Steve Wendt wrote:

>On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 20:33:22 -0800, Ray Davison wrote:
>
>>I'll see if I can use PQM.  My challenge is that my use of Partition 
>>Magic and the abbreviation PM predates my use of OS/2 -- and, I 
>>believe, anyones use of OS/2.
>>    
>>
>
>As I understand it, Partition Magic 1.0 was an OS/2-only application. 
Thus, OS/2 
>obviously came first.  ;)
>  
>

Hi Steve, Ray,

It was developed under OS/2!
I didn't buy Powerquest Partition Magic until Version 2.0 was released 
[actually 2.01] because of the missing features mentioned in the 
following review of PQPM for OS/2 and DOS, at the time of introduction 
of PQPM V1.0 [circa October 1995]

    First impressions

    Last month, I received one of the most unique special-purpose
    products on the market: PowerQuest's Partition-Magic for OS/2 and
    DOS. In its current 1.0 incarnation, PartitionMagic permits the
    shrinkage or expansion of hard disk partitions without deleting
    existing data, thus avoiding the 'backup, delete partition, create
    partition, restore' song and dance.

    The non-copyrighted utility ships with a comprehensive manual which
    covers partitioning concepts, clear instructions and a complete
    appendix of error codes and solutions. The code is on two
    high-density diskettes with a native OS/2 executable and a 32-bit
    DOS version for Windows users willing to try OS/2. Both versions are
    small enough to fit on floppies, which is more a necessity than a
    convenience since you cannot resize the partition on which
    PartitionMagic is executed. PowerQuest opted to keep the OS/2
    Presentation Manager interface in all versions, which is one reason
    the executables are about 1 MB each. Also, 32-bit executables are
    invariably larger than 16-bit ones.

    The other main feature of Partition-Magic is its ability to convert
    FAT partitions to HPFS without formatting and converting Microsoft's
    new-for-Windows-95 long filenames to proper HPFS filenames -- none
    of that 'double FAT entries' nonsense.

    Less-than-positive aspects?

    PartitionMagic does all that it claims properly and efficiently, but
    you can't help feeling that too much is left out. To delete or
    create partitions, you must exit PartitionMagic, start FDISK and
    apply the changes to your hard disk's logical structure. Before
    resizing or converting file systems, PartitionMagic completes a
    thorough verification of the state of your hard disk's partitions
    and file systems, along with the most comprehensive file system
    statistical report I've ever seen. Again, however, should any
    problems arise, PowerQuest advises you to exit PartitionMagic and
    execute CHKDSK (the OS/2 version -- not the poor excuse for a
    utility that ships with MS-DOS) on the offending hard disk. It's the
    same scenario if you want to install Boot Manager -- FDISK will have
    to be used.

    These shortcomings are noted by PowerQuest. According to John
    Chris-tensen, Marketing Vice President, they will be addressed in
    release 2.0 of PartitionMagic, along with NTFS support and the
    ability to create and delete partitions. I hope they will also
    include a partition error correcting module and a Boot Manager
    installation module.
    oBack to top

    Designed for power use

    This also raises the question of PartitionMagic's positioning in the
    software market. In its current incarnation, it is very limited in
    scope and will prob-ably be used only a few times. Therefore, I
    suggest that it be incorporated in OS/2's FDISK. IBM would gain much
    more credibility for their claim of easier OS/2 installation if they
    license this utility for inclusion with future releases of OS/2. I
    believe there would still be a market for a complete hard disk
    management utility that would support FAT, HPFS, NTFS and maybe even
    ext2, Linux's native file system, and would permit the installation
    of Boot Manager, Lilo or Windows NT's OS Loader. As it stands now,
    PartitionMagic is one of the most useful utilities available to the
    power user who can't decide on an ideal set-up, and a great time
    saver for the average user.

    PowerQuest can be reached at (800) 379-2566.

Note the necessity to use OS/2's FDISK above in conjunction with PQPM. 
The changes were implemented at the time I bought V2.0 for OS/2 and DOS.
I upgraded to V3.0 when that was released and currently run V3.05.302 
[final Native OS/2 version], and sometimes V6.0x, the last that had 
[non-native] HPFS support. I think that the only reason the DOS 
executable from V3.05.302 runs with >256MB RAM is that it only 
recognises the first 64MB of RAM!

For any multi-OS-booting OS/2 user considering the current [now 
Symantec] Partition Manager, the relevant points in the following 2004 
review are well worth considering:

[From LMT Tech Store on Symantec Partition Magic 8.0x bundle with Norton 
Ghost 9.0]

    Rating: 1 out of 5 stars - Symantec Destroyed Powerquest
    I remember Powerquest Partition Magic 2.0, back in the days it was
    released as an OS/2 *and* MS-DOS utility you could boot and use from
    a set of two diskettes. I got hands-on experience with Partition
    Magic up to version 7. Slowly they started dropping features, like
    HPFS file system support, for no apparent reason.

    Soon after version 8 was released, the corporation dubbed Symantec
    -which I like to refer to as "Engulf and Devour"- bought powerquest
    and while I no longer used it, soon I started hearing the complaints
    about the new "activation scheme" in version 8.x, which insisted on
    "phoning home" before allowing you to use it.

    And now, users are supposed to like this artificial, crippled bundle
    as other reviewers have said below. PQMagic and Powerquest Drive
    Image have been always superior to Symantec's Ghost products. The
    era of small powerquest utilities that would fit on a diskette is gone.

    It's sad to see such a great company and their products destroyed by
    Symantec's corporate greed. Welcome to the Symantec partition
    resizing utility monopoly!. Symantec got rid of their main
    competitor and destroyed a product in the process.
   
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [From same article as above]

    Rating: 1 out of 5 stars - PartitionMagic artificially crippled
    I purchased this bundled as I am quite familar with Ghost, and love
    it's awesome multimedia help tutorials.

    I got it for Partition Magic because I like the graphical user
    interface, and find that it works quite well. I have been a customer
    ever since version 3.0 (back in the days of OS/2, multiple DOS
    operating systems, UnixWare, NeXTSTEP).

    As I use a variety of operating systems for testing, web authoring,
    and development (ranging from Windows XP/2K/2K3 to various distros
    of Linux like Debian and SuSE), I thought this would be a great
    product to partition and backup those partitions, without the need
    to re-install the OS.

    However, much to my horror, there's an artificial limitation to
    Partition Magic, that prevents it from operating or installing when
    there's an existing server-oriented Windows OS installed on any
    partition.

    I think this is downright deceitful and unethical, as they are
    trying to force customer to buy their excessively expensive
    enterprise variety of the software, which seems to be no longer sold
    under the Symantec umbrella.

    Be cautious when considering this product bundle. For myself, I am
    going to try out Partition Commander (v-com.com) and see if that
    works...

HTH

-- 
Regards,
Mike

Failed the exam for
--------------------
MCSE - Minesweeper Consultant and Solitaire Expert
--------------------
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