12 Top Free Disk Partition Management Tools - 56juqingba: How-to instructions you can trust

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You don’t need to pay a thing to resize and delete partitions thanks to free disk partition management tools. While they might be missing a few bells or whistles, free tools do an amazing job of giving you more control over your hard drive. Whether you want to make more room on an existing partition or create a new one for an extra operating system, you’ll find the perfect tool for the job right here.

Tip: Learn how to keep your hard disk healthy and prolong its life cycle.

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What Are Disk Partition Management Tools?

A hard drive is usually just one vast space. But, what if you want to divide that space to better organize your Windows hard drive? You can turn that one giant partition into multiple partitions. Use them for separating work and personal files, installing other operating systems, or even creating a built-in recovery partition like Windows does by default.

Disk partition management tools let you handle a variety of tasks, such as:

Resize partitions
Merge partitions
Delete partitions
Create new partitions
Rename partitions
Format partitions
Convert file system formats, such as NTFS and FAT

The exact features you get for free vary based on the tool. But, all the freebies do offer at least basic management features. Some offer more advanced tools, but you don’t need the most sophisticated tools just for basic resizing, creating, and deleting partitions.

1. EaseUS Partition Master Free

Price: Free / $19.95 per month

EaseUS Partition Master Free is a surprisingly beginner-friendly disk management tool. It also offers quite a few features for free, though the site’s description of what’s free differs a little from what’s actually free in practice. This seems to change sometimes between updates. Thanks to the well-designed UI, though, basic disk management becomes something anyone can do.

Pros

Creates, resizes, deletes, hides/unhides partitions
Offers Logical to Primary and Basic to Dynamic conversions
Can clone and format partitions
Available for Windows 7 and later

Cons

No partition recovery in free version
Transferring files to a new PC is only available in Pro
Only for individual use, no commercial/business use

2. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

Price: Free / starting at $59 annually

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free isn’t nearly as feature-rich as EaseUS’s free tool. Most of your disk type conversions, data recovery, and partition recovery are only available in the Pro versions. It’d be nice if you could select an action to see more details before it automatically starts. Many of the tools you’d likely use most often are within the top menus versus the quick access bar on the left. However, it does work well.

Pros

Makes partition resizing quick and simple
Convert FAT to NTFS
Offers file system checking
Available for Windows Vista and later

Cons

Most tools/features are Pro only
Might not be as beginner friendly

Tip: Windows has detected a hard disk problem? Here’s how to troubleshoot it.

3. IM-Magic Partition Resizer

Price: Free / $59

IM-Magic Partition Resizer is one of the more straightforward disk partition management tools. It covers all the basics, such as resizing, moving, and wiping. The interface couldn’t be easier to use. The directions are at the bottom and all you have to do is right-click, choose a function, see how the results will look, and then apply it. While the Pro version lets you go back, it’s nice that you can see how things should look in the free version before proceeding. Tutorials are also available on the site and within the tool itself.

Pros

Resizes, wipes, deletes, and moves partitions
Converts FAT to NTFS
Works with Windows XP and later
Options are easy to access

Cons

Rollback protection, bootable media, and drives over 16TB are only available in Pro
No support for servers unless you upgrade to Resizer Server for $139

4. Windows Disk Management

Price: Free

If you’d prefer not to download anything, just use the built-in Windows Disk Management tool. It’s completely free and does let you shrink, merge, and extend partitions. The modern version of the tool was added to Windows 7 and later and is often a common Windows troubleshooting tool and works great for formatting USB drives. It’s super simple to use and doesn’t require third-party apps. Just search for “disk management” from the Start menu to get started.

Pros

Resizes, merges, extends, and formats partitions
Lets you access other disk partition management tools like checking the file system for errors
Included with Windows

Cons

Not as many features as some pro tools so may feel too basic for some users

5. AOMEI Partition Assistant SE

Price: Free / starting at $39.95 annually

AOMEI Partition Assistant SE is one of the top disk partition management tools for all basic tasks. Thanks to features being accessible from a sidebar or a right-click menu, it’s always easy to find what you need. It’s nice that the tool goes beyond just resizing and checking disk health and offers an option to optimize PC performance too. Of course, the more advanced goodies are for premium users only.

Pros

Resizes, deletes, merges, moves, formats, and clones partitions
Convert from FAT to NTFS and MBR to GPT
Offers command line partitioning
Works with Windows 7 and later

Cons

OS migration and full system clone only in pro versions
Disk recovery is not available in free version

6. Paragon Partition Manager

Price: Free / starting at $79.95

Paragon Partition Manager is a more basic disk partition management tool that makes you pay for features other tools offer for free. What makes it stand out is that free and premium features are much easier to identify than in most similar tools. The best part, though, is you can perform an action and see how it’ll affect your system before proceeding. Having that extra step also helps prevent accidental changes.

Pros

Resizes, formats, checks, and deletes partitions
Works with Windows 7 and later
Converts between MBR and GPT

Cons

Merge and split are only available in premium editions
No backup or migration options in free version

Good to know: Learn how to defrag your Windows hard drive and improve its performance.

7. Macrorit Partition Expert Free Edition

Price: Free / starting at $39.99

Macrorit Partition Expert Free Edition offers two things you won’t get in most free editions – cancel any action at will without any data loss and ultra-fast partitioning without any data corruption or loss. Something else we like is the portable installation, which means you don’t actually need to install anything and it’s easy to take with you to use on other machines. It runs faster than most other options on this list with the same results.

Pros

Converts between FAT and NTFS
Converts between GPT and MBR
Resizes, merges, formats, extends, and more
Offers an option to cancel at will and power off tech to avoid data loss

Cons

OS migration and one-second rollback only available in premium edition
Server support only in Server edition

8. Acronis Disk Director

Price: Free 30-day trial / starting at $49.99

Acronis Disk Director doesn’t offer a full free version like other disk partition management tools on this list. However, you can try all features without a credit card on drives up to 10GB, so it’s a good option for small drives. The interface is easy to navigate, and you see changes before fully committing. What we love about it is that you can rollback changes and even recover drives. If you’re new to disk partitioning and want to practice on a smaller removable drive, this could be a good tool. Or if you just want to test drive a full premium option before buying, it’s well worth it.

Pros

Free trial/demo gives you access to every single feature
Formats, resizes, converts, clones, and creates partitions
Supports almost every file system
Works on Windows XP and later
Offers volume recovery

Con

Free option is limited to 10GB drives, no exceptions

9. Gparted

Price: Free

While most of the tools on this list are only available for Windows devices, Gparted works on Windows, Linux, and macOS. This is a bootable tool, which means you have to create a bootable USB drive or Live CD/DVD to use it. However, don’t let that deter you. It’s a powerful little service that can often work when other tools fail. Plus, if you’re using an older PC, it works with as little as 320MB of RAM. The interface looks a bit dated, but otherwise, it gets the job done without any hassle.

Pros

Completely free – no premium version available
Resizes, moves, deletes, creates, labels, and copies partitions
Ample tutorials, including a step-by-step guide on creating a Live CD

Cons

A bootable media is required to use on Windows and Mac, but you can install it directly on some Linux distros

Tip: Did you know you can repurpose your Xbox one external hardware for use with a PC? We show you how to do so.

10. NIUBI Partition Editor Free Edition

Price: Free / starts at $39

NIUBI Partition Editor Free Edition takes the worry out of editing partitions. The stand-out feature in our opinion is the cancel-at-will tech. Change your mind suddenly? Stop the operation before it completes and everything goes back to normal. It works quickly and it’s easy to access all features from the sidebar or the menu. It’s also nice that the online manual is accessible using a large menu icon. So, if you need a little help, it’s right there.

Pros

Resizes, moves, deletes, creates, and merges partitions
Makes changes without losing data
Clones and copies partitions
Converts from MBR to GPT, Primary to Logical (and vice versa), and between NTFS and FAT32
Includes partition and drive optimization tools (Note that Windows already has many optimization tools built-in)
One-second rollback and cancel-at-will
Works with Windows XP and later

Cons

Free version limited to 16TB drives
One-second rollback is only in the professional editions

11. DiskGenius

Price: Free / starting at $69

DiskGenius is one of the most comprehensive free disk partition management tools for Windows. Instead of just giving you a few basic details about each partition, you get in-depth volume information. While you can choose between the all-in-one tool or just the partition manager, the all-in-one does the full job of a partition manager with some extras. It might seem a little overwhelming to anyone new to partition management, but once you take the time to explore the interface, you’ll find it’s actually quite easy to use.

Pros

Resizes, creates, merges, copies, and moves partitions
Works with Windows 7 and later
Converts between MBR and GPT / Primary and Logical
Migrates your system to a new disk

Cons

Most recovery features are premium only
Can’t convert from dynamic to basic in free edition

12. Active@ Partition Manager

Price: Free

Active@ Partition Manager has an outdated-looking interface but does work well for resizing partitions. The great news is this is freeware and only includes a handful of essential operations. While this isn’t going to be your ultimate partition management tool, it does offer a rollback feature on certain changes, which is a plus. You don’t need to upgrade to access features and some tools even have a step-by-step wizard format.

Pros

Completely free
Works on Windows XP and later
Supports most file systems
Resizes, creates, formats, and deletes partitions
Converts between MBR and GPT

Cons

Might be too basic for some users

Good to know: If you need to make a bootable USB flash drive, you might want to try Rufus.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I lose any data when I resize partitions?

There is no guarantee that resizing and editing partitions will go smoothly. There’s always a chance of data loss. Before you do anything, always back up your hard drive – including all partitions. While some of the above tools do promise no data loss, anything can happen, such as pre-existing damage to your hard drive or a software glitch.

Can I use partitioning tools on all types of drives?

Depending on the tool, yes. Partition HDD, SSD, USB, and even virtual drives. Different tools support different types of drives. Typically, virtual drives are only supported in premium editions.

Can I use free disk partition management tools for my business?

Everything except Gparted is for home/individual use only. Of course, if you only have a single PC for your small business or your work-from-home, you can still use the free version.

Almost every option on this list only works on home computers. So, you won’t be able to use them on servers and any server operating systems. Most of the premium/professional editions do have server support.

Image credit: Sergei Starostin via Pexels All screenshots by Alexandra Arici

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Crystal Crowder –
Staff Writer

Crystal Crowder has spent over 15 years working in the tech industry, first as an IT technician and then as a writer. She works to help teach others how to get the most from their devices, systems, and apps. She stays on top of the latest trends and is always finding solutions to common tech problems.

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