Windows 11 comes with a wide range of tools built right into the operating system, some of which can be very helpful. One of those tools is Disk Management, the built-in disk and partition manager, which can be used to create, resize, or delete partitions on your drives.

While it usually does the trick, though, the Windows partition manager is not exactly great. It only supports a few file systems for creating new partitions, and errors are not uncommon. I've had many drives not function properly after trying to recover them with this tool. For my money (or lack thereof), if you want to manage partitions on your computer, external drives, and anything else, your best bet is GParted Live.

It works on any computer

It's based on Linux, but it doesn't matter

GParted is actually a partition manager for Linux-based operating systems, and it's available as a typical app on that platform. But the great thing is you can use it on any PC thanks to GParted Live. This is a bootable Linux distro based on Debian, and it runs completely off your USB drive. You don't need to install anything on your PC for it to work, you just need to flash it onto a USB drive — or better yet, use Ventoy — and boot from the USB drive when you start the computer.

GParted Live is a very robust implementation of GParted, with support for all kinds of file systems, whether they're used for Linux, Windows, or macOS. It can very reliably resize, delete, or create partitions to meet your needs, and it's designed in a way that protects you from accidentally making changes. You can take all the actions you want on a drive, but they won't be processed until you click Apply, so you can easily fix any mistakes before anything breaks.

The ability to boot GParted Live from a USB drive means you can easily use it on any computer, regardless of needing administrator rights or anything of the sort. Sometimes, bootable tools are just better, and that's something you can only really do with Linux.

Label your partitions

Identify them more easily

Have you ever noticed how Disk Management in Windows will sometimes have indicators such as Recovery, EFI, Boot and so on? These let you know what each partition is used for, often in the context of an OS drive that needs multiple partitions in order to boot properly or support recovery.

While you don't have much control over those labels in Windows, GParted lets you assign these roles to specific partitions. This can make it easier to set up the appropriate disk layout for an OS drive, for example. You can set partitions to be hidden, too, so a regular user may never find the data on it (if any). It may not be something everyone needs, but it's cool all the same.

It can even recover data

Well, hopefully

Another major feature in GParted is the ability to recover data is lost partitions. If you've previously deleted a partition from your disk, it's possible that you can still restore that partition and its data, so you don't actually lose anything.

As with any data recovery software, the chances of success can vary, especially if you've written new data to the drive since then. However, GParted Live includes a robust set of tools that perform a best-effort attempt to restore lost partitions, including a tool called TestDisk and another called PhotoRec.

While these are separate tools, they're included by default in GParted Live, and they're likely your best bet for recovering lost partitions, particularly if you don't want to spend money.

It's completely free

And open-source, too

GParted Live is not the only solution out there for managing partitions, and you can find a wide range of solutions that run directly in Windows without needing to be booted from a USB drive. However, those solutions are often littered with ads, have more limited features, or lock some features behind a paywall. Not to mention, you may not even know a whole lot about the companies behind many of those tools, so you may always question if they're trustworthy.

GParted, on the other hand, is completely free to download, whether it's the app for Linux or the live distro. Not only that, but the source code is publicly available, and anyone can contribute to its development to make the app even better.

This degree of freedom and transparency is something that should be appreciated, and while sometimes "free" can also mean "cumbersome", GParted is one of those examples where free software is almost the gold standard for its purpose. There aren't many tools out there that are this good at managing partitions.

Linux to the rescue

Even if you're locked into Windows and you can't fathom switching to a Linux desktop, GParted Live is one of the prime examples of how Linux can still benefit those who still use Windows. It's also a great example of why Ventoy can be such a great tool to have, because you can easily throw GParted Live into a drive set up with Ventoy and still use the rest of the space for other files. GParted is a very small tool, so there's no reason to have an entire drive just for it.