Partition Manager for Dell and other servers
 

 

Server Partition Manager

Some years ago I used Partition Magic the popular partition software published by PowerQuest. The product worked well for some time until the company changed ownership. While it was a good utility there was something missing - server support. I came across Paragon Partition Manager and the Partition Manager Server Edition. It was the first partition utilitiy program that did everything I needed. The highlight - I finally was able to get rid of these 1- 4 gig boot partitions on the Dell NT servers I inherited. I was able to move and converted extended to primary partitions. I changed 16-bit FAT to NTFS. Yes, the old NT server is still booting and performing well with a 6-gig boot partition (the size of the boot drive). Partition Manager does what it claims and does it well. The Server Edition (SE) handles Microsoft Windows NT4 / 2000 / 2003 / 2008 servers Including the Small Business Editions. A special license for technicians allows you to use Partition Manager on your clients servers and workstations.

Over the years I found out I'm not the only one with Dell systems and a small C partition and Dell is not the only server with small partitions. Partition Manager works great with your Compaq, HP, IBM and Dell PowerEdge servers. Including the ones with PERC or CERC Raid configurations.

Use Partition Manager with your IBM eServer xSeries x2xx, x3xx, x4xx and the newer x3xxx. I personally use it with and without the add-on ServeRaid 5i and 6i

The Pro and Server editions include a self-booting recovery CD which allows you to boot a PE DOS or Linux version of the Partition Manager. Not to worry - there is no need to know Linux or DOS. You will find a familiar GUI interface. Since the Server Edition includes a technician license you can use it for all the computers you work on. Using the boot CD you don't need to install any software on the machine and there is no chance for a strange windows process to interfere with the operation. Get the Partition Manager SE / Tech license today it belongs in your tool box.

Unsure if Partition Manager is the product for you? Don't hesitate, call us and we will answer your questions. Ceratec Inc. (Emailprofessor) offers free pre-sales and tech support via email, helpdesk and of course by phone. We're making great products from around the world even better by offering real advice and support in the US and Canada.

- Peter Banz

Expand server boot partition

What customers have to say...

Troy writes: This product worked great and just as expected. I have a four drive RAID 5 configuration with a C (system) and D (Data) partition. The software copied the drive image to a external USB drive, I replaced the old hard drives with larger ones; configured the RAID under the SCSI utilities and booted with the boot CD. The user interface is easy to understand and pretty straight forward. I blew the image from the old drives onto the new and much larger four disk RAID 5 configuration and presto. My server was up and running. The only thing I can find to complain about is it seems slow but trust me, all drive image products are slow and this one was doing a partition increase and rebuild on the fly. If you have to replace drives on servers, workstations, Microsoft, Linux…whatever. Get this product. Your life will be so much easier and when its done with the rebuild of the new image on the new driver – it will boot just like it did before. I give this product 5 stars, A+++ and two thumbs up.

How to...

The number one reason for purchasing Partition manager is a boot partition = C: drive that is out of space. A lot of people including MS will tell you that you need to start over. That can ruin a perfectly good weekend. However as alternative you can join thousands of happy admins that successfully used Partition Manager to enlarge that small C: drive. Even if you don't know much about servers and partitions you can do it. First you need to run checkdisk (In command line type CHKDSK C:/F) on all the partitions to make sure your file system is fine. Do not attempt to resize a half dead system. Re-sizing partitions is a task that taxes CPU and hard drives. You should not attempt to work with a system that has any hardware issues. Complete backup is a recommended. After that you are ready to load Partition manager. It will ask you to reboot the system once the install is complete. Now you are ready to go. Nothing will alter anything on the disk until you click "APPLY" Feel free to roam around you can always undo and start over. If you unsure our in house tech support located in Austin, TX will be glad to help.

What version..

If you only have one server the single sever edition is fine.

If you have more then one server to re-size or even a few work stations the Tech license costs less then 2 single licenses. It's on your name and you can use it as often as you like.

I recommend the Enterprise version for shops and companies with a lot of IT personal. It has an additional feature compared to the tech version. You can backup a partition to a file (on your usb drive). That's a great feature if you don't trust the backup someone else did.

What will I see

The tables below show the steps you need to take to shrink a D drive to make room for a larger C drive. It's really that simple. If you happen to have an extended partition shrink the logical drive inside instead the partition. The time it takes depends a lot on your hardware and size. Most of the time is used for step one, re-sizing and moving the data partition. One to tree hours are typical. If you only need to enlarge the C drive in to free space it may take only a few minutes. If you are using MS Server 2003 or 2008 Partition Manager can do the work on the fly (Hot Partitioning). However if the partition is locked it will prompt you to "Retry, Reboot or Cancel" You can try to stop the process that causes the lock or reboot so Partition Manager will do the work during the reboot.

OVERVIEW
Partition Manager Supported Functions
File System
Copy, Move, Format
Re-size Partitions
Hot resize Partition
Un-delete
Defrag Partitions
Merge Partitions
Change Clusters
Convert
FAT 16/32
YES
YES
NO
YES
YES
YES
YES
to NTFS, Fat 16/32
NTFS
YES
YES
YES
YES
YES
YES
YES
to FAT
Ext2/3 FS
YES
YES
NO
YES
NO
NO
n/a
to Ext2/3
Raiser FS
YES
YES
NO
NO
NO
NO
n/a
NO
HPFS
YES
YES
NO
NO
NO
NO
n/a
NO
  • Partition Explorer technology that allows you to browse any partitions on your hard disk, change any files, copy files and folders, including hidden and unmounted partitions. (Partition explorer utility)

  • Hot Resize technology can enlarge NTFS partitions without rebooting Windows® and interrupting Server or Workstation work. Thus it saves your time and money preventing Server or Workstation downtime.

  • Smart Partition technology used in Partition Manager enables you to perform hard disk partitioning operations without losing a single byte of data. You can be 100% sure, that no data will be lost even during most complicated partitioning operations on your hard disk.

  • Intelligent Disk Defrag technology (IDD™) performs thorough and secure defragmentation even on almost full (up to 99%) partitions.
PARTITION MANAGER VERSIONS — Which one is right for your job?
TECH
SERVER
PRO
FEATURES
YES
YES
YES
Create, delete, hide or make visible, format hard disk partitions (FAT 16/32, NTFS, Ext2/3, Reiser FS, HPFS)
YES
YES
YES
Resize, copy (with autoresize) and move hard disk partitions without losing data
YES
YES
YES
Copy disk to disk
YES
YES
YES
Set label and partition ID
YES
YES
YES
Merge hard disk partition WIZARD
YES
YES
YES
Hard disk partition Undelete WIZARD
YES
YES
YES
Redistribute Free Space WIZARD
YES
YES
YES
Convert hard disk partitions (FAT to NTFS and vice versa, Ext2 to Ext3)
YES
YES
YES
Preview changes made in partition layout before applying them to disk
YES
YES
YES
Defragmenter (NTFS, FAT)
YES
YES
YES
Partition Explorer
YES
YES
YES
BOOT Manager functionality
YES
YES
YES
Supported devices: Large disks, SCSI, HW Raid, FireWire™, USB drives, Flash
YES
YES
YES
Supported Windows Workstatsion OS: 95/98, NT, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7
YES
YES
NO
Supported Windows Servers - NT, 2000, 2003, 2008 Small Business Edition, Standard, Advanced Server and sub versions.
YES
YES
YES
Windows PE Support
YES
YES
YES
Professional Recovery CD (Boot CD enables to restore any unbootable system)
YES
YES
YES
Script Language Support and Scripts Generator
YES
YES
YES
Command Line Support
YES
YES
YES
Bad blocks treatment with increased security*
YES
YES
YES
Convert Dynamic Disks to Basic Disks (not for Windows 98/ ME / NT)
YES
NO
NO
License for 10 Servers and unlimited Workstations
YES
NO
NO
Includes 1 Year of Gold Support ( a $200 value!)
Supported Conrtollers and systems
Please click the image to the left for a list of supported controllers. If you don't see your system or adapter listed please call us at (512) 285-2620.The list keeps growing. Many controllers are private labeled and we may can indentfy the chipset.
 

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$295.00

$99.95

Thank you for buying Partition Manager

$495.00

$795.00

 

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Thank you for buying Partition Manager

 

* Limited time special

Details

Basic Hard Disk Partitioning Operations

  • Create, format and delete partitions
  • Hide/unhide partition, set partition active/inactive
  • Copy and move partition of any file system, quick and sector-by-sector modes
  • Set or change drive letter
  • Change hard disk partition label (volume label)

Partition Manager SE for All Microsoft servers. A must have for any serious IT person or Technician. No need to add any software to your clients machine.

 

 

Make a copy of your servers partitions weekly, daily anytime you want while everybody is at work. Restore individual files or the entire hard drive from bare metal.

 

Ready to move to a new system or bigger hard drive. Drive copy makes it easy.

 

 

 

Advanced Partitioning Operations

  • Resize hard disk partitions with data
  • Copy disk to disk
  • Copy with resize
  • Convert file system
    - FAT16 to FAT32 and vice versa
    - FAT16/32 to NTFS and vice versa
    - Ext2 FS to Ext3 FS and vice versa
  • Merge hard disk partitions (even hard disk partitions of different file systems)
  • Un-delete hard disk partition
  • Check file system integrity
  • Convert primary hard disk partition to logical and vice versa
  • Change hard disk partition ID (hard disk partition signature)
  • Change hard disk partition primary slot (in Master Boot Record)
  • Update MBR (Master Boot Record) with standard code
  • Convert NTFS revision (from anyone to any other within Windows NT, 2000 and XP)
  • Change FAT parameters—boot size, root size, etc.

File System Performance Optimization

  • Change cluster size
  • Defragment file system
  • Defragment NTFS core structure—MFT (Master File Table)

Technologies Support

  • Supports large hard disks (up to 500GB tested, theoretically not limited)
  • Supports P-ATA (IDE), S-ATA (SATA), (see list)
  • SCSI hard disks and raid controllers (see list)
  • Supports FireWire™, IEEE1394, USB 1.0, USB 2.0, ZIP® and Jazz® hard disks
  • Supports NTFS from Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Win7 and 2003 / 2008
  • Supports NTFS with compressed and encrypted files and folders
  • Supports FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, Ext2 FS, Ext3 FS, Reiser FS, HPFS file systems
  • Support Flash drives
  • Executable for:
    - Windows 9x/ME/NT 4.0/2000/XP
    - DOS
    - Linux (on Recovery CD)
  • Supports long filenames (FAT, NTFS) and filenames in national languages
  • Supports 64K FAT16 extension

Safety and Recovery

  • Recovery CD 4
  • Power Shield ™ technology—resuming critical partitioning operations after power failure
  • Treating bad sectors—surface test can be optionally used for format, copy, move and resize operations
  • Retesting disk surface for partitions with data, relocating files from encountered bad blocks
  • Automatic generation and sending operations logs over e-mail for quick and easy technical support

Easy To Use

  • Virtual pre-execution—Basically, it allows you to do a dry run.
  • Wizards for most usual scenarios:
    - Partition Merge Wizard
    - Redistribute Free Space Wizard
    - Partition Undelete Wizard
  • Automatic updating BootManager boot menu after partitioning operations
  • Operations usually impossible under Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP will be automatically performed in special mode during OS reboot.

Auxiliary utilities

  • Built-in simple disk editing utility
  • Paragon ISO Burner (to burn Recovery CD image or any other CD image in ISO format)
  • Partition Explorer—browse FAT, NTFS, Ext2 or Ext3 FS partition without drive letter, edit or copy files and folders

BootManager

  • Up to 16 operating systems on one PC
  • Operating Windows 9x/Me along with Windows 2000/XP/Vista/2003/8
  • Various installations of the same operating system (in different languages or different versions)
  • Direct booting Linux (skipping LILO)
  • Installing Linux beyond 1024-cylinder boundary
  • Boots even unrecognized OS
  • Importing external bootsector
  • Password protection against unauthorized booting computer
  • Boots DOS/Windows 9x/ME from the second hard disk
  • Different configurations can be created for the same physical installation of operating system.
  • Dynamically adds newly installed operating systems
  • Duplicating boot.ini file to create different configurations

Dybamic to Basic

  • Convert Dynamic Disks to Basic Disks (Dynamic Disks maybe found in Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7//2003/2008)

Pro and Technician License Package Only

  • Premium Maintenance
  • Upgrade Insurance2 years
  • Windows NT/2000/2003/2008 Servers and Windows PE support (Server Ed.)
  • Script Generator
  • Command Line Support

System Requirement

  • System: Windows 9x/ME/NT 4.0/2000/XP/Vista,7 Workstation, Home or Professional, Linux
  • Server editions include support for all windows server versions including /2003 and 2008
  • Processor: IBM AT compatible machine
  • RAM: 128 MB
  • Video: VGA or better
  • Additional: CD or DVD-ROM drive (optionally with recording capabilities to burn Recovery CD), or Floppy Drive

 

 

Partition Manager versions

SERVER Edition
SERVER/Techician
ITconsultant Edition
Single-system license
Per Technician 10 servers & unlimited Workstations
Per Technician unlimited client systems
$ 295.00
$ 495.00
$795.00
Go to our Online Store page to buy any of the Partition Manager versions.
buy paragon software online
Download a limited DEMO. It will show you all the features but it will not actually apply any changes to the hard disk.
Partition Manager trail

Pro & SE version—supported hard drive platforms:

Windows 2000/XP/Vista (Server editions also supports 2000 /2003 /2008 Servers.)
IIDE, S-ATA, SCSI, SAS,, USB & Firewire™ drives, various RAID controllers including 48-bit ATA
- IDE, Serial ATA - full support in both Windows and DOS sessions

Quick check - List of RAID controllers (This is a partial list.)

List Of supported ControllersIDE Raid controllers
Promise FastTrak100 TX2/TX2000 Series
Promise FastTrak TX4000/376/378/S150 TX Series
Highpoint 370 software RAID
HighPort 371
HighPort 374
CMD680/Silicon Image 3112 Medley Software RAID
Intel Software RAID (ICH5R/ICH6R chipsets)
Mylex DAC960/DAC1100 PCI RAID Controller support
(Mylex DAC960, AcceleRAID, and eXtremeRAID)
Promise SATA SX8 support
Promise SATAII-150 (TX4/TX2plus/579)
Promise SATA150 (TX4/TX2plus/378/618)

SCSI, SAS, S-ATA Raid Controllers
3ware Hardware ATA-RAID
Adaptec AHA 152x/2825 (AHA-1510, AHA-1520, AHA-1522, and AHA-2825)
Adaptec AHA 1542
Adaptec AHA 1740
Adaptec AACRAID
Dell Computer Corporation PERC 2 Quad Channel
Dell Computer Corporation PERC 2/Si
Dell Computer Corporation PERC 3 series
Dell Computer Corporation PERC 4 series
Dell Computer Corporation PERC 5 series
Dell Computer Corporation CERC S-ATA, series
Dell Computer Corporation PERC SAS 5 series
HP NetRAID-4M
ADAPTEC 2120S
ADAPTEC 2200S
ADAPTEC 5400S
Legend S220
Legend S230
Adaptec 3230S
Adaptec 3240S
ASR-2020S PCI-X
AAR-2410SA SATA
Adaptec AIC7xxx
Adaptec AIC79xx
Adaptec I2O Raid
LSI MegaRAID 1.18 driver series
LSI MegaRAID 2.00 driver series
BUSLogic
Compaq Smartarray
Compaq Fibre Channel 64-bit/66Mhz HBA
Most HP servers
IBM ServerRAID LSI
Intel/ICP
IBM ServeRAID 4, 5, 6, 7
NCR53C8XX/SYM53C8XX/LSI53C10XX
Symbios 53c416
PCI2000
PCI2220i
PCI240i
Seagate ST-O2 / FitureDomain TMC-8xx
Tecram DC390(c) / Am53/79C974

Serial ATA host controllers and devices
ICH5 Serial ATA
NVIDIA Serial ATA
Promise Serial ATA TX2/TX4
Promise Serial ATA SX4
SiS Serial ATA 964/180
VIA Serial ATA

Download Demo
Yes
Server Support
Server ED
Fully Functioning Eval. Download
No
Supports XP, 9x, NT, 2000, 2003
Server ED
Trial Period
n/a
Supports Command Line
Yes
Platform
Windows (/Linux, /DOS)
 
Scripting Support
Yes
 

 

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