Symantic PartitionMagic v8.0 (1 User)
Does not work; Horrible Support
The box claims that the product will convert partitions on USB 2.0 drives up to 300GB.  That appears to be untrue.  The box also claims \\"Award-Winning Support\\".  Given the complete inability to solve or even diagnose the problem on 2 different occasions, I wonder just what kind of award they won.  Least capable?  Most downsized? <br /> <br />Here's the chat transcript.  You be the judge. <br /> <br />Vijay: Hi, thank you for contacting Symantec Live Technical Support. My name is Vijay. How may I help you? <br />Paul: I have just installed Partition Magic 8.05.  I have a 250 GB USB drive which I want to convert from NTFS to FAT32.  The convert dialog box has all the options grayed out EXCEPT turning the primary partition into a Logical partition. <br />Paul: Is it possible to do the conversion?  (This is why I bought Partition Magic in the first place.) <br />Vijay: Before troubleshooting any further, I need to gather some more information from you. May I proceed?  <br />Paul: Sure <br />Vijay: Thank you. <br />Vijay: Did you partition the drive into small partitions? <br />Paul: No.  It is one partition. <br />Vijay: Is it external drive or internal drive? <br />Paul: By the way, I called on Friday and someone tried to figure this out and was supposed to call back.  They never did. <br />Paul: The case number is &lt;nnn>.  External drive.  Maxtor.  USB.  250 GB <br />Vijay: Can you please be on hold while I refer to the documents. This may take 2-3 minutes.  <br />Paul: Sure <br />Vijay: Thank you. <br />Vijay: Thank you for being online.  <br />Vijay: Paul, does the Partition Magic options are enabled in other internal drives? <br />Paul: Yes, it is enabled for the internal drive. <br />Paul: The box claims that it works for USB 2.0 drives, which is what this one is. <br />Vijay: How many internal hard drives do you have installed in your computer? <br />Paul: It's a notebook computer.  There is 1 internal hard drive (100 gb).  And there is 1 external USB hard drive (250 gb).  The USB drive is directly connected to the computer (no hubs or anything like that). <br />Vijay: How many partitions are there in internal hard drive? <br />Paul: one <br />Paul: Computer is running WinXP Home <br />Paul: Drive is not compressed, encrypted or anything else strange. <br />Vijay: What is the file system of the internal harddrive? <br />Paul: NTFS <br />Vijay: Is the create partition option enabled for external drive? <br />Paul: There are 2 panels on the screen.  The top one, labeled \\"Pick a task...\\" has a task labeled \\"Create a new partition\\" and it is available. <br />Paul: The lower panel, labeled \\"Partition Operations\\" has an entry labeled \\"Create Partition\\" which is GRAYED OUT. <br />Paul: Same menu availability for both the internal and external drives. <br />Vijay: Do you get the option Convert when you right click on the external hard drive? <br />Paul: Yes.  And it pops up a dialog box with everything UNAVAILABLE except \\"logical partition\\". <br />Paul: If I do the same thing on the internal drive, I DO have the option to convert to FAT32. <br />Vijay: Does the external drive is labelled as 'Unallocated' ? <br />Paul: Not sure what you mean. <br />Vijay: Do you see the external hard drive in Partition Magic console is marked as unallocated or written as unallocated in it? <br />Paul: No.  It's all NTFS. <br />Vijay: Alright. <br />Paul: MAXTOR250 (E:)   NTFS    239,366.9 <br />Vijay: This issue could be due to size of the Harddrive. I suggest that you diveide the hadrdrive by creating a new partition in it and then try to convert both partitions. <br />Paul: That won't work for me.  The whole point here was to mount the drive on a wireless router.  I believe that it only recognizes a single partition. <br />Paul: The Partition Magic box claims that it works on partitions up to 300 GB and on USB drives. <br />Paul: This one's only 250 GB. It's less than 35% used. <br />Paul: There are no open files that I know of. <br />Paul: Is there a way to force all files closed on the drive? <br />Paul: (Other than \\"Remove Hardware\\" which would keep Partition Magic from seeing it too.) <br />Vijay: Converting the file system will delete all the data that is present on the drive. <br />Paul: Not according to the documentation. <br />Paul: I'm not trying to reFORMAT the drive.  I'm trying to convert it. <br />Paul: And again, the box claims \\"Converts partitions among FAT, FAT32, and NTFS without losing data.\\" <br />Paul: Vijay:  Is there second line support available?  I'd like this to get escalated.  Thanks. <br />Vijay: There may be chances of losing the data. it is recommended to backup the data before converting teh file system. <br />Paul: Of course. <br />Paul: Please connect me to the second line support people.  Thanks <br />Vijay: Can you please be on hold while I refer to the documents. This may take 2-3 minutes.  <br />Paul: Vijay:  Are you unable to escalate this incident? <br />Vijay: Thank you for being online.  <br />Vijay: You will be getting an email within 24 hours, if I escalte the issue to my supervisor. Is that OK with you? <br />Paul: Vijay:  I logged the request on Friday.  I was supposed to get a call back THAT DAY.  No call on Friday.  No call on Saturday.  No call on Sunday. <br />Vijay: Are you getting the option to convert the partition to Logical while you select convert option? <br />Paul: Now you've tried to solve the problem and were unable to resolve it. <br />Paul: I'd like someone to work on this problem NOW. <br />Vijay: I promise you that you receive a mail within 24 hours. <br />Paul: Yes.  As I said at the beginning \\"LOGICAL\\" is the only choice available in that dialog box. <br />Paul: Vijay.  I have no reason to doubt you personally, but quite frankly Symantec is 0 for 1 right now on follow through and 0 for 2 on problem solving.  I'd like to get this problem solved today. <br />Vijay: In order to convert the partition to FAT32, you can take a backup of the drive and format the drive and select File system as FAT32. <br />Paul: Sure.  And I can drive over it with my car and go buy a new drive formatted with FAT32.  I bought Partition Magic so that I wouldn't have to do that. <br />Vijay: I apologize for the inconvenience caused.  <br />Paul: Thanks for the apology.  But let's solve the problem.   <br />Paul: You do have supervisors there today, don't you? <br />Vijay: As the supervisors are busy with resolving the other escalated issues, you would receive a mail within 24 hours. <br />Paul: Well, since my request is now 48 hours old, seems like I ought to be right at the top of the queue, doesn't it? <br />Vijay: Please note taht we do not have access to records of Voice support. Since you have contacted Chat support now with the issue, you will receive a mail within 24 hours, or you can get back to us through Chat.  <br />Paul: Ok Vijay.  Send me the email.  I'll be waiting.