Enterprise Storage

The Top 9 Hard Drive Partitioning Software

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

Last updated on Aug 30, 2024

Written by Caitlin Harris

Technical review by Laura Iannini

The Top 9 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. KDE Partition Manager
7. Microsoft Disk Management and Diskpart
8. MiniTool Partition Wizard
9. 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 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 Disk Director

Acronis Disk Director is a robust disk management solution that is designed to simplify disk cloning, volume recovery, and partition management for both home and business use.

How it works: The platform is built around a user-friendly interface, allowing users to manage storage, partitioning, and recovery tasks.

Who it’s for: Acronis Disk Director is best suited for IT managers and businesses needing a reliable disk management solution, as well as those looking for extensive capabilities.

What we like: The platform delivers a comprehensive feature set, via an intuitive user interface which is accessible for a broad range of users with varying technical abilities.

The solution allows you to create single volumes from unused space across multiple disks, up to a maximum of 32, enhancing storage efficiency
You can manage partitions effectively, being able to resize, move, copy, split, and merge partitions without data loss.
Any lost or accidentally deleted volumes on basic MBR disks can be recovered, providing essential data protection. It uses a HEX recovery tool to scan physical sectors of disks for file recover.

The bottom line: Acronis Disk Director is a fully featured, yet user friendly disk management solution, delivering effective partition management in addition to data protection capabilities.

Acronis International GmbH, headquartered in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, serves millions of users worldwide with its comprehensive data protection solutions.

AOMEI Partition Assistant

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a comprehensive hard disk partition management tool the enables organizations to save disk space and optimize performance.

Who it’s for: AOMEI offer a range of tools, optimized for a range of users from individuals and home users, right up to enterprises and MSPs.

What we like: 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.

The bottom line: AOMEI Partition Assistant delivers an intuitive interface and step-by-step wizard to simplify complex disk partition management. Its implementation results in minimal downtime.

Founded in 2010, AOMEI is Hong Kong-based technology company that’s focused on partitioning as well as backup and recovery solutions.

Apple Disk Utility

Apple Disk Utility is a native component of macOS, allowing users more control over how to manage their storage. The tool offers a wealth of features that enhance utility and streamline resources.

Who it’s for: The tool is designed for use on macOS devices, operating versions 10.13 and later.

What we like: Apple’s solution allows users to easily add and delete volume on storage devices, with the advantage of automatic growth and shrinkage, eliminating the need for manual partitioning.

Users are able to effectively manage 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
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.

The bottom line: Apple Disk Utility is a straightforward and effective storage management solution. It delivers a wealth of integrated features, ideal for Mac users.

Apple one of the largest companies in the world, has a long history of developing innovative hardware and corresponding software to get the most out of the technology.

EaseUS Partition Master Enterprise

EaseUS Partition Master Enterprise is a disk partition management tool designed for businesses and service providers to optimize disk partitions and ensure data security without causing PC or server downtime.

Who it’s for: Ideal for enterprises managing large networks of PCs and servers, and service providers seeking to deliver technical services to clients.

What we like: EaseUS’s solution helps you to manage disk partitions effectively and securely.

EaseUS offers a portable version for flexibility, allowing you to manage disk partitions on any PC without downloads
Fully erase sensitive data to ensure that it remains unrecoverable before disposing of disk drives.
Also allows you to create a bootable version for disk management tasks when the PC cannot boot and OS migration to new HDD/SSD
Dedicated technical support team offers 24/7 assistance to ensure that any problems are fully resolved

The bottom line: EaseUS Partition Master Enterprise is a comprehensive and effective solution for managing disk storage, as well as resolving booting issues. The tool’s ability to wipe disks before disposal is particularly useful.

EaseUS Software, headquartered in Chengdu, China, serves thousands of corporate clients globally.

GNOME Disks

GNOME Disks is a utility tool for managing storage devices within the GNOME desktop environment. It allows users to inspect, format, partition, and configure disks and block devices.

Who it’s for: GNOME Disks is ideal for IT managers and system administrators working within the Linux environment who need a reliable tool for comprehensive disk management.

What we like: GNOME Disks offers a user-friendly interface and comprehensive disk management features. It is especially beneficial for those using Linux distributions.

GNOME enables easy creation, deletion, and resizing of disks, as well as supporting common filesystems and encryption through LUKS
SMART monitoring provides real-time health status to give you full visibility. Users are also able to evaluate disk speed and efficiency through benchmarking.

The bottom line: GNOME is a useful and effective disk partitioning tool that allows IT managers and system admins to manage disk partitioning.

GNOME is headquartered in the United States. GNOME Disks is widely used in many popular Linux distributions including Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora.

KDE Partition Manager

KDE Partition Manager assists with managing disks, partitions, and file systems on a computer. It supports creating, copying, moving, deleting, backing up, restoring, and resizing partitions without data loss.

Who it’s for: This solution is best suited for IT managers and system administrators who need a reliable tool for advanced disk partitioning and file system management.

What we like: KDE Partition Manager offers extensive file system support and is free software under the GNU General Public License.

It offers wide file system support, including ext2/3/4, btrfs, reiserfs, NTFS, FAT16/32, JFS, and XFS, providing flexibility for different storage needs
The solution simplifies complex disk operations (such as system restore), whilst ensuring that data is not lost, enhancing reliability.

The bottom line: KDE Partition Manager is an effective solution for partition management. We would recommend it for smaller businesses or individuals who want to enhance management of their data storage.

KDE Partition Manager is developed by the KDE Community and is continually maintained, with its original author being Volker Lanz and later by Andrius Štikonas.

Microsoft Disk Management and Diskpart

Microsoft Disk Management and DiskPart is a command-line disk partitioning utility available in Microsoft Windows. It allows users to create, delete, format, and resize partitions, manage disks and volumes, and assign drive letters.

Who it’s for: This tool is ideal for IT professionals, system administrators, and advanced Windows users requiring robust disk and partition management functionalities.

What we like: DiskPart offers powerful command-line capabilities for precise and flexible disk management. It supports automation and scripting, helping IT professionals streamline repetitive tasks.

The solution offers automation support, facilitating the scripting of disk management operations, providing efficiency in repetitive tasks.
Users are given granular control over creation, deletion, formatting, and resizing of partitions.
The command line interface makes it ideal for users and IT professionals who like to manage disks without a graphical user interface

The bottom line: Microsoft’s disk management capabilities are as effective and streamlined as you’d expect from the tech giant. The tool gives you everything that you need to effectively carry out disk management right from the command line.

Microsoft Corporation is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, and serves millions of customers worldwide with their Windows operating system.

MiniTool Partition Wizard

MiniTool Partition Wizard is a versatile disk partition manager for Windows, designed to optimize disk performance through functions such as creating, resizing, and formatting partitions, along with disk and partition conversions.

Who it’s for: Ideal for home users, IT managers, and server administrators who need reliable disk management, data protection, and performance optimization tools.

What we like: MiniTool stands out for its comprehensive data recovery solutions and powerful disk clone capabilities. The intuitive interface makes complex disk management tasks straightforward.

The platform can create, resize, and format partitions with ease, and convert disks between MBR and GPT or partitions between NTFS and FAT32
It can also recover lost partitions, as well as lost or deleted files from damaged, formatted, or inaccessible drives and folders
MiniTool measures disk read/write speeds, analyzes disk usage, verifies file system integrity, and detects bad sectors.

The bottom line: MiniTool Partition Wizard is a versatile and straightforward partition manager, designed for Windows. It allows for prompt backups and system migrations without reinstalling the operating system or applications.

MiniTool is headquartered in Canada and serves a global customer base.

Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Business

Paragon Hard Disk Manager For Business is a comprehensive backup and disk management solution that supports both physical and Hyper-V machines.

Who it’s for: Ideal for businesses of various sizes looking to enhance data organization, backup, and recovery capabilities in their IT infrastructure.

What we like: Paragon delivers extensive partitioning capabilities and robust disaster recovery options.

This solution can facilitate the creation of full, incremental, and differential backups to be carried out periodically.
It provides multiple secure algorithms to ensure that data is completely erased when technology is being decommissioned.

The bottom line: Paragon is an effective tool for optimizing disk activities. It allows you to create, merge, and split partitions with ease, helping to use disks efficiently.

Paragon Software Group is headquartered in Germany, serving customers worldwide.

The Top 9 Hard Drive Partitioning Software

Everything You Need To Know About Hard Drive Partitioning Software (FAQs)

What Is Hard Drive Partitioning Software?

Most computers only have one hard drive (the “C:” drive) containing the operating system and all the user’s data. However, sometimes you may need your computer to function as though it has multiple different drives. Hard drive partitioning software, also known as hard disk partitioning or disk slicing software, makes this possible.

Hard drive partitioning software enables users to split the storage capacity of their hard drive into multiple logical storage areas called “partitions”, which function as multiple disks. It also allows users to resize, delete, merge, or otherwise alter their partitions. Once created, each partition has its own name (e.g., “D:” or “E:”, etc.) and folder structure, and can be formatted with different file systems without impacting the other partitions.

The disk stores information about each partition’s location and size in an area called a partition table, which is the first part of the disk that the operating system (OS) reads. The OS reads each partition as a distinct logical disk. Because of this, once sliced, partitions can be managed separately, allowing the computer’s hard drive to operate as multiple smaller drives.

How Does Hard Drive Partitioning Software Work?

There are two main types of hard drive partitioning software: cloud-based and web-based. Cloud-based partitioning software is built on servers hosted on the internet and requires users to install a software application. It provides users with remote access to their hard drives and enables them to remotely manage their partitions from anywhere, as long as they have an internet connection. Web-based partitioning software operates through web browsers; users can partition their hard drives directly through the provider’s website, without having to install any software.

Both types of hard drive partitioning software work in a similar way:

The user creates a partition, which is formatted with a file system. This is likely to be NTFS for Windows drives, FAT32 and exFAT for removable drives, HFS+ on Mac drives, and ext4 on Linux drives.
The user writes data onto the file system on the partition.
When the user boots the OS in their computer, the first sector on the hard disk is given control. In this sector, a program reads the boot sector for the OS and gives it control so that the rest of the OS can be loaded into random access memory (RAM)—the computer’s temporary storage component. Once loaded into RAM, the user can access that OS and all the data in that partition as normal.

What Are The Benefits Of Hard Drive Partitioning?

There are a few reasons why an organization may want to partition their users’ hard drives:

Improved File Management. When you partition your hard drive, you can store different types of data in different partitions—e.g., you could have different partitions for your OS and apps, your documents, photos, videos, and even a partition where you store all your backups. This can make it easier to search for specific files.
More Efficient Backup. An improved file management system will make it easier to backup your important data. By keeping your operating system and apps on a separate partition to your data, your backup service will be able to create copies of your data without having to copy the system and apps (which, in the event of loss or corruption, you can re-install or re-download). This makes the process of backing up your data much quicker, and it’ll result in using less disk space for backups.
Improved Data Protection. Partitions make it possible for you to store operating system files separately to personal data. This means that if your operating system were to fail, your data would stay secure. Additionally, because you can manage each partition separately, you could place security protocols such as encryption or additional firewalls on partitions containing sensitive data, to help protect them against cyber threats such as malware and unauthorized access.
Use Of Multiple Operating Systems. When you partition your hard drive, you can install different operating systems in each partition, allowing you to run multiple OSs on one device without them interfering with one another. Then— using dual- or multi-boot—you can select which OS to boot. This is particularly useful for IT admins and developers who may want to work with certain software that’s optimized for different operating systems, without having to switch between multiple devices.

Caitlin Harris

Deputy Head Of Content

Caitlin Harris is Deputy Head of Content at Expert Insights. Caitlin is an experienced writer and journalist, with years of experience producing award-winning technical training materials and journalistic content. Caitlin holds a First Class BA in English Literature and German, and provides our content team with strategic editorial guidance as well as carrying out detailed research to create articles that are accurate, engaging and relevant. Caitlin co-hosts the Expert Insights Podcast, where she interviews world-leading B2B tech experts.

Laura Iannini

Cybersecurity Analyst

Laura Iannini is an Information Security Engineer. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity from the University of West Florida. Laura has experience with a variety of cybersecurity platforms and leads technical reviews of leading solutions. She conducts thorough product tests to ensure that Expert Insights’ reviews are definitive and insightful.