PartitionMagic 8- Dissapointing-needs competition

[Parangles]

Version 8 ($69.99 NewEgg download- no discounts anywhere) is the latest and it makes dire warnings about the necessity of making its boot floppy rescue discs prior to doing any partition changes. Don't they know or care that most computers produced in the last few years do not have a floppy drive or even a port to attach an external floppy?
There is no option to save the data and put it on a usb memory stick or make a bootable CD. So... no rescue disks were possible. Also, you would think that there would be an upgrade for owners of previous versions,( which dont work with NTFS) or at least entitle them to a discount.
Also for the high price I would have expected a friendlier interface that would have held my hand and led me through the process, screen by screen.
But, they seem to have no competition at all and have become very complacent. Here is a big oportunity for someone to produce a competitive
product . This is the standard in repartitioning but it needs improvement. Got the job done. Have to give it as high as a 7 out of 10 only because there is nothing else in sight for Windows.

[Panama Red]

PM was purchased a while back by Symantec and just like the Norton products before it, "the ol' gray mare, she ain't what she used to be!" There is a viable alternative for less money that has been getting good reviews for all their products.

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/diskdirectorsuite/

[glc]

I have PM8 from when Powerquest still owned it. It's a workhorse - but you REALLY should make the rescue floppies.

If you do much work on computers these days, the $20 or so for a USB floppy drive is almost a no-brainer investment.

The lack of a upgrade discount can probably be attributed to the transfer of ownership. Symantec has a habit of swallowing companies up and leaving owners of the legacy software hanging out to dry.

Powerquest also used to have some other excellent utilities - and Symantec just buried them. You don't see Drive Image, Drive Copy, and Datakeeper around any more. They only offer Ghost to replace the first 2, and Datakeeper was a real time backup program - which they don't have an equivalent for. I am very scared what's going to happen to Backup Exec now that Symantec swallowed up Veritas.

[Parangles]

Re rescue floppies glc, I'll look again next time I use PM8 but I didn't see any
options to change the drive from the A:\ that it was directing me to load a floppy into. ie would it recognise the floppy in an external drive attached to the usb, as a floppy and not as a USB device?
Cheers,
Chris.

[glc]

A USB floppy drive will be drive A.

[gary_hendricks]

PM was purchased a while back by Symantec and just like the Norton products before it, "the ol' gray mare, she ain't what she used to be!" There is a viable alternative for less money that has been getting good reviews for all their products.

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/diskdirectorsuite/


Hahaha, nice quote there. Panama Red. The '"the ol' gray mare, she ain't what she used to be!"

I think Partition Magic has fallen short in the last few years - I'd go with Acronis True Image anyday.

[glc]

Gary, True Image is an imaging and cloning utility like Ghost. I think you meant to say Disk Director? That's the partition management tool.