PartitionMagic 4.x

A tool from PowerQuest, and later Symantec, that enables manipulation of partitions through its own bootable media. PartitionMagic can shrink, grow, or move partitions without the need to backup and restore files in that partition. It supported a variety of file systems, and the core DOS-based parition tool fit on a bootable 1.44mb floppy disk. It was extremely popular, and made installing or removing multiple OSes much easier.



Screenshots

Release notes

It's strongly advised to NOT use this version with any hard disk bigger than a few dozen GB or with a filesystem newer than itself as it will probably not recognize it entirely, and it might find and try to automatically fix what it will interprets as "errors", thus breaking stuff. Basically only test it on old hardware or a virtual machine where you have no absolutely nothing you're afraid of losing.

Installation instructions

It can install under MS DOS 5.0 or higher, Windows 3.x, 95, 98 or NT 4. It will also install under XP but the main program won't run because that's higher than NT 4 (XP is actually NT 5.1 while Windows 2000 is NT 5.0). Also includes the optional BootMagic boot manager, and MagicMover application (meant to allow moving an already installed program to another drive/path without uninstalling and reinstalling it).

To install under Windows, you'll need a serial number, but it looks like it accepts pretty much anything that starts with "PM400FRCD-", whether it is followed by 6 numbers (like my actual serial) or not. The installer also lets you create a bootable rescue floppy.

Product type
Application Utility
Release date
1998
User interface
GUI
Platform
DOS
Download count
11 (2 for release)

Downloads

Download name Version Language Architecture File size Downloads
PartitionMagic 4.0 (DOS files only) 4.0 English 905.48KB 0
PartitionMagic 4.0 (ISO) 4.0 English 45.3MB 2
PartitionMagic 4.0 [French] (ISO) 4.0 French 44.05MB 0

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