Paragon releases Partition Manager 2014 Free

Paragon Software Group has released Paragon Partition Manager 2014 Free, the cut-down, free-for-personal-use edition of its Hard Disk Manager 14 Suite. The big addition this time is complete support for Windows Storage Spaces, Windows 8 and 8.1.

The previous Express Mode launcher now has a Windows 8-style interface. It’s surprisingly realistic, too, right down to a "live tile" with an animated "Upgrade to Hard Disk Manager 14 Suite" ad. (If you’re not a Modern UI fan, the regular "full scale launcher" is still available, and looks much as it always did.)

The program still contains the core partitioning tools you’d expect. You’re able to format, delete, hide, move or resize a partition; change volume labels, mark partitions as active or inactive, run a surface test and check file system integrity.

There’s also some support for Apple HFS; you’re able to format a partition as HFS, or convert NTFS or FAT32 partitions to or from HFS (no format required).

Paragon Partition Manager 2014 Free isn’t the most feature-packed of tools, then, even when compared to the free competition. But in our experience it’s extremely reliable, which is probably more important. If you’re a Paragon fan, or are in the market for a basic partitioning tool, then we’d recommend you take a look.