Aoemei Partition Assistant vs. MiniTool Partition Wizard

MiniTool for me, used it for years and it works. Also have DiskGenius has a few extra features that might come in handy one day.

badrobot said:

MiniTool for me too.
I am also using the MiniTool Data Recovery since 2013 and it is a life saver. I've used it 5x in the span of 8 years (case of dying and corrupted HDDs) and I was able to completely recover my data like nothing happened. I got lifetime licenses for both for FREE years back and they still work with Windows 11.

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I presume MiniTools is both and imaging and Partioning software.

I use Macrium Reflect for Imaging.

I am upgrading my wifes computer with new hardware for win 11

Her system disk 125 gig Samsung.

I had a spare 125gig NVME disk and I cloned the system to disk to it with EaseUS


Macrium Reflect failed me in similar situation. For Macrium reflect the clone
disk cannot be the same size. It will not shrink the image.

Would the free version of MiniTools do it?

FDretired said:

I presume MiniTools is both and imaging and Partioning software.

I use Macrium Reflect for Imaging.

I am upgrading my wifes computer with new hardware for win 11

Her system disk 125 gig Samsung.

I had a spare 125gig NVME disk and I cloned the system to disk to it with EaseUS


Macrium Reflect failed me in similar situation. For Macrium reflect the clone
disk cannot be the same size. It will not shrink the image.

Would the free version of MiniTools do it?

Click to expand...

No. The backup software is a separate MiniTool software but I've never used it. I've only used the partition wizard and the data recovery tools. I've been using Macrium for my backup tasks. Instead of cloning, I restore Macrium image to another drive to be used on another PC. It works for me that way. Cloning is a bit tricky sometimes but it can be done. I just fine restoring images easier and faster.

Dch48 said:

No, there are things disk management won't do that MiniTool and others will. Disk Management is pretty basic.

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I suspected that is the case. Can't really tell from the Original Question what features are available in either. As it happens, I can also use the Elevated Command Prompt to cover other eventualities. Say, I don't get the GUI 'eye candy' that you get plus you get all features under one or two menus, whereas I have to search for my command syntax, etc - but it does the job. Thanks for Posting :) .

badrobot said:

No. The backup software is a separate MiniTool software but I've never used it. I've only used the partition wizard and the data recovery tools. I've been using Macrium for my backup tasks. Instead of cloning, I restore Macrium image to another drive to be used on another PC. It works for me that way. Cloning is a bit tricky sometimes but it can be done. I just fine restoring images easier and faster.

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Until I purchased EaseUS I used the same method as you with Macrium. Make and image and then restore the image to another disk

IMO the best partition manager (Bar none) and it's 100% Free is to create a bootable version of GPARTED. The interface is pretty much like all the other ones out there but not only does it handle Windows file formats it can also deal with Linux and (Cr-)Apple formats too as well as copying. restoring, resizing etc.




From the iso just make bootable USB stick via Rufus or any of your usual methods.

Cheers
jimbo

Hi,
Gparted yeah not very user friendly lol

SmokeMe said:

I bought ($32.00 USD) the EaseUS Partition Master Professional
does a good job for what I needed it t

Click to expand...

What I like about this program is that you make a bootable usb from an iso file that you downloaded
after the purchase of the program. The iso file never expires! It is about 571,000 KB

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Gparted yeah not very user friendly lol

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Hi there
Not sure why it's not "User Friendly" -- the interface is almost identical to any of the other partition managers, it's FREE and easy to make a bootable USB from. I've found the minitool thing the worst as if you do anything that requires a re-boot then it never gets to complete the job. Rufus (Free) can make any sort of bootable device from an ISO -- why on earth should that feature cost 32 bucks !!!!!!

IMO running any sort of partition manager should be done outside the OS - especially if you are altering any partitions with a running OS on them. I know they are supposed to lock HDD's against changes but I don't think that would qualify as "Best Practice".

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
Not sure why it's not "User Friendly" -- the interface is almost identical to any of the other partition managers, it's FREE and easy to make a bootable USB from. I've found the minitool thing the worst as if you do anything that requires a re-boot then it never gets to complete the job. Rufus (Free) can make any sort of bootable device from an ISO -- why on earth should that feature cost 32 bucks !!!!!!

IMO running any sort of partition manager should be done outside the OS - especially if you are altering any partitions with a running OS on them. I know they are supposed to lock HDD's against changes but I don't think that would qualify as "Best Practice".

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

Hi,
Same reason linux goes nowhere year after year it to is not user friendly.

But even minitool restarts to do tasks when the os is not active.

Aomei and Diskgenius

jimbo45 said:

IMO running any sort of partition manager should be done outside the OS - especially if you are altering any partitions with a running OS on them. I know they are supposed to lock HDD's against changes but I don't think that would qualify as "Best Practice".

Click to expand...

Yeah, MiniTool or other software can also do it outside of OS. Just set up the changes you want done to any partition in use and it will prompt you to restart to apply the changes outside of the OS automatically.

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Same reason linux goes nowhere year after year it to is not user friendly.

But even minitool restarts to do tasks when the os is not active.

Click to expand...

Hi there
on a Windows Forum (not going to get into Linux vs Windows --wrong place, wrong Forum of course) I just would like to correct the idea that people who have never used or tried Linux for several years that most distros - especially if you use the KDE desktop would present almost no problems to even the most die-hard windows user --in fact KDE can often be considered as "More Windows like than Windows itself" !!!!.


My point here is not to "Convert" Windows users but simply correct the impression that Linux is impossibly hard to use -- not at all these days !!! and using it as a lean server --OK that takes a bit more of a skill set.

I Like W11 -- but I just think there's too much "Old Bias" against Linux --usually from people who might have had a hard time with it years ago --things have moved on hugely since those days !!! --

I'll bet anybody who can use File explorer in Windows would have ZERO problems using say Dolphin (KDE's equivalent) !!!
VLC and a load of other apps work identically to Windows.

The desktop shown here is from ArchLinux which is usually a really tight mean, lean and essentially a CLI system which does need a bit of a skill set to install it properly (minimal defaults so the user really has to select everything they want). The fact that one can install a decent workstation desktop on that type of distro that can replicate typical "Windows behaviour "shows how far that OS has moved on from being "Totally Nerdy".

Anyway enough of that -- as I say I actually like W11 !! no reason why both OS'es can't co-exist.

Cheers
jimbo

Hi,
Way to many linux distro spawns is another reason it goes nowhere.

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Way to many linux distro spawns is another reason it goes nowhere.

Click to expand...

Hi there

@ThrashZone

only around 4 - 5 are serious contenders these days -- all the other "Micky Mouse" one's aren't really worthy of consideration for serious work or as servers.

The only "Survivable ones" for serious business are

Red HAT SLES
SUSE
UBUNTU
FEDORA
ARCHLINUX
and possibly Linux Mint. (Desktops only -- not for servers).

All the other distros are far too specialized and don't really merit serious consideration as sensible desktops -- even the old much used DEBIAN system is really now eclipsed by the list I've given.

Forget all the other stuff.

BTW IBM now own REDHAT so SLES and FEDORA will not be "going down the pan" -- FEDORA is the "Test bed" for SLES, UBUNTU has Canonical backing (not my favourite company BTW but YMMV), SUSE is a good German company still supplying a lot of enterprises with Cloud servers and a user base for "opensuse" while ARCHLINUX has a dedicated and well maintained user base with probably the best documentation -- most Linux users often find resolutions to their problems discussed on the archlinux wiki whatever distro they use.


Anyway not turning this into Windows vs Linux -- especially on a Windows Forum -- and as I said I actually LIKE W11. I'm not afraid to use tools from other OS'es if it gets the job done -- why should I deliberately limit myself to tools that only exist within a specific OS when better ones are available elsewhere.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

@ThrashZone

only around 4 - 5 are serious contenders these days -- all the other "Micky Mouse" one's aren't really worthy of consideration for serious work or as servers.

The only "Survivable ones" for serious business are

Red HAT SLES
SUSE
UBUNTU
FEDORA
ARCHLINUX
and possibly Linux Mint. (Desktops only -- not for servers).

All the other distros are far too specialized and don't really merit serious consideration as sensible desktops -- even the old much used DEBIAN system is really now eclipsed by the list I've given.

Forget all the other stuff.

BTW IBM now own REDHAT so SLES and FEDORA will not be "going down the pan" -- FEDORA is the "Test bed" for SLES, UBUNTU has Canonical backing (not my favourite company BTW but YMMV), SUSE is a good German company still supplying a lot of enterprises with Cloud servers and a user base for "opensuse" while ARCHLINUX has a dedicated and well maintained user base with probably the best documentation -- most Linux users often find resolutions to their problems discussed on the archlinux wiki whatever distro they use.

ArchWiki:About - ArchWiki

wiki.archlinux.org

Anyway not turning this into Windows vs Linux -- especially on a Windows Forum -- and as I said I actually LIKE W11. I'm not afraid to use tools from other OS'es if it gets the job done -- why should I deliberately limit myself to tools that only exist within a specific OS when better ones are available elsewhere.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

I have found this discussion on Linux informative.

I do all my computing on a desktop and have been playing around with various distros on a dedicated SSD. I have upgraded the hardware an installed win 11 which I am enjoying thoroughly.

On vacations, I use an 14-inch Lenovo ThinkPad.. When support for windows 10 ends in 2025 or later I will revisit Linux. I have never tried Arch linux but you have given me stimulus to try it.

badrobot said:

No. The backup software is a separate MiniTool software but I've never used it. I've only used the partition wizard and the data recovery tools. I've been using Macrium for my backup tasks. Instead of cloning, I restore Macrium image to another drive to be used on another PC. It works for me that way. Cloning is a bit tricky sometimes but it can be done. I just fine restoring images easier and faster.

Click to expand...

You can do disk cloning with the free MiniTool as well. I just did it a few weeks ago between 2 HDD's of different sizes. I moved the complete system from a 160GB drive directly to a 500 with no issues. It even automatically resized the partitions.

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Way to many linux distro spawns is another reason it goes nowhere.

Click to expand...

Plus it's not as good for gamers and a real pain if you try to install it on a system that has uncommon hardware. Sometimes, finding and installing drivers is a real hassle. I will agree that it has come a long way lately though.

Dch48 said:

Plus it's not as good for gamers and a real pain if you try to install it on a system that has uncommon hardware. Sometimes, finding and installing drivers is a real hassle. I will agree that it has come a long way lately though.

Click to expand...

Hi folks
slightly OT but things like containers and kubernates might be the way forward in future for specialized things like dedicated gaming systems.

The days of a "One size fits all" type of system are probably over (if they were ever applicable in the first place) as people do so much more with computers than just essentially back office stuff. Things from measuring and predicting Volcano eruptions, running aircraft and car simulators to decent A.I and virtual reality - inc remote surgery done by robots are all within current reach -- and will require almost quantum leaps in processing capability etc. The Computer isn't dead as so many people predicted a few years ago that we'd all be on tablets.

I've found those newer micro systems from people like Intel etc more than sufficient to replace aging tower type systems with huge footprints. Two of these together with 2 RAID capable HDD enclosures (8 X HDD's) have enabled me to "retire" 4 aging servers and occupy a much smaller footprint. I'm about to get a 3rd to use as a "Computer Lab" -- the entire combined space of these is about 1/3rd of the space required by 1 of the old servers - and with decent really fast wifi (> 1 Gbps) one really can get rid of typical LAN cable runs without loss of performance.



I have now 2 BEELINK ME18 systems and if I can get anybody from the UK to ship one of these (no tax as it's "Educational" so around 400 EUR / USD) this W11 capable system also looks like a winner (can't get any more ME18's -- out of stock !!!!!

Also seems a problem to get stuff from USA --If I can import goods from China, Vietnam, UK, Germany etc why can't I import stuff from USA -- or does USA think Iceland is full of Hackers and other miscreants !!!! No rules here about imports from USA (other than standard rules on dangerous goods etc that you see everywhere else) -- or maybe USA considers Computer hardware as "Dangerous / prohibited goods" these days.

Cheers
jimbo

Thanks for those who've voted and weighed in so far. Looking to following more engaging discussions on the pros and cons of the partition software.