PartitionPilot

PartitionPilot is a Windows disk partition management tool for power users and IT administrators. It provides a WPF interface for partition operations, disk health checks, maintenance tools, and disk image workflows.

Features

• Partition overview with disk map, partition table, and contextual actions.
• Pending operations queue: partition changes are queued and previewed before applying.
• Partition snapshot history with JSON export, mismatch-checked recovery plans, and guided recovery notes.
• Required pre-destruction partition snapshots before image restore, sector clone, whole-disk wipe, DoD wipe, and NVMe sanitize workflows.
• Lost-partition recovery scanning with fast boundary probes, resumable deep mode, duplicate candidate coalescing, and coverage reporting.
• Create, delete, format, resize, extend, split, hide, and drive-letter operations.
• Disk initialization for RAW/unpartitioned disks (GPT).
• Extended SMART health monitoring via LibreHardwareMonitorLib: curated SATA/NVMe advisory metadata, reallocated sectors, pending sectors, power cycles, total writes, NVMe available spare, NVMe media errors, and vendor-specific attributes with raw fallback.
• 4K alignment review and disk health classification (Good/Warning/Critical).
• BitLocker encryption status with mutation and destruction preflights.
• Storage Spaces pool detection with integrity warnings on pooled disks.
• Unsupported partition type identification (Linux, LUKS, HFS+, APFS) with guarded actions.
• Shared filesystem capability policy blocks unsupported create, format, resize, extend, check, and label operations before native disk tools run.
• Maintenance tools: MBR to GPT conversion, filesystem repair, optimization/TRIM, secure wipe (single-pass, DoD 3-pass, DoD 7-pass, NVMe sanitize), boot repair, surface test, Dev Drive creation, and DiskSpd-backed benchmarking.
• Benchmark result export as JSON or text with drive metadata.
• Disk image workflows for mounting, dismounting, and creating VHD/VHDX images.
• Disk usage analysis with squarified treemap visualization and top-folder size breakdown.
• Disk cloning: create and restore WIM/VHDX images.
• VSS writer-health preflight before live volume image capture, with explicit degraded-mode confirmation on failed writers.
• Disk image sidecar manifests with image SHA256, source-volume evidence, sampled source file hashes, encrypted-image rebinding, and restore-time validation before target clearing.
• Post-restore and post-clone bootability audit for Windows targets, with BCD/WinRE checks and a non-destructive repair plan.
• Privacy-preserving support bundle export (redacted serial numbers and user paths).
• Core workflow services centralize image preflight, support-bundle assembly, layout-plan generation, wipe prompts, and clone confirmations for GUI/CLI parity.
• Structured native-command audit records with path redaction.
• Auto-updates via Velopack with delta packages and GitHub Releases integration.
• Release artifact verification with SHA256 manifests, optional Authenticode signing, and explicit unsigned local-test status.
• Release-gated UI smoke tests with TRX logs, screenshots, and fail-closed all-skipped detection.
• WinPE rescue profile packaging with portable CLI launchers, source validation, and diagnostics --rescue checks for WMI, DiskPart, DISM, BitLocker, and storage APIs.
• .NET 10 Fluent theme with dark, light, and system (follows OS setting) modes.
• CLI companion (pp.exe) for scripted disk management with JSON output.
• SMART attribute history tracking with trend alerts for degradation detection.
• smartctl diagnostics with path/version reporting, remediation, and disk-aware self-test gating for physical, NVMe, and USB bridge modes.
• Real-time disk temperature monitoring with configurable threshold alerts.
• MFT-direct NTFS scanning for near-instant disk usage analysis.
• Sector-level disk-to-disk clone with progress reporting and cancel support.
• XAML localization resources with pseudo-locale coverage for visible labels and automation names.
• Activity log with export, filtering, and auto-save.
• Cancellable long-running operations with progress and rate reporting.
• Screen reader accessibility (AutomationProperties on all interactive controls).
• Administrator Protection compatible (ProgramData-based data paths).
• Local release packaging for self-contained Windows builds and installer artifacts.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11.
• Administrator privileges for disk operations.
• .NET 10 SDK to build from source.

Build

dotnet build .\src\PartitionPilot\PartitionPilot.csproj -m:1

The project targets net10.0-windows and publishes as a self-contained Windows app. Release artifacts are built locally.

dotnet publish .\src\PartitionPilot\PartitionPilot.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true
dotnet publish .\src\PartitionPilot.Cli\PartitionPilot.Cli.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true
dotnet run --project .\src\PartitionPilot.Cli\PartitionPilot.Cli.csproj -- release-manifest --artifacts .\artifacts
dotnet run --project .\src\PartitionPilot.Cli\PartitionPilot.Cli.csproj -- rescue-profile --source .\src\PartitionPilot.Cli\bin\Release\net10.0-windows\win-x64\publish --output .\artifacts\rescue-profile

Set PARTITIONPILOT_SIGN_CERT_THUMBPRINT before release-manifest to Authenticode-sign .exe artifacts with signtool.exe; without it, manifests are marked UnsignedLocalTest.

Run release UI smoke tests from an interactive desktop session:

.\tools\run-ui-smoke.ps1

The gate builds the WPF app, runs simulation-mode FlaUI smoke tests, writes artifacts\ui-smoke\ui-smoke.trx, and saves failure screenshots under artifacts\ui-smoke\screenshots. Noninteractive verification must opt in to skipped UI tests with -AllowHeadlessSkip; without that flag, an all-skipped run fails the release gate.

Run

dotnet run --project .\src\PartitionPilot\PartitionPilot.csproj

For real disk operations, run the built executable from an elevated session so Windows storage APIs and native tools have the required permissions.

CLI

dotnet run --project .\src\PartitionPilot.Cli\PartitionPilot.Cli.csproj -- disks
dotnet run --project .\src\PartitionPilot.Cli\PartitionPilot.Cli.csproj -- partitions --disk 0
dotnet run --project .\src\PartitionPilot.Cli\PartitionPilot.Cli.csproj -- health --json

Commands: disks, partitions, volumes, smart, smart-history, smart-trends, health, alignment, temperature, benchmark, snapshot, diagnostics, boot-audit, plan, apply-layout, recovery-scan, release-manifest, rescue-profile, version. All support --json for scripted automation.

Recovery scans default to fast mode:

pp recovery-scan --disk 1 --mode fast
pp recovery-scan --disk 1 --mode deep --state C:\ProgramData\PartitionPilot\recovery\scan-disk1.json

Layout Specs

pp apply-layout --file layout.json --disk N reads a declarative JSON layout and prints a dry-run plan by default. Add --apply to execute the plan. Add --replace only when the current disk layout intentionally differs from the spec and the disk should be cleared and recreated.

{
  "Style": "GPT",
  "TargetDisk": {
    "DiskNumber": 2,
    "FriendlyName": "Contoso USB SSD",
    "Size": 1024209543168,
    "PartitionStyle": "GPT",
    "UniqueId": "5000C500AABBCCDD",
    "SerialNumber": "SN123456",
    "Path": "\\\\?\\scsi#disk&ven_contoso",
    "BusType": "USB",
    "Location": "Port_#0004.Hub_#0001"
  },
  "Partitions": [
    {
      "SizeMB": "131072",
      "FileSystem": "NTFS",
      "Label": "System",
      "DriveLetter": "S"
    },
    {
      "UseMaximumSize": true,
      "FileSystem": "exFAT",
      "Label": "Data",
      "DriveLetter": "D"
    }
  ]
}

Rules enforced before DiskPart runs:

• Style must be GPT or MBR.
• Each partition must either set a positive whole-number SizeMB or set UseMaximumSize: true, not both.
• Filesystems are validated through the shared capability policy; unsupported create targets such as APFS are rejected before native tools run.
• Label is sanitized with the same label policy used by CLI plans.
• DriveLetter must be a single A-Z letter, with or without a trailing colon.
• TargetDisk is optional, but when present it must still match the current disk number, size, and stable identity fields. Use pp disks --json to capture the current identity block.

Encrypted Images

PartitionPilot encrypted disk images are normal captured .wim or .vhdx files wrapped with a .enc suffix. Current writes use the chunked PPENC2 container:

• AES-256-GCM with PBKDF2-SHA256 key derivation, 600,000 iterations, a 16-byte salt, 12-byte per-chunk nonces, and 16-byte authentication tags.
• Default plaintext chunks are 4 MiB; the encrypted header records chunk size and original plaintext length.
• Chunk authentication binds the container magic, plaintext length, chunk size, chunk index, and chunk length.
• Restores still read legacy PPENC1 whole-file encrypted images for compatibility.
• A sidecar manifest is written next to the image as <image>.ppmanifest.json; encrypted captures rebind the manifest to the .enc file hash and keep the original plaintext hash as PlainImageSha256.

Restore behavior is fail-closed for mismatched image hashes. Missing or unreadable manifests, or plaintext hash mismatches after decrypting an encrypted image, require an explicit degraded-mode confirmation before the target disk can be cleared.

Recovery Scan Modes

pp recovery-scan is read-only. It scans raw disk sectors for filesystem signatures and reports candidate partitions without changing the partition table.

• --mode fast probes common boot and alignment offsets, including legacy sector starts and 1 MiB boundaries. Use it first for quick triage.
• --mode deep scans every 512-byte sector, checkpoints progress, and can take hours on large disks.
• Deep scans default their resume file to C:\ProgramData\PartitionPilot\recovery\recovery-scan-diskN.json; pass --state path to use a specific file.
• Ctrl+C during deep mode saves resume state and exits with code 130. Resume with the command printed by the CLI.
• Completed deep scans remove their resume file automatically.
• Reports include scan mode, checked-offset count, coverage bytes and percent, completion status, resume path, candidate filesystem, offset, estimated size, confidence, and details.

Release Verification

PartitionPilot releases are built locally. A release candidate should have fresh published GUI and CLI folders, an Inno Setup installer, and release manifests:

dotnet publish .\src\PartitionPilot\PartitionPilot.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true
dotnet publish .\src\PartitionPilot.Cli\PartitionPilot.Cli.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true
& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe" .\installer\PartitionPilot.iss
.\src\PartitionPilot.Cli\bin\Release\net10.0-windows\win-x64\publish\pp.exe release-manifest --artifacts .\artifacts
.\src\PartitionPilot.Cli\bin\Release\net10.0-windows\win-x64\publish\pp.exe rescue-profile --source .\src\PartitionPilot.Cli\bin\Release\net10.0-windows\win-x64\publish --output .\artifacts\rescue-profile
.\tools\run-ui-smoke.ps1

release-manifest writes SHA256SUMS and SHA256SUMS.json, then verifies every listed artifact hash. Set PARTITIONPILOT_SIGN_CERT_THUMBPRINT or pass --cert-thumbprint to Authenticode-sign .exe artifacts; unsigned builds are marked UnsignedLocalTest and should be treated as local-test outputs, not trusted releases.

Safety

Partition operations are queued and previewed before execution. Verify the selected disk, partition, and pending operations before clicking Apply. Keep current backups before resizing, formatting, deleting, or wiping disks.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.