive (SSD) or hard drives of any capacity. Expanded split and merge functions allow users to allocate specific files and folders to new partitions before performing the operation.
Konstantin Komarov, CEO of PGS, told eWEEK the new software is ideal for PC users and system admins who deal with large storage pools and virtual environments.
“However, for businesses we offer our Hard Disk Manager Business and Premium editions that come with the entire partitioning and storage optimization features and, additionally, provide server backup and migration capabilities,” Komarov said. “Hard Disk Manager Business and Premium editions are available with a full range of flexible licensing options developed to meet the needs of modern businesses.”
In addition, Partition Manager 15 software comes with file system converters to adapt the most common file systems, including NTFS, HFS+, and FAT.
Paragon’s additional proprietary security enhancements include Paragon Security PLUS technology to fix boot errors in case the PC does not boot anymore, and Paragon Power Shield.
“Security is so important on a hard drive partitioning platform because hard drives host not only the productive environment with all applications, but also customer data, accounting data, just to mention a few,” Kosmarov said. “Re-partitioning of productive systems is therefore an open heart surgery and can, if something goes wrong due to a blackout, cause the loss of important data or the loss of the productive environment.”
He said businesses would need to spend hours or even days to get their systems back on the track, jeopardizing revenue in the process.
The Professional edition includes Paragon Connect VD (Virtual Disk), Paragon’s proprietary technology for direct partitioning of virtual hard drives.
It works with all VM major formats, including VMDK, VHDX and VHD, and with the Professional edition, users are able to convert a basic Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table to a GUID partition table, while dynamic volumes can be converted to basic MBRs.
In addition, the Professional edition can create WinPE-based and Linux-based recovery media, whereas the Home edition only creates Linux-based recovery media.
Recovery Media Builder (RMB) 3.0 is now embedded directly into the product and has been enhanced with features from the company’s Boot Media Builder utility.
The bootable RMB enables users to conduct partitioning operations from bootable recovery media and restore a backup even if the PC fails to boot, such as preparing Linux or WinPE-based bootable environment on a USB thumb drive or in an ISO image.
The feature doesn’t require Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) or Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) on Windows 7 and later platforms, can build WinPE-based media on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, providing WAIK is installed, and allows injection of additional drivers for storage devices, network controllers, USB controllers, or system during setup.
It also enables the use of a network share during setup and prepares hybrid (both UEFI and BIOS compatible) 64-bit recovery environment on flash or in an ISO image.