The macosxhints Rating:
[Score: 10 out of 10]
iPartition makes it brain-dead simple to move, delete, add, and resize partitions -- without reformatting first! I've used PartitionMagic, and while it's quite good by PC standards, iPartition takes ease of use one big step further. The iPartition interface is elegantly simple yet very powerful, as seen in the image at left (click the image for the big version). You select a partition to work with by clicking on it; it then slides out from the pie, and gains the markings shown in the image. To resize the partition, just grab the small white dot at the end of the extended line, and drag. The new size of the partition is always visible and constantly updated. Delete a partition by selecting it and hitting delete. Add one with the plus button in the toolbar. All of these changes are non-destructive -- when you make them, you're just putting together a plan for iPartition to work with. The Operations button in the toolbar opens a window that lists every change that you've requested, and it's updated in real time as you make further changes. At any time, you can cancel and revert to the disk as it currently exists.
If you're a deeply technical type, you'll also love the Inspector window, where you can see and modify things like "Can Chain," "PIC Boot Code," "First Boot Block," and "Flags." I have no idea what any of those are, but they can be changed by those who do know. You can also easily make your disk unusable by modifying some of these settings, so I stayed well away from them.
Once you've got everything set up the way you want it, just click Commit, read and heed the warning about data backup, and then watch it work. I deleted four partitions, resized two others, and added a third. The Commit process took something less than 15 minutes -- perhaps much less, as I left the room during this stage, and it was done when I came back.
iPartition did exactly what it claimed to do, and did so with a pleasant and easy-to-understand interface (Disk Utility could learn a trick or two from the interface design). It probably turned what would have been a five or six hour ordeal (even with good backups, it still would've taken a while to copy and verify the functionality of 150+gb of data) into a simple one-hour project. And that hour includes the time I spent learning the program. So while $35 may seem expensive in comparison to typical PotW products, it's actually quite cheap -- PartitionMagic sells for twice that amount. And my time certainly has a value; the hours of work saved make it well worth the cost.
But please heed the warning in the app, as well as the one in this hint -- if you are going to do any mucking about with your partitions, back up first!. Preferably a few times to a few places...
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20041130014827278