The disk is the device where the operating system (OS), apps, and data are stored. Managing disk well is conducive to reducing disk/partition errors, utilizing disk storage space better, and improving PC performance.
These days, I find a nice disk management tool named MiniTool Partition Wizard. It has some wonderful features and here is the review about my usage experience of this software.
This software has its official website and you can download it directly. No link will lead you to an unknown page and you don’t need to worry about malware or something like that.
It offers a free edition and several paid editions. But I just choose the free edition to download. Then, double-click the setup program and follow the wizard to install this software. The installation process is very easy, but another program MiniTool ShadowMaker will be installed at the same time if you don’t uncheck it manually.
After the installation process is completed, you will get to the main interface of this software.
The entire interface is elegant and simple, letting you easily know what you can do with this software.
At the upper section of the interface, there is a toolbar listing some not commonly used but important features. At the left section of the interface, there is an action panel listing common features you can use. The features in the action panel will vary depending on what is highlighted in the right section (like you choose a disk or partition).
You can click these features on the toolbar or action panel to perform them. If you want to use a feature more easily, you can right-click a partition/disk and then choose the corresponding feature from the context menu.
Windows has a built-in disk management tool. To open it, you just need to press Windows key + R, type the “diskmgmt.msc” command in the Run box, and press Enter. As a third-party program, MiniTool Partition Wizard should have features that Windows Disk Management doesn’t have so that we are willing to install it.
In this part, I will list features owned by both MiniTool Partition Wizard and Disk Management. In addition, in these aspects, both of them can give you the same good user experience.
1. Initialize disk. When you add a new disk to the PC, you should initialize it for proper use.
2. Create a partition/volume (FAT, FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS). Only when a partition is created, you can store data into the disk further.
3. Format a partition. This will fix some errors but it will also delete data in the partition.
4. Remove or change the drive letter.
5. Delete partition/volume.
6. Check the file system. This can detect and fix file system errors. Windows Disk Management doesn’t have this feature but you can make it in Windows File Explorer.
In the following aspects, although Disk Management has similar features, MiniTool Partition Wizard does better, giving you a better user experience.
1. Extend a partition/volume. To extend a partition, Disk Management requires that there must be unallocated space on the disk. However, MiniTool Partition Wizard allows you to take space from both unallocated space and partitions with free space. If a partition is short of space, this feature is very useful.
2. Move/resize a partition. Disk Management can extend and shrink a partition. However, MiniTool Partition Wizard can not only do that but also move the location of the partition.
3. Convert FAT to NTFS. Disk Management doesn’t have this feature, but you can complete this job using MiniTool Partition Wizard. In the conversion process, it looks like this software is using the same command with Windows CMD: convert (drive letter) /fs:ntfs. The good thing is you don’t need to type any command manually, just click the start button and then MiniTool Partition Wizard will do the rest.
4. Hide a partition. Disk Management can do that by removing the driver letter of the partition and you can unhide it by adding the drive letter. However, MiniTool Partition Wizard uses another method to hide a partition and you cannot unhide it by adding a drive letter.
5. Wipe a partition. Disk Management can wipe a partition by performing a full format (uncheck Perform quick format option when formatting a partition). MiniTool Partition Wizard offers more wiping methods so that recovering data from the wiped disk is even more difficult.
6. Convert Between MBR and GPT. To convert a data disk from MBRtoGPT (or reverse), Disk Management requires you to delete all partitions on the disk first. But in MiniTool Partition Wizard, the conversion can be completed without any data loss.
7. Space analyzer. MiniTool Partition Wizard offers you more tools to filter folders and files so that you can free up disk space by deleting certain folders or files more easily.
MiniTool Partition Wizard has many features that Disk Management doesn’t have. Here are some examples:
1. Support EXT and Linux swap partitions. MiniTool Partition Wizard can create or format an EXT 2/3/4 or Linux swap partition.
2. Merge2 adjacent NTFS partitions.
3. Split a partition into 2 partitions directly.
4. Copy a data disk/partition to another storage location.
5. Align partitions. This makes all partitions aligned, improving disk performance.
6. Convert a partition to primary or logical to meet different requirements.
7. Surface test. Check whether there are bad sectors on the disk.
8. Disk benchmark. Benchmark disk and you can know the actual read and write speeds of a disk on your PC.
Overall, MiniTool Partition Wizard is a nice disk partition management tool and you can have a try on it. Unfortunately, some advanced features like data recovery, partition recovery, dynamic disk management features, etc. are only available in paid editions. While using this software to edit the system partition, restart is always required. In this aspect, MiniTool Partition Wizard may need more improvement.
