11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
A great idea; but, beware. It's not ready for prime time.
Date of Review: Sep 11, 2004
The Bottom Line: It's worth a try; but, proceed with a lot of caution particularly if you are using XP. Definitely, not for the inexperienced user.
I recently installed WIN XP Pro (upgrade) and discovered I was running out of space on the C: drive partition. There was close to 60 GB vacant in other partitions that would be helpful in C: The problem was how to resize the partition without wiping the disk and starting over. That's where PM comes in.
Prior to purchasing PM, I too read reviews which range from "it's the best" to "oh my gawd, stay clear". That left the choice like flipping a coin. I decided to try it. The short story is their both right. The product doesn't operate quite as smooth as you would hope.
Backup your computer before installing the software. Then read the brief manual while installing the software. Read other opinions referencing their experiences with errors. Now, you are somewhat prepared for any surprises.
I like the GUI and the being able to see what is going to happen after you confirm and tell PM to do it. I resized two partitions. In my case, my drive was divided into 3 partitions c: and d: were 20GB each and e: was 40GB. I shrunk e: to 20GB and increased c: to 40GB. This meant PM had to resize e: smaller, move d: and then resize c: The system rebooted and PM proceeded to accomplish the first two tasks; then as it was resizing c: the error message 37 appeared saying PM has a problem accomplishing the last task with another message "hit any key to reboot". I did and nothing happened. After 10 minutes of looking at the blue screen, discovering a general lack of documentation, muttering expletives, and reading where Symantec's tech support was to be pay per incident or per minute; I did a hard reboot.
I was fortunate in that XP restarted and I was able to log on. I looked at PM and discovered that in fact the first two tasks had been accomplished; but that there was now 20GB on unallocated disk space next to c. I decided to tell PM to reclaim this space for c. This time it went flawlessly. I then did the other drive and converted a FAT32 to NTFS, which likewise went flawlessly. From others I read I was lucky to recover.
In my opinion, the Symantec Partition Magic has reliability issues, particularly with XP. These should have been resolved prior to releasing this version of the product. Paid telephone support to resolve problems inherent in the program is immoral.
