Other Sites
VolumeWorks has been one of SubRosaSoft's best sellers due to its ability to resize, manage, defrag and move, expand or shrink, hard drive partitions without a complete erase and reformat.
VolumeWorks can resize partitions to the size of your choice, and defragment the disk if necessary to allow for shrinking. You can use VolumeWorks to create and delete partitions, and VolumeWorks includes custom icons that can be automatically applied to your newly created partition. VolumeWorks can hide partitions from other users as well temporarily putting them out of sight for privacy, and has the ability to shift a partition on the hard drive in addition to reconstructing partition maps. VolumeWorks cannot currently do volume merging.
Written specifically for Mac OS X, VolumeWorks' Resize Partitions On-the-Fly allows you to modify partitions on your drive without erasing them, with comprehensive support for ATA, SCSI, Firewire, and USB drives.
VolumeWorks also features Bootable CD-ROM support for any Mac supported by OS X 10.3.5, from first generation iMacs to the latest PowerBooks and iMac.
Visit http://www.subrosasoft.com or email for more information on getting a VolumeWorks on a bootable CD if you already own a download version of VolumeWorks.
Partition Map Reconstruction allows full access of a newly device copied drive using hardware such as Diskology�s Disk Jockey or software such as SubRosaSoft�s own CopyCatX.
SubRosaSoft recommends that you back up your data before using VolumeWorks; that way, if anything goes wrong (virus, power blackout, OS error, or hardware failure, etc...), you will be able to recover your data. VolumeWorks is designed to work with OS X partitions. Note well that using VolumeWorks on OS 9 volumes will remove the ability to start up OS 9 from that partition. VolumeWorks does not affect the data on OS 9 volumes at all.
I tested booting from the VolumeWorks CD, and it worked fine on my 700 MHz G3 iBook. Booting from the CD will be necessary if you want to resize or otherwise modify your computer's startup volume.
There are two ways to start up from a CD:
� Restart your system while holding down the �C� key.
� With the CD in the machine, choose the VolumeWorks CD-ROM as the startup drive by selecting it in the Startup Disk under System Preferences.
However, the CD contains only a barebones system and cannot do anything other than running VolumeWorks, so for working with volumes other than your startup volume, I suggest installing VolumeWorks on your hard disk and running it from there. For the purposes of this review, I used the 20 GB hard drive in my QPS FireWire external housing, which used to be the drive in my Pismo PowerBook, and now serves as a backup drive. Installing VolumeWorks on your hard drive will also mean that you only have to type in the long serial number once.
When you start VolumeWorks, it displays a window showing the supported drives connected to the computer.
There are 3 key areas in the main window:
� Drive Selection Area�selects the hard drive you want to work on. Use the scroll bar to view additional drives connected to your Macintosh.
� Context-sensitive help�provides help and descriptions of the current active screen and the icon buttons.
� Icon Buttons
Select the one you want to work with and click the green checkmark button. You will now see the VolumeWorks� Repartition window. There are 4 key areas in this window:
� Partition List�the list on the left hand side of the screen shows all the partitions on the currently selected hard drive. Any free space on the drive is shown in light blue. Free space contains no data. The partition list will also show hidden partitions and partitions with file systems not supported by the OS.
� Drive Name and Icon�the upper right hand corner indicates the name of the drive, the drive�s icon, and the total size of the drive.
� Context-sensitive help�provides help and descriptions of the current active screen and the icon buttons.
� Icon Buttons�the 7 icon buttons shown at the bottom right hand corner of the main window are used to perform most of the functions within the program:
Some of the features will delete your data, so use VolumeWorks with caution. SubRosaSoft recommends that you back up your data before using VolumeWorks; that way, if anything goes wrong (virus, power blackout, OS error, or hardware failure, etc...), you will be able to recover your data.
Most VolumeWorks functionality requires a four-step process to complete a task:
1. Select a hard drive in the main window.
2. Select a partition/volume in the Repartition window.
3. Select an operation.
4. Select a parameter and apply it to the volume.
On the main windows, you can select the drive you want to work on. Use the scroll bar to view additional drives connected to your Macintosh. Once you highlight the drive by click on it, you can click on the green checkmark to select it. VolumeWorks supports most native drive formats (SCSI, ATA, USB, Firewire, etc.).
Once you select the volume or partition to work on, you can select a task you want to perform by clicking on one of the icon buttons on the bottom right hand side of the window. For operations such as adding, resizing, and shifting partitions, you will need to enter additional information pertain to the operation. Delete, Hide/Reveal. Mount/Unmount, and Reset Partition Map don�t require any additional information. Once you enter the parameters for the operation, click on green checkmark to complete the task.
SubRosaSoft VolumeWorks allows you to resize your OS X disk partitions (volumes) without requiring you to erase the volume. VolumeWorks can only resize HFS+ volumes. Partitions can be shrunk in order to make room for a new partition, or they can be expanded to take advantage of free space on the drive. To Resize a Volume To shrink a volume, on the Repartition window, select the volume/partition you want to work by clicking and highlighting it. Click on the Resize icon button. You will be presented with the Resize dialog.
Use the slider to select the desired new size of your partition and press the Green Checkmark to continue. You can also type in the new size of the partition. You can't make a volume smaller unless it has unused apace. I tested making one of the partitions on my 20 GB drive a bit smaller, since the drive had no unpartitioned free space.
In order to shrink that partition the data it contained needed to be defragmented. A new window popped up for the defragmenting process.
Before defragmenting the drive, VolumeWorks will asked to verify the disk�s integrity. The Verify window enables you to verify, repair, and rebuild the volume. My 4 GB and change partition needed no repair and the verification took only seconds.
The verification completed, and defragmentation commenced. This took quite a long time � about 20 minutes. When the defragmentation was completed, VolumeWorks proceeded to resize the volume, mounting the resized partition on the desktop with a new free space partition shown in the Repartition window.
Once again, SubRosaSoft recommends, and it should go without saying, that you should back up your data before using VolumeWorks.
To expand a volume, select the hard drive you want to work on, click on the Resize icon button, and use the slider to select the new size of your partition and select the Green Checkmark icon to continue. You will need to have free space below the volume you want to expand. You cannot expand a volume if there is no Apple_Free space adjacent to it. If the Apple_Free space partition is on top of the volume you want to expand, you will need to use the Shift function to move the volume up before expanding the volume.
VolumeWorks allows you to shift disk partitions without requiring you to erase the volume. Partitions can be moved forwards and backwards on the hard disk allowing you to combine free spaces into one. When you shift a partition, the partition�s data is unaffected. The free space adjacent to the partition will determine how far forward or backward you can move the partition. If there is no free space adjacent to it, the partition cannot be moved. Additionally, you cannot move an Apple_Free partition.
Subrosasoft warns that it is extremely important to run an integrity check on the hard drive using Apple�s Disk Utility first. Proceed to VolumeWorks only when the drive passes the Disk Utility check.
To Shift a volume, select the hard drive you want to work on, then click on the Shift icon button. You will be presented with the window shown. If you want to shift the partition to take over the space below the current volume, click on the Down Arrow icon button. To take over the space above the volume, click on the Up Arrow icon. Click on the Green Checkmark icon button to continue. note that the shift process cannot be undone. If you force quit VolumeWorks, or restart the machine, the partition will be gone and most likely cannot be recovered.
After I got through experimenting with shrinking volumes, I had two inconvenient small sections of Apple_Free space left. Using the Shift and Expand volume functions, I was able to successfully reclaim the space.
This worked, but during the Shift function process I encountered a bit of bugginess, with the program locking up at the end of the first Shift attempt, and then unexpectedly quitting after the second. Happily, there was no data loss, and I was able to accomplish what I had set out to do with a couple of program restarts.
VolumeWorks also allows you to create or delete a volume from your hard drive. The Delete operation deletes a volume and destroys all its data. This partition will then be marked as "free space" until you create a new volume or expand an existing volume to take over it.
Once you delete a volume, the data it contains ll be gone with it. The Add icon button lets you create either a Mac OS HFS Extended volume or UFS partition. To create a new volume, free space must exist on the drive. If there is no free space, you will need to use Resize to shrink a current volume to open up free space for the volume creation process.
To create a new volume using VolumeWorks:
1. Select the hard drive you want to work on. Highlight the drive and click on the Green Checkmark to select it.
2. Select the free space partition or volume you want to create a new volume on
3. Click on the Add button.
4. Use the slider to select the new size of your volume and click on the Green Checkmark icon to continue. If you are running VolumeWorks from your hard drive instead of the bootable CD, you can select from a list of custom icons an icon for your new volume.
5. Click on the Green Checkmark to create a new volume.
After performing device-to-device disk copy using hardware such as Disk JockeyTM from Diskology, the partition map on your new hard drive will not allow full access to all the space. For example, if you use Disk Jockey to copy a 20 GB drive to a brand new 60 GB drive, the 60 GB drive will show up on the Macintosh as a 20 GB drive. VolumeWorks can reset the partition map allowing you to reclaim the 40 GB of extra space. See the manual for details on the procedure.
You can use VolumeWorks to hide and reveal volumes on your hard drive. The Hide Volume operation allows you secure volumes against unwanted user access. Hidden volumes will not be visible under normal circumstances and will not mount automatically. The hidden mode is designed as a simple/convenient way to hide your data from prying eyes. If you would like industrial strength disk encryption, check out SubRosaSoft CipherDisk.
To hide a volume:
1. Select the hard drive you want to work on. Highlight the drive and click on the green checkmark to select it.
2. Select the volume you want to hide from the desktop.
3. Click on the Hide icon button. If you select a volume that is already hidden, the Hide icon will change to become a Reveal icon button.
To unhide a volume:
1. Select the volume you want to unhide
3. Click on the Reveal icon
SubRosaSoft VolumeWorks works as advertised, I encountered no serious bugs. It is a handy tool that can save you the hassle of erasing and reformatting your hard drive if you need to alter your partition map. It will be especially useful if you have an unpartitioned drive and would like to move OS 9 to its own partition for better organization and efficiency.
System Requirements
� Mac OS X 10.3 or better
� CD/DVD drive for Bootable CD and CD Installation
The MSRP for VolumeWorks is $49.95 for download or 59.95 plus shipping for the bootable CD version. To purchase VolumeWorks, please visit our website or contact your local reseller. All current owners of VolumeWorks version 1.0 and 1.1 can download the free upgrade from:
http://www.SubRosaSoft.com/thestore/downloads
For more information on VolumeWorks visit:
http://www.subrosasoft.com/thestore/product_info.php?&products_id=431
Tags: Reviews ï Utilities Reviews ï MooresViews ï
...and to my knowledge it is the only application of its kind available written explicitly for OS X.
There’s also iPartition.