After the reboot, I opened PartitionMagic Pro, right-clicked the new free space, and clicked Format to format the space as an NTFS partition. I then right-clicked the partition and chose Set Active from the resulting pop-up menu to activate the partition so that I could boot into the partition with an NT setup CD-ROM. After the process had completed, I rebooted the PC and installed NT on the new partition. I then installed PartitionMagic Pro under NT.
When you run multiple OSs on one PC, PartitionMagic Pro offers several methods for switching between them. You can change which partition is active, or more conveniently, you can use the PQBoot command. From the Windows Start menu, I selected Programs, PartitionMagic, PQBoot to execute the command. A command-prompt window opened and presented a menu that showed the two disk partitions, numbered 1 and 2. I typed 2 to boot into the Win2K partition. After PartitionMagic Pro rebooted my PC and after Win2K loaded, I ran PQBoot from the Win2K partition and this time chose partition 1, which rebooted me back into NT.
You can also use a feature called BootMagic to create a menu that lets you choose your OS at startup. BootMagic runs only on FAT and FAT32 partitions, so I first used the Create New Partition Wizard to make a 40MB FAT partition. I then installed BootMagic from the PartitionMagic Pro CD-ROM. A BootMagic configuration menu displayed the two bootable partitions. At this menu, I specified how long the boot menu would display during setup—I chose 30 seconds—and which partition would be the default—I chose the Win2K partition. I rebooted the PC and the BootMagic menu appeared with the two choices: Win2K and NT. I chose NT. After NT loaded, I rebooted and chose Win2K at the BootMagic menu; Win2K started. I rebooted a third time, waited 30 seconds, and Win2K loaded as the default OS.
PartitionMagic Pro offers three features that the standard version doesn’t offer. I reviewed only PartitionMagic Pro; administrators will find its extra features useful. The first feature, Delete and Shred, is an alternative to the Delete command. The shredding capability is crucial to organizations that need to ensure that files aren’t readable on the hard disks of the old PCs they throw out. PartitionMagic Pro’s shredding function deletes a partition so that it's virtually unrecoverable. To do so, the program overwrites the partition’s clusters with ones and zeros. I right-clicked my slave drive partition, clicked Delete, and selected Delete and Shred. When I used the product’s Undelete command to try to salvage the partition, PartitionMagic couldn’t detect the partition.
In a process similar to recording a macro, the product’s ScriptBuilder feature generates a script file from the commands you give during a PartitionMagic Pro session. I selected Scripting, then Record from the Tools menu. I then resized, labeled, converted, deleted, and created partitions. After I turned off the recording feature (and told PartitionMagic Pro to cancel the commands), a ScriptBuilder window appeared and displayed a script that contained each command I had given. I saved the script and ran the script file. The script worked smoothly to automatically resize, label, convert, delete, and create partitions just as I had instructed. The scripting feature is useful to administrators who need to perform the same procedure on multiple PCs. For example, if you need to convert all PCs in your organization from FAT to NTFS volumes, ScriptBuilder can save you considerable time and effort.
You can also use PartitionMagic Pro to modify partitions on remote PCs. The Network Access feature, which consists of the Remote Agent and the Network Boot Disk Builder, lets you connect to networked PCs through TCP/IP. To test this function, I set up two networked NT 4.0 Workstation computers side-by-side. I used one as a master PC and the other as a remote PC.
I installed PartitionMagic on the master PC and ran the Network Boot Disk Builder to create a network boot disk for the remote PC. The program presented me with a list of NIC drivers from which I selected the remote PC’s driver. I chose to let the DHCP server assign an IP address to the remote PC; however, you can enter a static address instead. I then used the network boot disk to boot the remote PC. On the remote computer, a PowerQuest Remote Agent screen appeared with a message that the PC was waiting for a connection. The screen also displayed the IP address. On my master PC, I ran the Connect Remote Agent command from PartitionMagic. I entered the remote computer’s IP address, then clicked Connect. The remote PC displayed a message that it was transferring data, and its status changed to show that the remote PC had connected to the master PC.
PartitionMagic Pro added a selection, Remote Disk 1, to in my master PC’s directory tree. I right-clicked this selection to see a menu with a few available commands. I ran each command, changing the partition’s label and hiding, formatting, deleting, and recreating remote PC partitions. You can sever the connection either from the remote PC or from the master PC. I selected the master PC’s Disconnect Remote Agent command.
I found the Remote Agent feature handy but clumsy. The feature also disappointed me because it lacks several basic commands, such as Move, Resize, and Copy. The vendor explained to me that the product doesn’t include these commands in the Remote Agent feature because the commands take too long to run over a network connection.
A 150-page user manual and several PDFs explain the software and offer a primer on hard disks and partitioning. You can email and call PowerQuest for free technical support (although the support number is a toll call). Support technicians clearly and concisely answered several questions I emailed to them.
Despite my minor disappointment with the Remote Agent feature, PartitionMagic Pro performed without a hitch. The product is also relatively easy to use whether you use the wizards or run commands manually. PartitionMagic Pro’s shredding, scripting, and network-access capabilities are valuable features. The program proved highly reliable and well worth its price.
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