sitemap

Partition Magic - Partition Manager Software

Extend partition with one step
Resize/Move partition without data loss.
Create, delete and format partion with simple steps. Copy partition and disk to transfer data with ease. Support disk and partition size larger than 2 TB. Keep your data safe even in case of power outages or hardware failure.
Partition Magic - Partition Manager Software buynow download

File system

  • You can choose one of the following file systems:

    • The FAT16
  • file system is widely used by DOS (DR-DOS, MS-DOS, PC DOS, etc.), Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000/XP operating systems and is supported by most other systems.
    Main features of FAT16 are the file allocation table (FAT) and clusters. The FAT is the core of the file system. To increase data safety, it is possible to have several instances of the FAT (there are usually two of them). A cluster is a minimum data storage unit in the FAT16 file system. One cluster contains a fixed number (some power of 2) of sectors. The FAT stores information about what clusters are free, what clusters are bad, and also defines in what clusters files are stored.
    Maximum size of a FAT16 file system is 4 Gigabytes, and the maximum number of clusters is 65,525, the largest cluster being 128 sectors. Usually the smallest possible cluster size is selected so that the resulting number of clusters is less than 65,526. The larger the partition size, the larger the cluster has to be. Most operating systems incorrectly perform with 128-sector clusters, thus reducing the maximum FAT16 partition size to 2 Gigabytes.
    Like many others, the FAT16 file system has a root folder. Unlike others however, its root folder is stored in a special place and is limited in size (standard formatting produces a 512-item root folder).
    Initially, FAT16 had limitations to filenames that could only be eight characters long, plus a dot, plus three characters of name extension. However, long name support in Windows 95 and Windows NT bypasses this limitation.

    • FAT32
    The FAT32 file system appeared in Windows 95 OSR2 and is also supported by Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000/XP. FAT32 grew out of FAT16. The main differences between FAT32 and FAT16 are 28 bit cluster numbers and more flexible root folder implementation, which is not limited in size. The reason for FAT32 is the necessity to support large (larger than 8 Gigabytes) hard disks and the inability to build any more complex file system into MS DOS, which is still in the core of Windows 95/98/ME.Maximum size of FAT32 file system size is 2 Terabytes.

    • NTFS
    NTFS is the primary file system for Windows NT/2000/XP. Its structure is closed, so no other operating system fully supports it. The main structure of NTFS is the master file table, or MFT. NTFS stores a copy of the critical part of the MFT to reduce the possibility of data damage and loss. All other NTFS data structures are special files.
    Like the FAT, NTFS uses clusters to store files, but cluster size does not depend on partition size. NTFS is a 64-bit file system. It uses Unicode to store file names. It is also a journaling (failure-protected) file system, and supports compression and encryption.

    • EXT2
    Ext2, one of the main file systems for the Linux operating system, is a 32-bit file system. Its maximum size is 16 Terabytes. The main data structure that describes a file is an INODE. A place to store the table of all INODEs has to be allocated in advance (during formatting).

    • EXT3
    Officially introduced with Red Hat Linux version 7.2, Ext3 is the Red Hat journaling file system. It is forward- and backward-compatible with Linux ext2. It has multiple journaling modes and broad, cross-platform compatibility in both 32- and 64-bit architectures.

    • ReiserFS
    ReiserFS was officially introduced to Linux in 2001. ReiserFS overcomes many Ext2 disadvantages. It is a 64-bit journaling file system that dynamically allocates space for data substructures.

    • Linux Swap
    • None - leave the partition Unformatted.
Beginning the Work
Automatic partition operations
Manual partition operations
Recovering partitions
Working with Acronis DiskEditor