Paragon Software Group has released Paragon Partition Manager 2014 Free, the cut-down, free-for-personal-use edition of its Hard Disk Manager 14 Suite.

The big addition this time is complete support for Windows Storage Spaces, Windows 8 and 8.1.

The previous Express Mode launcher now has a Windows 8-style interface. It’s surprisingly realistic, too, right down to a “live tile” with an animated “Upgrade to Hard Disk Manager 14 Suite” ad. (If you’re not a Modern UI fan, the regular “full scale launcher” is still available, and looks much as it always did.)

The Express Mode launcher now has a Windows 8-style interface

The program still contains the core partitioning tools you’d expect. You’re able to format, delete, hide, move or resize a partition; change volume labels, mark partitions as active or inactive, run a surface test and check file system integrity.

There’s also some support for Apple HFS; you’re able to format a partition as HFS, or convert NTFS or FAT32 partitions to or from HFS (no format required).

Paragon Partition Manager 2014 Free isn’t the most feature-packed of tools, then, even when compared to the free competition. But in our experience it’s extremely reliable, which is probably more important. If you’re a Paragon fan, or are in the market for a basic partitioning tool, then we’d recommend you take a look.