As you'll see from our previous reviews (starting here), we've been using PartitionMagic and its ilk for several years. Tools such as this are handy for manipulating your hard drive so that you can, for example, run multiple operating systems, keep applications separate from data and change file systems (FAT to FAT32 or NTFS, for example).

PartitionMagic 7.0 does all those things. You can create new hard drive partitions, delete old ones, resize or split existing ones and change the underlying file system so that you squeeze the most out of your available disk space (in most cases, FAT32 will give you more space than FAT, for example). And you can do all (well, most) of this from within Windows, with XP and 2000 now added to the list that includes 95, 98, ME and NT4 (with SP6a). We say 'most' because low level file operations still require the system to be rebooted into DOS mode in most cases, to ensure that no background caches or other applications lead to corrupt data.

New to this version of the software is the ability to merge two NTFS partitions to form one single partition (previously this only applied to FAT and FAT32), plus handy support for external USB hard drives (such as this one, for example). Partitions can now be split at the directory level or even file level. And if you get into a pickle, you can now use the rescue disk that's created during installation to undelete partitions. Handy.

Also in the box are useful tools such as DriveMapper, which changes the drive letters of applications once they've been moved to a new drive, and the boot-time menu system, BootMagic, that lets you select a partition/operating system each time you boot. Some additional minor utilities, plus a DOS version of the package, are also included, as is a wealth of well-written help files and PDF user guides. There's a good paper manual, too.

If PartitionMagic 7.0 has a failing, it's this: it doesn't support hard drives over 80GB in size. That may not sound like much of a failing and in fact it's an improvement over previous versions. But with EIDE drives now breaching the 100GB mark and SCSI drives available well over this size, it could be a problem. Bear it in mind before you buy.

For technically-savvy users, the expansion of the partition merging feature, the increased maximum supported drive size and the USB drive support may be worth the upgrade cost from version 6.0. However, those with extra-large hard drives should check for support before buying. In any event, always backup before use - the slick interface hides some powerful data manipulation tools.