In many ways MiniTool’s Partition Manager harkens us back to the days when Peter Norton was the man and his Norton Utilities was the software that every enthusiast needed to own. Just like Norton Utilities, MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro is a true one-stop shop for all your hard drive needs and contains so many features that no one review really can cover them all in their entirety.
For those who were not around in the 80s and only ‘remember’ – if at all – Norton Utilities as the bloated mess that Symantec produces, to put this program in a more modern perspective it favorably compares to both Acronis and Paragon options. In comparison to Acronis, MiniTool’s has created an extremely easy to use program that has just the right blend of wizards and features in a User Interface that is both intuitive and powerful. Mix in much more responsive support, which features English as their FIRST language and a refreshing lack the arrogance of Acronis’ “tech support”, and Acronis does come out the worse for the comparison. The only area that MiniTool falls short is the Bootable Image option but this one feature is not enough to overcome Acronis’ higher asking price.
Compared to Paragon, MiniTool partition manager features a much more intuitive interface and once again much easier to deal with tech support. The only area Paragon really is superior is in its engine speed – as MiniTool Partition Manager is slower; however the differences are minor and are more than made up for via a better UI. As with Acronis, this spunky little Canadian company, easily compete the better known competition.
In the end if you are looking for a solid and robust program that is not only fully supported by its manufacturer but comes with a much more reasonable asking price MiniTool certainly deserves a spin. Even if you never purchase it, every enthusiast should at the very least try it and that is not something we can say about a lot of recovery programs.
