A bootable disk utility · since 2004
Disk Management Software: Erase, Partition, Clone
Parted Magic is a bootable disk management utility that runs from a USB stick. Boot up your PC, and within a few minutes you can perform a NIST 800-88 compliant secure erase, manage partitions with VisParted, or clone a disk using Parted Magic Clone. It runs completely in RAM, so the computer’s installed OS will never be modified.
Compliance
NIST SP 800-88 r2
Boot
UEFI Secure Boot
Interfaces
SATA · NVMe · eMMC · USB
Licensing
Unlimited drives
What Parted Magic Does
A disk utility built around three jobs
Secure Erase
Securely erase hard drives, SSDs and NVMe devices to the NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 Purge standard, and eMMC storage devices to Clear. Each device receives a digitally signed PDF certificate. And each session may be exported as a digitally signed evidence pack that can be verified by others, offline.
Methods
- ATA Secure Erase & Enhanced Secure Erase
- ATA Sanitize (Crypto / Block / Overwrite)
- NVMe Format with Cryptographic Erase
- eMMC Secure Erase & Sanitize
- TCG Opal PSID Revert
- Multi-pass overwrite (configurable patterns)
Partition Manager
Create, resize, move and copy partitions on both MBR & GPT formatted disks. VisParted, Parted Magic’s partition manager, writes its own partition table directly to the disk and then checks the results after reading them back from the disk. All moves are journaled; if a move is interrupted, it can resume where it left off.
Filesystems
- ext2/3/4, NTFS, FAT16/32, exFAT
- Btrfs, XFS, linux-swap
- F2FS, JFS, NILFS2, ReiserFS, HFS+, UDF
- MBR ↔ GPT conversion in place
- LVM2 volume group management
- LUKS encrypted volumes
- 4Kn and 512-byte sector drives
Disk Cloning
Clone partitions or entire disks to another disk, or save them as an image file, using Parted Magic Clone. Never writes anything to the original (source) disk. Copies only the in-use data, fits the copy onto a smaller or larger disk, and reads the copy back to verify it. Also includes Clonezilla for network images, encrypted images and multicast deployment.
What it does
- Disk to disk, partition to partition, or to an image file
- Copies to a smaller or larger disk (NTFS, ext, FAT and exFAT resized as they copy)
- Compressed images any Linux system can restore
- Every copy read back and verified, with a certificate
- Resumes where it stopped after a power cut
- Clonezilla for network images and multicast deployment
- ddrescue for failing drives, Parted Magic Rescue for lost partitions and files
A disk utility built for people who do the work
The Parted Magic software will run on both newer and older computers. The same USB thumb drive can be used for all of these jobs.
Disk sanitization for IT asset disposal
Sanitize hard drives to NIST SP 800-88 prior to sale, recycling or disposal. A signed PDF certificate is issued for each erased drive as a record that it has been sanitized.
Disk management for system administrators
You can resize partitions without having to reinstall, duplicate a workstation for rollout, or fix a damaged boot loader. Parted Magic boots into its own live environment, so no working operating system is required.
Disk recovery and forensics
Image the failing drive with ddrescue, then locate lost partitions and recover deleted files, with their file names and folder locations, using Parted Magic Rescue.
Disk tools for home users
Move to a larger solid-state drive, reduce the size of a Windows partition, or wipe a drive before selling your old laptop. Since nothing is installed on the computer, your original setup remains intact.
Disk utility technical specifications
Disk utility system requirements
A 64-bit x86 processor and at least 2 GB of memory. Parted Magic will work with UEFI Secure Boot and on Macs with Intel processors.
Disk and storage device support
Parted Magic will work with SATA, NVMe, SAS/SCSI, IDE, USB and eMMC storage, and with drives that use 512-byte, 4096-byte (4Kn) or larger sector sizes.
Partition Tables
Parted Magic will work with MBR (msdos) and GPT partition tables, including extended and logical partitions. It will convert one type of table to the other in place without relocating your data. When creating new partitions, VisParted will align them to the 1 MiB grid but leave existing partitions where they were created. Thus disks that were partitioned the old way, on 63-sector boundaries, will continue to work properly. VisParted will also read and write BSD disklabel, Sun, SGI, Apple, PC-98, Amiga and Atari partition tables.
Disk filesystem support
VisParted will create, check and label ext2/3/4, NTFS, FAT16/32, exFAT, Btrfs, XFS, linux-swap and LVM2 physical volumes, and give them new UUIDs. VisParted will also format F2FS, JFS, NILFS2, ReiserFS, Reiser4, HFS, HFS+, UDF and MINIX. It will resize ext2/3/4, NTFS, FAT16/32, exFAT, Btrfs, linux-swap, LUKS volumes and LVM2 physical volumes. It will grow XFS. In some cases it can resize them while they are mounted. It can move and copy any partition, regardless of the filesystem it contains. GParted 1.8 is also included for older formats such as HFS, HFS+, ReiserFS, Reiser4, JFS, NILFS2, F2FS and UFS, along with the usual command-line tools.
Disk encryption
Parted Magic provides support for unlocking LUKS and BitLocker volumes from the desktop. Parted Magic also includes gocryptfs and ecryptfs for creating and storing encrypted images. Finally, Parted Magic offers support for TCG Opal PSID Revert on self-encrypting drives.
How the disk utility boots
Parted Magic can be booted from a USB flash drive, a DVD or a PXE network server. Parted Magic does not require any type of installation, and it does not leave any footprint on the machines where it is used.
Network and remote disk access
Once booted, users can manage their wired and wireless networking with NetworkManager. Users can also take advantage of several options for accessing remotely stored files, such as SSH, Samba, NFS, FTP/SFTP and CIFS. Firefox is also included.
Disk utility desktop environment
Due to the fact that disk utilities require full access to the underlying hardware, Parted Magic boots into an XFCE desktop on X11, running as root. Parted Magic still supports much older hardware, dating back to pre-2010 Intel integrated graphics, and users may also test it in VirtualBox.
Included Tools
Complete disk management software in one boot
Partition & Filesystem
- VisParted
- GParted
- parted (libparted 3.8)
- gdisk / sgdisk
- fdisk / cfdisk
- e2fsprogs
- xfsprogs · btrfs-progs
- ntfs-3g · exfatprogs
- f2fs-tools · jfsutils
- hfsprogs · reiserfsprogs
- LVM2 · mdadm
- cryptsetup
Erase & Security
- Parted Magic Erase
- hdparm
- nvme-cli
- mmc-utils
- sedutil (TCG Opal)
- cryptsetup / LUKS
- dislocker (BitLocker)
- chntpw
- gocryptfs · ecryptfs
- nwipe · shred
- Wipe Free Space
Clone & Recovery
- Parted Magic Clone
- Parted Magic Clonezilla
- Partclone · Partimage
- ddrescue · ddrescueview
- Parted Magic Rescue
- HFSPrescue · fsarchiver
- udpcast (multicast)
- extundelete · Sleuth Kit
- rsync · wimlib
- dc3dd · safecopy
- dd · cat · pv
Disk diagnostics & benchmark
- smartmontools · GSmartControl
- WHDD (surface scan)
- fio · ioping
- f3 (flash capacity)
- stress-ng · stressapptest
- memtester
- iperf3
- Hardinfo2 · inxi
- lshw · lspci · lsblk
- nvme-cli · sdparm · sg3_utils
Besides its disk utilities, Parted Magic also includes a variety of other useful applications, including a web browser (Firefox), a file manager, text editors, calculators and archive tools. See the full program list →
Ready to start using the disk utility?
A single Parted Magic license covers unlimited drives, without any per-seat or per-drive fees. To begin using Parted Magic, download the ISO file, write it to a USB device using Rufus or Etcher, then boot from that device.
Frequently Asked Questions
Disk utility compliance & security
Is Parted Magic NIST 800-88 compliant?
Yes. The current version of Parted Magic implements the methods outlined in NIST SP 800-88 Revision 2, including Purge-level ATA Sanitize, ATA Secure Erase, NVMe Cryptographic Erase and TCG Opal PSID Revert. Upon completion of each erase operation, Parted Magic generates a PDF certificate that includes the Appendix C fields needed for auditing and compliance reporting.
What is ATA Secure Erase, and how does it differ from overwriting?
ATA Secure Erase is a firmware command that instructs the drive’s own controller to wipe out all data in every storage cell. Unlike simply overwriting the existing data, an ATA Secure Erase also clears any reserved or reallocated sectors that the operating system itself cannot reach. This is why a firmware erase is the reliable way to securely erase an SSD. Parted Magic also includes support for ATA Sanitize (Crypto, Block and Overwrite) as well as the corresponding NVMe and eMMC erase commands.
Will it boot on UEFI Secure Boot systems?
Yes. Parted Magic can boot on UEFI systems that have Secure Boot enabled. Parted Magic will also boot on legacy BIOS systems, and over the network with PXE.
Using the Disk Utility
Does the license limit how many drives I can erase or clone?
No. A single license is valid for an unlimited number of drives, disks and machines, so there are no per-drive, per-seat or per-erasure charges.
Do I have to install anything on my computer?
No. When Parted Magic runs from a USB stick, a DVD or a PXE server, nothing is written to the machine’s operating system or drives unless you choose to work on them yourself. That also makes it safe to use on machines that will not boot, have damaged filesystems, or have been locked out.
How long has Parted Magic been around?
Parted Magic has been in development since 2004, and the project created the first graphical tools for ATA Secure Erase. Parted Magic LLC has shipped regular releases ever since, which keep up with newer Linux kernels, storage standards and compliance requirements.