Partition Magic 5.0

The job of partitioning is made simple enough that it's sure to drive some computer techs out of business; with the simple point-and-click wizards and well-written online hints, those who know enough to want to partition can do it themselves. The preview feature is excellent, permitting you to examine the changes you're ordering before you make them permanent. This should eliminate the boneheaded mistakes that tired or stressed-out users inevitably make--and that are so devastating in low-level operations like these.

One important caveat: Partition Magic 5.0 won't work on every system. Since you're monkeying with some of the deepest elements of your machine, some configurations will return errors or simply not allow installation. This is unpredictable, but PowerQuest is constantly working on patches and upgrades (such as the promised Windows 2000 version).

On most systems, though, the software is a thing of beauty--you can cut big, fat 32-GB drives down to size; create, resize, and merge partitions on the fly; easily move applications between partitions; and convert between file systems without losing data. Whether you want to add a new OS or just maximize your hard drive space, Partition Magic 5.0 is the safest, easiest answer to your breakup problems. --Rob Lightner