I never bothered much with PartitionMagic or other commercial partitioning products once I discovered gparted.
It's true the Win-specific utilities often do more on the Windows platform than gparted does. But I don't need those features so gparted (best when bundled with the FOSS
Parted Magic OS suite) serves me quite well. PartedMagic OS also provides support for Linux partitioning and formatting - and Windows file rescue efforts - which is what I use it most for.
In general, once Windows goes south, I try to get the drive mounted under Linux and attempt repairs/recovery from there.
I've got shelves full of Windows tech tools and rescue disks. And I know how and when to use them. But I've often found trying to work on a clobbered Windows drive using anything that's Windows-based only compounds the problem if the drive is seriously "pooched." But maybe I'm just unlucky that way.
Your mileage will likely vary from mine.
Be sure to check out
Parted Magic OS. Cool tools! Highly recommended.