Enterprise Storage

The Top 10 Hard Drive Partitioning Software

Hard drive partitioning software allows users to divide physical drives into partitions for better data organization, management, and storage optimization.

The Top 10 Hard Drive Partitioning Software solutions include:
  • 1. Acronis Disk Director
  • 2. AOMEI Partition Assistant
  • 3. Apple Disk Utility
  • 4. EaseUS Partition Master Enterprise
  • 5. GNOME Disks
  • 6. Gparted
  • 7. KDE Partition Manager
  • 8. Microsoft Disk Management and Diskpart
  • 9. MiniTool Partition Wizard
  • 10. Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Business

Hard drive partitioning software enables users to create, resize, merge, and manage separate logical storage areas called “partitions” on their devices—effectively allowing the computer to function as though it has multiple different drives. Efficient partitioning can result in improved storage utilization, more effective file management, faster disk access, more efficient backups, and enhanced security by separating critical system files from user files. It also enables users to run multiple operating systems (OSs) on one device, which can be particularly useful for IT admins and developers who need to use software that’s optimized for different OSs, without the hassle of switching between different devices. 

Partitioning software is most commonly used when setting up a new drive or wanting to reorganize an existing one. As well as enabling users to create partitions, these tools often include features that enable partition resizing, formatting, migration, cloning, and hiding, with support for multiple file system types. This makes partitioning software popular amongst users looking to optimize their storage management; professionals setting up new disks or wanting to conveniently manage multiple operating systems on a single machine; and admins who need to maintain drives for peak performance, preventing data loss, and creating backups with ease.

The hard drive partitioning software market is competitive, with different providers offering varying levels of functionality, compatibility, and support for both personal and business use cases. Some partitioning software may be bundled with other comprehensive disk and system utilities, while others are offered as standalone tools. 

In this article, we’ll explore the top 10 hard drive partitioning software to help you choose the right solution for your business. We’ll highlight the key use cases and features of each solution, including compatibility with different operating systems, supported file systems, data protection capabilities, and ease of use.

Acronis logo

Acronis Disk Director 12 is a partition management software that enables users to easily modify, add, and merge partitions on both internal and external drives. The software offers a comprehensive disk and boot management system, complete with partition recovery tools and data protection features. Compatible with Windows and Linux operating systems, Acronis Disk Director 12 offers an extensive suite of disk management tools suitable for both beginners and advanced users.

The user-friendly interface of Acronis Disk Director 12 allows for various partition management tasks such as merging, splitting, moving, and resizing partitions without losing data. The software is also capable of recovering deleted or lost partitions, formatting drives with multiple file systems, and using a HEX recovery tool to scan physical sectors of disks for file recovery. Acronis Disk Director 12 is highly effective in helping users recover volumes that have been damaged, deleted, or corrupted. The wizard interface offers two recovery modes, Automatic Recovery Mode and Manual Recovery Mode, to suit the users’ needs. Additionally, the software enables efficient disk cloning, allowing data to transfer to a new disk in just minutes. However, it is important to note that Acronis Disk Director 12 can only clone basic MBR disks, and it does not support cloning of dynamic and GPT disks or single position cloning.

Acronis logo
Aomei Logo

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a comprehensive hard disk partition management tool with over 30 valuable functions designed to optimize hard drive performance. It enables organizations to save on valuable disk space with effective partitioning, and allows for repartitioning without data loss, ensuring optimal performance.

AOMEI Partition Assistant allows users to create, resize, move, split, and merge partitions securely without losing data. Additionally, it serves as a convenient data migration tool, enabling the migration of operating systems to SSD/HDD as needed, or creating exact copies of system and data disks with Disk Cloned Wizard. AOMEI Partition Assistant also functions as a complete disk converter, facilitating conversion between MBR and GPT, dynamic to basic disks, and file systems between NTFS and FAT32 without data loss. It is also compatible with the latest Windows 11 system. In addition to the core functions, AOMEI Partition Assistant offers other useful tools such as Partition Recovery, Wipe Hard Drive, Rebuild MBR, Windows to Go Creator, and Make Bootable Media. The software’s intuitive interface and step-by-step wizards simplify complex hard disk partition management operations, and its efficient performance ensures minimal downtime with most operations not requiring a system reboot.

Aomei Logo
Apple Logo

Apple Disk Utility is a utility available on macOS 10.13 and later versions, which helps manage storage devices through the Apple File System (APFS), an innovative file system designed for macOS. The utility allows users to easily add and delete volumes on storage devices, with the added advantage of automatic growth and shrinkage, eliminating the need for manual partitioning.

With Disk Utility, users can effectively manage volumes on both internal and external storage devices, create disk images for simplified file transfer or backup, and merge multiple hard disks into a RAID set for enhanced performance, reliability, and storage capacity. To ensure data security on external storage devices, Disk Utility lets users format devices as APFS and encrypt them with a password. Additionally, the software checks for errors on problematic disks and volumes through its “check-up and repair” feature, addressing any detected issues to help maintain the optimum performance of your data storage system.

Apple Logo
EaseUs Logo

EaseUS Partition Master is a disk partitioning software trusted by 60 million customers around the world, designed for various computer users including home, business, and service providers. This software offers numerous features such as flexible resizing of the C drive without rebooting, OS migration to new HDD/SSD, and bootable partition management to fix boot issues.

EaseUS Partition Master offers quick system and data transfer capabilities, secure data and disk wipe, partition recall protection, and the ability to deploy the system and software to multiple PCs simultaneously. The software can also help users through various boot issues, such as the “Blue Screen of Death” or system crashes, by allowing the creation of a bootable media to address these problems. EaseUS Partition Master also assists in resetting Windows local and domain passwords, as well as recovering data from unbootable Windows systems. Their dedicated technical support team offers 24/7 assistance to ensure that any problems are fully resolved.

EaseUs Logo
GNOME Disk Logo

Previously known as GNOME Disk Utility or palimpsest Disk Utility, GNOME Disks is a utility tool designed for managing storage devices within the GNOME desktop environment. It is a user-friendly graphical interface for the udisks command-line program and can be utilized for a range of disk-related tasks, including partition management, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, benchmarking, and software RAID (up to version 3.12).

Supporting common filesystems and encryption through LUKS, GNOME Disks allows users to partition and format disks with ease. The utility also offers the ability to inspect drive speed and health status, notifying users of any critical S.M.A.R.T. values that may indicate potential disk failure. GNOME Disks is included by default in various Linux distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Trisquel, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and CentOS. As a versatile tool for handling storage devices, GNOME Disks brings essential disk management features to users within a simple and accessible interface.

GNOME Disk Logo
Gnome Partition Editor Logo

GParted is a free, open-source partition editor designed for managing disk partitions across a variety of storage devices and platforms. The software allows users to resize, copy, and move partitions without losing data, making it easier to adjust storage capacity, create room for new operating systems, and recover data from lost partitions.

Key features of GParted include the ability to create partition tables, manage partitions by creating, moving, copying, resizing, checking, labeling, and setting new UUIDs, as well as enabling and disabling partition flags. GParted supports various storage devices such as hard drives (SATA, IDE, and SCSI), flash memory devices (USB memory sticks, SSDs, NVMe), and RAID devices. It is compatible with all sector sizes and can be utilized on x86 and x86-64 based computers running Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X through the use of GParted Live, a bootable media. A minimum of 384 MB of RAM is required to access all features offered by GParted. As a free software distributed under the GNU General Public License, GParted allows users the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, modify, and improve the software without any cost.

Gnome Partition Editor Logo
KDE Partition Editor Logo

KDE Partition Manager is a utility that assists in managing disks, partitions, and file systems on your computer. The tool enables users to efficiently create, copy, move, delete, back up, restore, and resize partitions without risking data loss. KDE Partition Manager supports a wide variety of file systems, such as ext2/3/4, btrfs, reiserfs, NTFS, FAT16/32, JFS, XFS, among others.

To operate effectively, KDE Partition Manager utilizes external tools for various file systems, often already installed on your computer. The program has a user-friendly interface, which includes a menu bar, toolbar, devices panel, graphical device view, tree device view, information panel, pending operations panel, and log output panel. Each of these components provides detailed information, customization, and convenient access to managing your computer’s partitions and file systems. Overall, KDE Partition Manager effectively caters to the needs of users looking to efficiently manage and organize their disks, partitions, and file systems.

KDE Partition Editor Logo
Microsoft logo

Microsoft Disk Management is a Windows system utility designed for advanced storage operations. Disk Management allows users to set up new drives, extend and shrink volumes, and change or assign new drive letters. It provides a clear view of each drive’s partition details, including allocated and used space, on your computer.

Diskpart, a vital component of Disk Management, is a command-line interpreter which assists in managing computer drives, such as disks, partitions, volumes, and virtual hard disks. To utilize diskpart commands, users must first list and select an object. Once the object is in focus, any diskpart commands entered will directly affect the chosen object. This built-in utility provides efficient and precise drive management, making it a valuable tool for Windows users.

Microsoft logo
MiniTool Logo

MiniTool Partition Wizard is a versatile disk partition manager designed for Windows that helps users to optimize their disk performance. It offers users the ability to create, resize, and format partitions with ease, while supporting the conversion of disks between MBR and GPT and partitions between NTFS and FAT32. Additionally, it can convert dynamic disks to basic disks without any data loss.

One of MiniTool’s key benefits is its data recovery solution. With the Partition Recovery Wizard, users can locate and recover lost partitions, and the Data Recovery feature assists in restoring lost or deleted files from damaged, formatted, or inaccessible FAT, NTFS, and exFAT drives, as well as from desktops, recycle bins, and specified folders.

The software also includes a powerful disk clone tool designed for backup and system migration purposes. This feature is useful for creating instant backups and migrating systems, allowing users to continue working on a new disk without spending hours reinstalling the operating system and applications. Lastly, MiniTool Partition Wizard is an effective disk diagnostic tool that can measure disk read/write speeds, analyze disk usage, verify file system integrity, and fix logical file system errors. It can also detect and identify bad sectors on a drive, providing users with comprehensive disk management capabilities.

MiniTool Logo
Paragon Software Logo

Paragon Hard Disk Manager is a reliable disk management and data backup solution for businesses relying on Windows environments. Offering comprehensive backup and recovery features, the software allows organizations to create, restore, and manage backups on physical and Hyper-V machines (server version only). Incremental and differential backups can be scheduled and executed automatically, while partition management tools enable optimization of HDD storage for improved data organization and access right management.

With Hard Disk Manager, users can easily clone Windows operating systems, with the platform providing fast disaster recovery or disk migration solutions as needed. Secure data deletion is available via a variety of secure sanitization options for HDDs and TRIM method for SSDs, ensuring complete and permanent removal of sensitive information. Users can also easily connect to virtual disks with Hard Disk Manager’s virtual-to-virtual (V2V) converter wizard, assisting with conversions of formats such as VMDK, VHD/VHDX, and VDI. The software also offers additional disk management utilities like creating bootable WinPE or Linux USB flash drives, detecting and fixing corrupted drive sectors, implementing AES-256 encryption for data protection, and facilitating smooth hardware transitions with its P2P adjust feature. Overall, Paragon Hard Disk Manager is a dependable tool for businesses seeking efficient backup and disk management options in a Windows environment.

Paragon Software Logo
The Top 10 Hard Drive Partitioning Software