Weekend Widget: Easeus Partition Manager

I'm very picky about how I set up my computers and I suspect many of you are the same way. My set-up is to put Windows on Drive C, all of my software and content collections (fonts, clip art, photos, etc.) on Drive D and my own data on Drive E. By doing this, I only need to back up the data from the E drive because everything else can be reinstalled from the original discs. About the only exception is my Outlook data file which is buried deep on the C drive. I make sure it is also backed up.

When I first get a new computer, I partition my hard drive into three drives as described earlier. This means I have to decide how much space each partition would require. In most cases I choose the right sizes, but that isn't always the case. If you don't have the right sizes, it would be a huge pain to re-partition the drive using the tools Microsoft provides with Windows. Some of you are probably familiar with Symantec's Partition Magic. I've heard good things about it, but it doesn't support Vista.

That's leads us to today's product, Easeus Partition Manager. It does support Vista (as well as XP) and it even supports 64-bit versions of Windows. Best of all, there is a free version for home users. Business users will find that it also costs much less than Partition Magic. I guess the big test is whether it gets the job done.

My laptop was running out of space on the C drive thanks to Vista's desire for way too much drive space. Before I started, I made sure to back up my data. Then I ran Partition Manager and adjusted the size of the three drives. A reboot is required and it can take a fairly long time for all the partitions to be properly adjusted and moved. I think it took somewhere around an hour. After another reboot, my drives had been re-partitioned and everything was running smoother. This is a great utility that does its job quite well and it is very easy to use.

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Weekend Widget: aTunes

There has been a lively discussion in one of the CorelDRAW.com forums where various designers have shared the music they listen to while working. Now maybe you are listening to a regular radio station, but most designers are listening right on their computers these days.

You have your choice of a number of applications for playing music and even more for managing the music on your computer. Sometimes the software you use is dictated by the MP3 player you use. I'd like to share another tool for both playing and managing your music.

aTunes is an open source tool for playing and managing your music. It isn't tied to a specified company or player like that other tool with a similar name. It has features the other guys don't have and it is also lacking some useful features, namely being able to sync with all players. The good news is that there is an active development community supporting the product and new releases come about once a month. So while there are missing features now, they will undoubtedly be addressed in future releases. It is free, so it is definitely worth giving aTunes a try!

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