@ Mynd Phantom

"Ultimate Boot Stick" is in my opinion much better than "Ultimate Boot CD"

This software enables AutoPlay on all devices without asking for permission or informing about the fact. I always run my Windows 7 with AutoPlay turned off for all devices, so I don't like some software coming along and change my settings unnecessarily.

Just a heads up for other security nuts like me.

@#27 Grammarman:

As you seem unable to resist going off-topic just to criticise and correct the grammar of another GAOTD member, perhaps you should check your own as well.

When you asked the question "Do you know what a period is.", you should have used a question mark at the end of the sentence and not a period. You obviously know where the question mark is on the keyboard, because you'd already used it on the previous sentence.

I took the free version of EaseUS Partition Master.
Preferable because it is installable at any time after the 24 hour time limit of GOTD offers.

Mike, thanks a lot for your comments in #38 and many earlier ones!!! Very informative and enlighting. Look forward to your further contributions and please, continue participating in this forum.
Regards
Marek

So OK I'm just a bit confused, why does the EasuES Pro version that sells reg for 39 bucks on their page say it HAS WinPE??
---------------------------------------------------------------
EaseUS® Partition Master 9.2.1 Professional Edition New Update!

Built-in WinPE bootable disk license: $39.95

Buy NowFree Download
--------------------------------------------------------------------
But after install and clicking on the WinPE box, it says you need the "paid" version for this feature.???????

say what??? I thought THIS WAS THE PAID pro version???

I had the free 9.2.1 version which yeah, has no WinPE.........

Mike@35, thanks for a very informative comment.

Have you made any changes to your server configuration lately that could cause connection problems? For the last few days, every time I've attempted to run setup and install the offered program, I've received the error message "Unable to connect. Please try again later." but trying again later always leads to the same error message.

I've made no changes to my own configuration, and I'm able to connect to any websites I wish to see and access, so I'm led to think that it may be something that changed on YOUR side of the connection.

Please let me know if there's anything you've changed that could be causing my connection problem. Thanks.

Note: My issue is connection, not files, as I have been getting the .gcd files when unzipping the main file downloaded from your site (and I have been able to download the files from your website, with no problems).

#33: "One feature this program has over GParted, Windows’ own bundled partition tool and Paragon Partition Manager is that EaseUs will copy partitions with bad sectors – which I needed to do recently."

I think you're mistaking an attribute of partition copy for something EaseUS Partition Master alone does differently...

When/if you have a bad sector(s), generally the best approach is to use the drive manufacturer's software tools to fix it, either substituting another sector [I believe most drives nowadays have spares for that], removing it from use or whatever. [You should allow extra space for that sort of thing when you initially partition an SSD.] If you use Windows drive checking tool *& have it scan for & attempt recovery of bad sectors*, any bad sectors are also recorded in the NTFS file tables. At that point you're screwed, since once that happens there's a whole lot of stuff you can no longer do to that drive/partition, even if you later use the manufacturer's tools to fix it. You have to get rid of the NTFS file tables, & that's a PITA. In my experience copying a partition re-writes those NTFS tables -- restoring a backup does not, nor does cloning the partition.

That said, the moral of the story is DO NOT USE WINDOWS TO RECOVER BAD SECTORS. **EVER**

#25: "I believe that one should use KISS solutions, particularly in regard to something as important as your running OS partition.
Many vendors, and reviewers have no qualms about encouraging you to create images from within a running Windows. I believe you should always do that from a bootable CD."

Agree with the 1st part, but wanted to comment on the 2nd FWIW...

If/when I use LiveXP or one of my WinPE setups I've had zero problems running Paragon apps I've modded for portability. However none of them runs as well as regular Windows, & all run in RAM disks reducing the memory available. Long story short a copy of XP Pro SP3 32 I've kept installed on this rig is faster when/if whatever task can be performed in Windows, e.g. doing a partition image backup -- I don't use 7 or 8 because those backup images wind up being larger(?). I don't generally like to use the software developer's CD/USB stick images as well as my own generic setups because the driver packages have been more thoroughly tested, are usually more complete & bulletproof -- I've had the stuff from the developers fail to run on some hardware, where using the generic stuff I haven't. It's not that the developers weren't as skilled, but rather when you have community driven software development & testing there's more people & hardware involved than a single source can manage.

Now as far as safety goes, with a good dose of KISS included... If you're going to do something that could compromise the data you've got stored, backup. And, once you've got that backup image, why not use it? I normally don't copy or move partitions -- I restore backups. Want to shrink or grow C: ? Delete D: [& optionally any other partitions], modify the C: partition, & restore the backup I just made of D: in the 1st available space, optionally shrinking or growing D: at the same time [also restoring any other partitions I deleted].

I don't use partitioning apps to move data. My reasoning is that if something goes wrong the 1st thing you do is restore a backup image, so why give things a chance to go wrong -- restore the backup to start with. It's both faster & less complicated anyway since data is read from one source, written to a 2nd, rather than reading & writing to the same disk, running into speed bottlenecks [the max amount of data you can read/write to a single disk per second is less than going from one disk to another disk].

I am already happy and satisfied with Aomei. It is not bloated and the size is 3.4MB only.

Every hard drive, regular or SSD, & devices that can pretend to be hard drives like USB sticks, have at least one partition -- you can add partitions so the OS [Windows, *nix etc.] sees 2 or more smaller hard drives making maintenance a bit easier [e.g. smaller drives are quicker to backup, defrag, copy etc.] & allowing more than one OS to be installed. EaseUS Partition Master is one of several apps you can use to work with partitions using a nice GUI in Windows, but regardless the software you use you can't do things like move the partition with a copy of Windows on it when that copy of Windows is running & actively using those files -- that sort of thing has to be done after you boot into a special OS. Actually it's not always the OS that's so special but where & how it's installed... Modified, *mini* versions of Windows [e.g. LiveXP], WinPE setups, & special Linux setups on a CD/DVD/USB stick are popular, but apps like Partition Master can also use a sort of mini-version of Linux installed with the app on your hard drive -- they'll have you re-boot [restart] the system & when you do it'll start that OS rather than Windows. Having this mini-OS on the hard drive can work because like 1 of the bootable CDs/DVDs, everything works in your system's memory or RAM, so once everything's read by your PC/laptop & stored in memory, the CD, DVD, or hard drive where it was stored is irrelevant, though you can still access it to for example work with partitions. More on these mini-OSes later...

The partition structure that's hidden on a hard drive works like a table of contents for all the files [& free space] that partition contains. There are utilities, sometimes built into software like partitioning apps, to rebuild, or repair, or recover that sort of TOC, but they may or may not work when you're having problems so best to backup regularly & use that sort of thing as a potential time saver that *might* work, but if it doesn't you're still OK. You'll also see & hear GPT & MBR written about & mentioned... MBR is the way partition info etc. has been stored for many years, but because it's old it's also limited in what it can do. GPT is the newer way of storing that data, taking more modern hardware into account. Best practice is when you have a new hard drive [or SSD] in your hands, decide then whether it'll be MBR or GPT, & set it up [format] it that way from the start -- it is possible to convert MBR to GPT & vice versa [it's built into many partitioning apps], but at the very least it's another chance for something to go wrong. You'll find some info here & of course there's Google: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record -- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg463525.aspx -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

Now, why or why not EaseUS Partition Master... It's a good app that I keep installed but frankly, if you're partitioning a new drive you likely won't see a difference in the results whether you use Partition Master or Windows or GParted or Paragon or any of the popular partitioning apps. If you want to write a plain text file you can use Notepad or Word & get the same results, but Word lets you do a lot more -- likewise these partitioning apps compete based on the extra features they include, their relative ease of use etc. A lot of what they do is stuff you can do elsewhere using other tools that might perform the same task better. Some partitioning apps do have some more advanced features [e.g. see TK's comment about Linux (# 21 as I write this)], but that only matters if you need & actively use those features... the average user will likely never partition a drive unless it's during a Windows install, using that install process to do it for them. Likewise if someone sets up a separate partition for their image, video, or MP3 collection, once it's done it's done, & they may not remember a year later that they even have a partitioning app. If you're a GOTD regular you've had a chance to grab Paragon's & EaseUS' apps -- they're both good software & if you have the space get both... I've found that they're just different enough that sometimes only one (or the other) will do what I want.

EaseUS Partition Master does use files it installs to Windows' system folder. That means that if you keep & run an older copy of Partition Master while adding a newer version, it'll use the newer version of those system files. That may or may not work, but if you want to try simply keep a copy of the old version & put it back once the new copy's installed [I just add the existing program's folder to a new 7z file, then extract it afterward]. That also makes Partition Master generally unsuitable as a portable app as-is, which matters if/when you want to use it after booting to a generic WinPE-type disc, e.g. Live XP or one of the Many possible WinPE setups, though it'll likely still work if you can & want to run the app's setup program once you've booted off that disc or USB device. And if you set up your own generic WinPE-type disc &/or USB device you can include Partition Master as well -- that used to be the more-or-less official way to do it before EaseUS came out with their own WinPE disc/ISO.

OK, so you see WinPE in the comments, I talk about WinPE-type environments, EaseUS includes a WinPE disc/ISO if you buy their product, when I Google on WinPE I get just over 3 mill. hits -- cut through all the BS, what is WinPE & what does it do? Oversimplified, WinPE [*as it's very often talked about*] is actually 2 things -- it's a bootable mini-Windows environment plus it's a way to optionally customize, install & distribute Windows. As the latter, an IT dept. can create & maintain [add hotfixes etc. to] a custom WIM [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Imaging_Format ] that they use for adding Windows to new PCs/laptops. That part, & the software tools used, mean there's a lot of info, confusion, & a huge download from Microsoft. As a bootable mini-Windows environment, WinPE can be just that, a small version of Windows that can do most things your regular, installed version can, complete with its own desktop etc. Or, as is most often the case when a company distributes their own WinPE discs with whatever program, WinPE can be the underlying structure for a version of that app -- in a nutshell it replaces the mini *nix that a similar version of that app would run on or in... boot to the *nix version, you might get a menu & can run the app, exit, restart the system etc., & a WinPE version is usually little or no different, except they don't have to port their code to *nix. If/when the WinPE version is better, has more features, I don't feel it's because Windows is technically superior to Linux, but rather the developer didn't include those same features in the Linux version of their app -- maybe they couldn't, but just as likely [maybe more so?] they didn't want to spend the time, effort, &/or money.

[Note: WinPE is part of the Windows AIK [or Automated Installation Kit], and just one [smaller] facet of the whole tech package. When I just said that WinPE is 2 things that's not technically accurate, but you'll see an awful lot said about the AIK without the AIK or any associated tools, docs, methods etc. ever being mentioned.]

The easiest way to get generic WinPE is to research the different tools & packages folks have come up with, particularly at or in communities like reboot.pro. Many do not require you download & install the complete AIK. Many come with everything but your licensed copy of Windows that you'll use. Many let you do a bit of customization, & most are a bit difficult to understand when it comes to the more tech aspects, so unless you really want to, don't wander off into the weeds trying -- just follow the directions & you'll most likely be fine. After all, few understand how Windows works, or their car, or their microwave oven, but that never prevents anyone from using them. Put your blinders on so-to-speak, check out the features for a project, find the directions & downloads, follow the directions, test. What I call a generic WinPE has a desktop, Start Menu, a bunch of included utilities, runs portable apps [including VirtualBox using its (unofficial) portable launcher], can be 32 or 64 bit [I create both], can be combined with other generic WinPE setups on the same disc or USB device [choose the WinPE from a boot menu], has drivers for most common hardware and so on.

No boot CD/DVD is a deal breaker..

One feature this program has over GParted, Windows' own bundled partition tool and Paragon Partition Manager is that EaseUs will copy partitions with bad sectors - which I needed to do recently.

I still had to use GParted afterwards since EaseUS (the free version from only 1 month ago) does not do alignment when copying to an SSD.

#24 - They probably don't bother anymore since you can just download GParted Live and burn that to a CD.

#25,#30 - This tool, and Paragon's Partition manager require a reboot before (most) actual partition operations and then perform the operation from their own booted environment. It's up to you which GUI you prefer to work in but the actual partitioning from either a bootable CD or from a windows application like EaseUS is no different in terms of unmounted disk safety since they all come with their own core booting component in which the work is done without any other OS getting in the way.

I used 4 of these tools over xmas to do several migrations and found the Windows own partition tool to be fine for obvious tasks, but lacking for any tricky operations; GParted was the only tool that would reliably align for SSDs; Partition Manager (an old version) lacked loads of features since they wanted you to buy their other products that fill these gaps; and EaseUS was the only tool that worked with bad sectors, but annoyingly didn't perform alignment.

# 29 BearPup

Ok...just use PARTED MAGIC or Partition Wizard....what's the problem in doing that?

Here is another nice free tool for windows / linux based systems that I did not see listed.

Ultimate Boot CD

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html

<a href="http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html" title="Ultimate Boot CD"

No bootable media? No thanks!

I must disagree with most respected reviwer Giovanni - Aoamei Partition Manager caused my laptop to crash during a "simple" partition realignment, requiring the complete reinstallation of windows 7 & 71 programs. Hopefully, this program will have better results.

Not sure what the big deal about these partition your HD in Windows 7 and 8 in like 20 seconds or less. I did it and removed my HP restore partition and the added to my current partition is like 20 seconds. It's so simple.

As stated above>>
>>Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools\computer management then disk management

Now if you are using Windows Vista or Windows XP maybe it's the Bomb...

at #13 Shaine. Wow. Reading your comment gave me a headache. Have you ever heard of a CAPITAL letter? Do you know what a period is. It's the little dot just over from the right shift key. Stop texting and try doing it the right way. It will be easier for people to figure out what you're going on about.

@TK, thanks for the link to ShadowExplorer, v. handy.

As this doesn't have the Linux disk, I'll pass (I got the previous GOTD version that did). It's possible they didn't include it this time because people kept complaining about the size of the download for such a 'simple' utility - they never understood that the size was due to the Linux boot disc image. So maybe the complaining has backfired.

I believe that one should use KISS solutions, particularly in regard to something as important as your running OS partition.
Many vendors, and reviewers have no qualms about encouraging you to create images from within a running Windows. I believe you should always do that from a bootable CD.

Similarly vendors and reviewers have no qualms about encouraging you to do partitioning tasks from within a running Windows. If you have multiple partitions om one drive, there are some tasks that are probably safe to do, AND SOME THAT ARE NOT. Thus, once again I believe that the safest option is to do the tasks from a bootable CD.
If the above comments (posts) are correct, AND THERE IS NO BOOTABLE CD option, then I would suggest that you give this offering a miss.

Further to my previous comment.
This version IS A STEP backwards after all. Although I was correct about the WinPe bootable disc not being available in the previous version, a Linux bootable disc was included. This version DOES NOT include a bootable Linux Disc.
Shame on GOTD and Easus for not pointing this out.

Is the program will be in Polish?

Does this EaseUS version fix an alignment problem on an SSD or a hybrid HD+SSD? I think the recent Aomei does (?), but does this EaseUS?

Comments #5 & 6

I also have version 9.1.1 from the previous offer, but beg to differ on this offer being a "backward" step. If you go to "tools", "Create WinPe bootable disc" the button opens this link
http://www.partition-tool.com/landing/epm-pro-upgrade.htm
It does NOT create a WinPe bootable disc.

As this upgrade only seems to add compatibility for Windows 8 I do not have any reasons to upgrade as I am using Win XP in a RAID 1 configuration and this tool has helped me out quite a few times with it's easy to follow interface.

TYPO
I meant KNOWN - not none.

Does the Partition Recovery Wizard in this product work on GPT disks without loss of the data which is KNOWN to exist because RAW data recovery tools can retrieve the data ?

I already have a Partition Manager that works on both MBR and GPT disks,
but its Partition Recovery Wizard only works on MBR disks but not GPT disks.

Does the Partition Recovery Wizard in this product work on GPT disks without loss of the data which is none to exist ?

NB My problem HDD holds data and a Linux Boot crash changed the Disk Signature from GPT to MBR and Windows now sees two partitions as RAW and one as Unallocated.

"EaseUS Partition Master Professional Edition is an ALL-IN-ONE partition solution and disk management utility. It allows you to extend partition, especially for system drive, settle low disk space problem, manage disk space easily on MBR and GUID partition table (GPT) disk under 32 bit and 64 bit Windows 2000/ XP/ Vista/ Windows 7 SP1/ Windows 8."

Humm, Windows 2000 only exist in 32-bit OS...not in 64-bit as stated in the info.

@shaine
That would be to make the registration process easier, as well as catering to those who whinge about having to provide an email address for product registration.

I switched from Partition Magic 8.0 to EaseUS Partition Master the last time this was offered ... Oh, yes!
A much better/easier/smoother experience in using Partition Master.
Easy loading, easy interface, nothing bad to say about this one, grab it!

After building a system installing win 7 64 bit and getting everything just the way I wanted I made a copy of the boot disc using Easus and when I had a glitch with drive simply swapped drives and carried on working till Id time to resolve the minor issue.
Having done that I cloned it again to an SSD which has since worked faultlessly.
Well worth installing the programme.its simple to use and does the job efficiently

just one question why is it that any time i download from giveaway of the day and install what ever it is that is given away that day is it registered to you and not me if it is a giveaway then there should be no ties to you when register it should simply be to me not you i do not want software registered to someone else on my system !

As almost any other Easeus product, this GAOTD is an excellent software which does what it claims without any hassle.

However, when compared to the FREE version, the only difference I can see is the ability to resize dynamic disk partitions, since this GAOTD does NOT support the creation of Linux-based and even WinPE-based bootable CD, which is a BIG CONS for me.

So if you don't have dynamic disk partitions in your HD, you can skip this GAOTD and grab the FREE version instead, unless you are eager to upgrade to the WinPE edition at a 20% discount.

But why pay money if you can get a HD partition manager with a bootable CD/DVD and even a bootable USB version for FREE (see below for more details)???


BEST FREE ALTERNATIVES

* Parted Magic (==> My Personal First Choice)
GParted + Partimage + TestDisk + Truecrypt + Clonezilla + G4L + SuperGrubDisk + ddrescue etc... ==> FREE!!

Key Features:

Format internal and external hard drives
Move, copy, create, delete, expand & shrink hard drive partitions
Clone your hard drive, to create a full backup
Test hard drives for impending failure
Test memory for bad sectors
Benchmark your computer for a performance rating
Securely erase your entire hard drive, wiping it clean from all data
Gives access to non-booting systems allowing you to rescue important data

http://partedmagic.com/doku.php

Tutorial GParted:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/help.php

It runs from a CD, so no install required; however, if you wish to, you can also create a bootable Live (Linux-based) USB drive for it, thus without burning any CD, using the excellent freeware "UNetbootin":

http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=creating_the_liveusb

* Partition Wizard
http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

Screenshots:
http://www.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/Partition-Wizard-Home-Edition-Screenshot-133833.html

As far as I know this is the only FREEWARE providing you with a Bootable CD/DVD & Bootable Version even for 64 bit OS: just burn the ISO file (see link below) onto a CD using any CD/DVD Burner software (ImgBurn for instance)
http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html

Short Tutorial:
http://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html

* Paragon Partition Manager 12 FREE Edition
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-express

Screenshots:
http://www.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/Paragon-Partition-Manager-Express-Screenshot-113767.html

* Aomei Partition Assistant Home Edition
http://www.extend-partition.com/free-partition-manager.html

That being said, it’s worth noticing that WINDOWS already includes its own partition manager, so in theory, for basic HD partitions tasks, there wouldn’t be any need to download any third-party partition manager software like the one offered here today, unless you want to use some of the advanced features provided by tools like this!!

http://www.howtogeek.com/101862/how-to-manage-partitions-on-windows-without-downloading-any-other-software

Enjoy!!

Thanks for the offer, but No Thanks. Reasons: No WinPE or Linux boot support. This version would be a downgrade from my current version on those two items.
"If it ain't broke... "

I used the previous offering of this program to migrate both of my computers to SSDs. I needed a way to migrate not only the existing operating system and installed programs but also the recovery partition (as is usually the case with most major computer manufacturers).

With this I was able to create a linux boot CD and use the partition tool to "copy" each partition to the new SSD drives. Worked like a charm and saved me tons of time in reinstalls alone, not to mention all of the software I would have lost in a complete reinstall.

Micro$oft’s licensing policy no longer allows software vendors to provide WinPE media to their customers directly. You have to go to Micro$oft’s site and looking for it yourself.

I tried to use previous EPM 9.1.0 Pro to migrate XP SP3 from 250GB to 1TB without bootable CD.
Without CD the program restarts OS in special mode and copies original HD in use to new blank HD.
EPM failed - just frozen in the middle of the process. I re-tried several times.
I tried some more programs and only Paragon Drive Copy did it.
At least Easeus PM is not the perfect for every case they claimed. Better to have something additional for black day.

This is my default program for partition resizing. It's pretty easy to use and has a nice user interface. Never had a problem with it. I can recommend it.

You have to uninstall version 9.0.0 (which includes WinPE as well as Linux boot disks) to install this.

This is a slight update to what is an excellent program, only missing out on some of the (minor) features included with the recent AOMEI Partition Assistant (For which there is a cheap lifetime upgrade offer until Feb 28th). And if you miss both, the free version of MiniTool Partition Wizard will cope with most of what you might throw at it.

Please read the above very carefully. Especially this line...

Limitations: GOTD version doesn’t include the WinPE Bootable CD, but you can upgrade to the WinPE edition at a 20% discount.

I have version 9.1.1 from an earlier giveaway and it does have this feature included. This "upgrade" is definitely a step backwards. What happened? I hope the publisher will explain. Either way, thank you to the GOTD team for all of the great work you do for us.

I've got a slightly earlier version of this software. It's excellent...does exactly what it promises to do in a user-friendly way. If you're Joe Average User, this program will sit on your system doing nothing most of the time...until you absolutely MUST have it, then it's priceless.

Highly recommended.

I cannot believe this software is running again here.

You can partition your HDD in windows 7 very easily.

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools\computer management then disk management

You can shrink, resize and merge very easily.

Pros
*Straightforward and fairly easy to use
*Has the typical partition management tools (resize, format, delete, merge, etc.)
*In addition to typical, has some advanced features too (error checking, copying drive, etc.)
*Has an interesting ‘upgrade disk’ feature
*Supports Windows and Linux filesystems (FAT, FAT32, NTFS, EXT2/EXT3)
*Supports internal and external hard drives/devices, USB devices, memory cards, etc.
*Supports hardware RAID
*Supports MBR (up to 2TB) and GPT (up to 4TB) disks
*Supports UEFI/EFI boot
*Users can create Linux-based or WinPE-based bootable CD/DVD/USB (GOTD version only comes with Linux-based)
*Users can password protect the program
*Has an always-free version

Cons
*Has ads built into the program for other EaseUS products
*No support for Mac filesystems or EXT4 Linux filesystem
*The defrag feature does not allow the user to view any sort of “analysis” before conducting the actual defrag
*Users can only defrag single partitions at a time

Free Alternatives
Review of Best Free Partition Manager for Windows

Final Verdict
Click here for final verdict and full review

Thanx GAOTD, nice offer!!
This is what i'm looking for..