Acronis DISK DIRECTOR SUITE 10.0 User Manual

Download

Page 1

Acronis

Disk Director Suite 10.0

User’s guide

www.acronis.com

Page 2

Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000–2007. All rights reserved. Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective

owners. Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the

explicit permission of the copyright holder. Distribution of the work or derivative work in any standard (paper) book form for

commercial purposes is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained fr om the copyright holder.

DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED «AS IS» AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE DISCLAIMED, EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT THAT SUCH DISCLAIMERS ARE HELD TO BE LEGALLY INVALID.

Page 3

END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

BY ACCEPTING, YOU (ORIGINAL PURCHASER) INDICATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO ACCEPT THE PRODUCT UNDER THESE TERMS, YOU CAN CHOOSE NOT TO ACCEPT BY SELECTING "I decline..." AND NOT INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE.

Acronis Disk Director Suite (the software) is Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000–2007. All rights are reserved. The ORIGINAL PURCHASER is granted a LICENSE to use the software only, subject to the following restrictions and limitations.

1. The license is to the original purchaser only, and is not transferable without prior written permission from Acronis.

2. The original purchaser can use the software on a single computer. You cannot use the software on more than one machine, even if you own or lease all of them, without the written consent of Acronis.

3. The original purchaser cannot engage in, nor permit third parties to engage in, any of the following:

A. Providing or permitting use of by, or transferring the software to, third parties. B. Providing use of the software in a computer service business, network, timesharing or multiple

user arrangement to users who are not individually licensed by Acronis.

C. Making alterations or copies of any kind in the software (except as specifically permitted

above).

D. Attempting to unassemble, decompile or reverse-engineer the software in any way. E. Granting sublicenses, leases or other rights in the software to others. F. Making copies, or verbal or media translations, of the users guide.

G. Making telecommunication data transmission of the software. Acronis has the right to terminate this license if there is a violation of its terms or default by the

original purchaser. Upon termination for any reason, all copies of the software must be immediately returned to Acronis, and the original purchaser shall be liable to Acronis for any and all damages suffered as a result of the violation or default.

ENTIRE RISK

THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH YOU THE PURCHASER. ACRONIS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SOFTWARE OR ITS FUNCTIONS WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE OR THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED.

NO LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES

IN NO EVENT SHALL ACRONIS OR ITS VENDORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR THE LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, OR ANY OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ACRONIS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Page 4

Table of contents

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................... 6

CHAPTER 1. INSTALLATION AND USE .............................................................................................9

1.1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS...................................................................................................................... 9

1.2 INSTALLATION PROCESS ...................................................................................................................... 9

1.3 UPGRADING ACRONIS DISK DIRECTOR SUITE.................................................................................... 10

1.4 REMOVING SOFTWARE ...................................................................................................................... 10

1.5 USER INTERFACE ............................................................................................................................... 11

1.6 BEFORE YOU RUN ACRONIS DISK DIRECTOR SUITE .......................................................................... 11

1.7 RUNNING ACRONIS DISK DIRECTOR SUITE........................................................................................ 12

CHAPTER 2. BEGINNING THE WORK.............................................................................................. 13

2.1 ACRONIS DISK DIRECTOR SUITE LOGICAL ORGANIZATION............................................................... 13

2.2 ACRONIS DISK DIRECTOR SUITE MAIN WINDOW .............................................................................. 14

2.3 CALLING PARTITION OPERATIONS..................................................................................................... 15

2.4 PARTITION OPERATION PROPERTIES .................................................................................................. 16

2.5 PROTECTING ACRONIS DISK DIRECTOR SUITE WITH A PASSWORD................................................... 19

2.6 VIEWING LOGS................................................................................................................................... 20

CHAPTER 3. AUTOMATIC PARTITION OPERATIONS................................................................ 22

3.1 CREATING A NEW PARTITION............................................................................................................ 22

3.2 INCREASING PARTITION FREE SPACE................................................................................................. 31

3.3 COPYING PARTITIONS ........................................................................................................................ 33

CHAPTER 4. MANUAL PARTITION OPERATIONS........................................................................ 38

4.1 MAIN PARTITION OPERATIONS .......................................................................................................... 38

4.2 ADDITIONAL PARTITION OPERATIONS ............................................................................................... 57

CHAPTER 5. WORKING WITH ACRONIS RECOVERY EXPER T............................................... 67

5.1 AUTOMATIC RECOVERY .................................................................................................................... 68

5.2 MANUAL RECOVERY ......................................................................................................................... 71

CHAPTER 6. WORKING WITH ACRONIS DISK EDITOR............................................................. 74

6.1 GENERAL INFORMATION .................................................................................................................... 74

6.2 THE SELECTION OF THE PARTITION OR A DISK FOR EDITING ............................................................... 74

6.3 MAIN WINDOW OF THE PROGRAM ..................................................................................................... 75

6.4 EDIT HARD DISKS.............................................................................................................................. 76

6.5 WRITE BLOCK TO A FILE AND READ FROM A FILE ............................................................................. 77

6.6 VIEW.................................................................................................................................................. 78

6.7 SEARCH ............................................................................................................................................. 79

6.8 WORKING WITH DIFFERENT ENCODINGS ........................................................................................... 81

CHAPTER 7. WORKING WITH ACRONIS OS SELECTOR........................................................... 82

7.1 GENERAL INFORMATION .................................................................................................................... 82

7.2 STARTING THE WORK......................................................................................................................... 82

7.3 SETTING THE BOOT MENU ................................................................................................................. 84

7.4 BOOTING OPERATING SYSTEMS.......................................................................................................... 84

7.5 SETTING AN OPERATING SYSTEM AS THE DEFAULT ............................................................................ 85

7.6 SETTING OPERATING SYSTEM PASSWORDS......................................................................................... 85

7.7 SETTING OPERATING SYSTEM PROPERTIES ......................................................................................... 86

7.8 HIDING OPERATING SYSTEMS............................................................................................................. 92

7.9 USING SHORTCUTS............................................................................................................................. 93

7.10 DELETING OPERATING SYSTEMS FROM OS SELECTOR BOOT MENU ................................................ 93

7.11 DETECTING OPERATING SYSTEMS................................................................................................... 93

Page 5

Table of contents

7.12 RENAMING OPERATING SYSTEMS ................................................................................................... 95

7.13 COPYING OPERATING SYSTEMS ...................................................................................................... 95

7.14 SETTING ACRONIS OS SELECTOR OPTIONS..................................................................................... 95

CHAPTER 8. INSTALLING AND USING SEVERAL OPERATING SYSTEMS ON A SINGLE PC 100

8.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................100

8.2 INSTALLING SEVERAL WINDOWS COPIES TO A SINGLE PC ............................................................... 101

8.3 INSTALLING LINUX AND WINDOWS ON THE SAME PC...................................................................... 106

CHAPTER 9. BOOTABLE MEDIA BUILDER.................................................................................. 108

9.1 GENERAL INFORMATION .................................................................................................................. 108

9.2 CREATING BOOTABLE MEDIA........................................................................................................... 108

APPENDIX A. HARD DISK AND FILE SYSTEMS........................................................................... 111

A.1 HARD DISK ORGANIZATION............................................................................................................. 111

A.2 HARD DISK PARTITION .................................................................................................................... 112

A.3 PARTITION TYPES ............................................................................................................................ 112

A.4 PRIMARY PARTITIONS...................................................................................................................... 113

A.5 EXTENDED PARTITIONS ................................................................................................................... 114

A.6 LOGICAL PARTITIONS ...................................................................................................................... 114

A.7 FORMATTING HARD DISKS .............................................................................................................. 114

A.8 FILE SYSTEMS.................................................................................................................................. 115

A.9 FILE SYSTEM MAIN SPECIFICATIONS............................................................................................... 115

APPENDIX B. PARTICULARITIES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS................................................. 119

B.1 DOS-TYPE OPERATING SYSTEMS .................................................................................................... 119

B.2 WINDOWS 95/98/ME........................................................................................................................ 121

B.3 WINDOWS NT/2000/XP................................................................................................................... 122

B.4 LINUX.............................................................................................................................................. 124

B.5 OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS .......................................................................................................... 124

APPENDIX C. GLOSSARY................................................................................................................... 125

Page 6

Introduction

What is Acronis Disk Director Suite?

Acronis Disk Director Suite is a complex program that includes partition and boot managers and hard disk data editing tools. With it, you can:

• Create hard disk partitions

• Resize, move, split and merge partitions without data loss or destruction

• Convert partitions to other file systems without data loss

• Copy (move) partition contents

• Delete partitions

• Recover hard disk partitions that were accidentally deleted or damaged due to a

hardware or software error

• Format, label, assign letters, hide and unhide partitions, set active partitions and

perform additional disk management operations

• Install multiple operating systems on a single PC

• Boot installed operating systems from any hard disk partition

• Boot installed operating systems from under Windows

• Install several operating systems on a single partition

• Hide or protect with a password any operating system on your PC

• Duplicate installed operating systems and define different configurations for each copy

• Recover boot records, files and folders structure, find lost clusters, remove viruses,

etc.

Some terms of this guide might be unfamiliar. Appendix A «Hard Disk And File Systems » and Appendix C «Glossary» provide descriptions of some hard disk data storage components

and used terms.

What’s new in Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0?

• Splitting/merging partitions

You can split a partition in two, moving the selected folders to the new partition and leaving the rest of the data on the old one. This operation can also be used for creating an empty partition from another partition’s free space. You can merge two partitions, as well, even if their file systems are different. All data will stay intact and reside on the resulting partition.

• Exploring and managing partitions contents

You can explore or manage partition contents before configuring operations on that partition directly from Acronis Disk Director Suite. It enables you to copy, paste,

Page 7

Introduction

rename and delete files and folders, create folders on the selected partition, and even edit text files.

• Support of boot from CD/DVD in Acronis OS Selector

If you insert a bootable CD/DVD, it will be detected and displayed in the Acronis OS Selector boot menu/main window along with available operating systems. The CD/DVD can contain any operating system or bootable program – no matter, you will see its icon in the boot menu. It allows you to boot or install an operating system from a CD.

• OS Detection Wizard

The OS detection tool allows an unintentionally deleted operating system to be found and added to the OS Selector boot menu. Also, if an operating system on a newly connected disk was not detected automatically, you can try to add it to boot menu using this tool.

• Boot from second HDD

Generally, Windows can boot from HDD only if its boot files reside on the first (according to BIOS) hard disk. If you connect a live system HDD, taken from another computer (where it was the first disk), to your computer, where it becomes the second (third etc.) disk, boot from that HDD will be impossible, even if the hardware is identical on both computers. Acronis OS Selector now can manage situations like that and automatically set the disk order required for b ooting the selected operating system.

Besides, you can choose the disk order when installing an additional Windows operating system, so that its boot files will be installed on the second (third etc.) disk.

• Viewing logs

Acronis Disk Director Suite now keeps working logs. They store information about implemented partition operations, including reasons for failure, if any.

• The new Bootable Media Builder, common for all Acronis products

The new Bootable Media Builder is able to create bootable media for every Acronis product installed on the computer, or one bootable disk for several products. It also supports creating a bootable disk ISO image on the hard disk and storing the bootable programs versions on PXE server.

Software use cond itions

The conditions of use are listed in the supplied «License Agreement». The unique serial number is the confirmation of your legal purchase and usage of Acronis Disk Director Suite on your system.

Under current legislation, the «License Agreement» is considered a contract between you and Acronis Inc. The contract is a legal document and its violation may result in legal action.

Illegal use and/or distribution of this software will be prosecuted.

Page 8

Introduction

Technical support

Users who have legally purchased and registered their copy of Acron is Di sk Dir ector Suite will receive free technical support from Acronis. If you have installation or working problems that you can’t solve by yourself using this manual and the readme.txt file, e-mail the technical support team. You will need to provide the serial number of your Acronis Disk Director Suite copy bundled with the program.

Before you do this, you will have to register your copy at

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/products/registration/ .

Support URL:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/support/

Page 9

Insta llation and Use

Chapter 1. Installation and Use

1.1 System Requirements

To take full advantage of Acronis Disk Director Suite you should have:

• A PC-compatible computer with a Pentium or similar CPU

• 128 MB RAM

• A floppy or a CD-RW/DVD-RW drive

• A mouse (recommended)

1.2 Supported Operating Systems

• Windows NT 4.0 SP 6

• Windows 2000 Professional SP 4

• Windows XP SP 2

• Windows Vista (all editions).

1.3 Installation Process

1.3.1 Acronis Disk Director Suite installation

To install Acronis Disk Director Suite:

1. Run the installation program.

2. Follow the setup program instructions.

Page 10

Installation and Use

3. You will be prompted to choose Typical, Custom or Complete installation. If you

pick Custom, you can choose not to install the Bootable Media Builder, a tool for creating bootable media (see

Chapter 9 “B ootable Media Builder”). You might not need

this tool if you purchased a boxed product that contains a bootable CD.

If you have another Acronis product with its own Bootable Media Builder, such as Acronis True Image, installed on your computer, the installation pro it and will not install another Bootable Media Builder re create bootable media for all Acronis products using either product.

ram will automatically detect

ardless of your setting. You can

4. After installation, reboot your PC.

1.3.2 Acronis OS Selector installation

To install Acronis OS Selector, you should first install Acronis Disk Director Suite. Then select Start

Æ Programs Æ Acronis Æ Acronis DiskDirector Æ Install Acronis OS

Selector and follow the setup program instructions. If you already have Acronis OS

Selector installed on your computer, it will be updated by the new version. During the installation of Acronis OS Selector, the hidden system folder BOOTWIZ will be

created on your PC to keep the program loader. Acronis OS Selector will also copy OS system files found on your PC into this folder to avoid problems during bootup and to simplify adding new OS in the future.

Acronis OS Selector can be installed in the Typical or Custom variants. During Typical installation, the BOOTWIZ folder will be created in the system hard disk

partition that contains the Windows files and folders. Using the Custom installation option, you will be able to select the location of the

BOOTWIZ folder. This might come in handy when a system partition is accidentally destroyed or damaged. In that case, you will be able to access the Acronis OS Selector boot menu even if the system partition is inaccessible. From this menu, you can run the standalone version of Acronis Disk Director Suite, saved in the BOOTWIZ folder as well, to create and restore partitions and access the Acronis Disk Editor tool.

1.4 Upgrading Acronis Disk Director Suite

If you already have Acronis Disk Director Suite installed on your PC, the installation program will automatically find it and prompt you on its replacement with the new version.

Software upgrades (with certain bug fixes) may be downloaded free from the Acronis Web site:

http://www.acronis.com/support/updates/.

1.5 Removing Software

To remove Acronis Disk Director Suite, select Start → Settings → Control Panel → Add or Remove Programs → Acronis Disk Director Suite

→ Remove. You will see

Page 11

Insta llation and Use

a dialog to confirm removal. Click Yes to confirm and Acronis Disk Director Suite will be completely removed along with Acronis OS Selector.

To remove Acronis OS Selector only, select Start

DiskDirector

Æ Install Acronis OS Selector. Then select Uninstall Acronis OS

Æ Programs Æ Acronis Æ Acronis

Selector in the installation program window and follow the program instructions.

1.6 User Interface

When Acronis Disk Director Suite software is installed, it has a graphical user interface that is controlled by the mouse or by

Tab, Shift+Tab, Left , Right, Up, Down, Space,

Enter and Escape keys.

If you regularly work with Windows or X Window applications, you should not encounter any problems with the Acronis Disk Director Suite interface.

Acronis Disk Director Suite uses a series of dialogs requiring the user to choose among several actions or to mark partitions or disks to be manipulated.

1.7 Before You Run Acronis Disk Director Suite

PLEASE NOTE: Operations on system, application or data partitions must be done very carefully to avoid potential hard disk booting or data sto rage p roble ms.

Acronis Disk Director Suite has been thoroughly tested to work with numerous hard disks, so if problems arise, they are likely caused by improper use, not the software.

A power loss, turning off the PC or pressing the Reset button on your PC during the repartitioning procedure could result in partition damage and data lo ss.

Please take all necessary precautions and following these

simple rules:

1. Create a disk image of the disk on which partitions are to be reconfigured. This will

ensure that your data will not be lost under any circumstances. Almost all current PCs feature CD-RW drives. Having your most important data backed up

to a hard disk or CD will enable you to work on the disk partitions with full confidence that your data is safe.

Acronis offers extremely effective hard disk and partition disk imaging software — Acronis True Image (visit http://www.ac ronis.c om/produc ts/truei mage/). It creates a backup stored in a compressed archive file whose conte nts can be restore d at any time.

2. Test your disk to make sure it’s full y functional and does n ot contain ba d sectors or file

system errors.

Page 12

Installation and Use

You can invoke system hard disk checking tools directly from Acronis Disk Director Suite by selecting button.

Disk Æ Check or clicking Check the selected partition for errors toolbar

3. Do not perform any partition operations while running other software that has low-

level disk access, such as antivirus or backup tools. Close such programs before running Acronis Disk Director Suite.

If you follow these simple rules, you will protect yourself against data loss.

1.8 Running Acronis Disk Director Suite

1.8.1 Running under Windows

Under Windows, select

Start Æ Programs Æ Acronis Æ DiskDirector Æ Acronis Disk

Director Suite.

Under Windows, Acronis Disk Director Suite can perform operations on any partitions, including primary, logical, system or data

without

rebooting your PC.

1.8.2 Running Acronis Disk Director Suite for the first time

When you run the program for the first time, you will be prompted to choose whether you want to work in

Automatic Mode or Manual Mode.

Automatic Mode provides enough functionality to create almost any partition configuration

on your PC hard disks. If you need a detailed partition structure representation with a com plete set of partition

operations and controls, select You can switch between mode s at any time (see

Manual Mode.

2.1.3 «Switching modes»).

1.8.3 Running from bootable diskettes or CD

Previously, we explained how to create bootable diskettes or a CD (see

1.2 «Supported

Operating Systems

• Windows NT 4.0 SP 6

• Windows 2000 Professional SP 4

• Windows XP SP 2

• Windows Vista (all editions).

Installation Process»). While working with Acronis Disk Director Suite, you may n eed to use the bootable media: (1) after a serious Windows failure or (2) to work on a Linuxbased PC. (See also Chapter 9 «Bootable Media Builder».)

Your PC BIOS must be set correctly to boot and run the software from bootable diskettes or CD.

Page 13

Beginning The Work

Chapter 2. Beginning The Work

2.1 Acronis Disk Director Suite Logical Organization

Acronis Disk Director Suite provides two operation modes (see 1.8 «Running Acronis Disk Director Suite»):

• «Automatic partition operations» mode is designed for the most frequent

operations

• «Manual partition operations» mode for any partition operations. This mode is

intended for experienced users with some knowledge of disk data storage organization; it provides full operational control

2.1.1 Automatic partition operations

In this mode, all actions are performed through task-based wizards.

suitable for the majority of users

• Create partiti on wizard — enables you to create a partition from unallocated disk space

or other partitions

• Increase free sp ace wizard — enables you to enlarge a partition at the expense of

unallocated disk space or other partitions

• Copy partition wizard — enables you to copy a partition

• Recover partitions wizard – enables you to recover any deleted or damaged partitions.

Working with Recover partitions wizard is described in deta il in a separate chapter of this guide. See Chapter 5 «Working with Acronis Recovery Expert». With these wizards,

even an inexperienced user will be able to perform the recovery operations using step-by-step instructions.

2.1.2 Manual partition operations

In this mode, experienced users have access to all Acronis Disk Director Suite features. Partition operations are performed by entering necessary parameters into dialog boxes.

The main difference between the automatic and manual modes is that wizards perform operations series in the automatic mode and only single disk/partition operations in the

manual mode.

2.1.3 Switching modes

Having selected an operation mode during installation (see 1.2 «Supported Operating Systems

• Windows NT 4.0 SP 6

• Windows 2000 Professional SP 4

• Windows XP SP 2

• Windows Vista (all editions).

Page 14

Beginning The Work

Installation Process»), you can switch to another mode at any time. Select View Æ Automatic Mode for the automatic mode or View

Æ Manual Mode for the manual.

2.2 Acronis Disk Director Suite Main Window

The program is controlled through the main window . It includes the menu, toolbar, and disk and partition tree (shown/hidden through the View menu). This represents the computer disk and partition list.

The main window appearance differs depending on the selected operation mode (see 2.1 «Acronis Disk Director Suite Logical Organization»). The difference applies to the available operation list in the main menu, partition context menus, sidebar and toolbar, and the amount of partition structure details represented.

Acronis Disk Director Suite main window, Automatic Mode

In the manual partition operations mode, the main window also includes all unallocated disk space, while only partitions are shown in the automatic mode. Partition creation, free space and copy wizards automatically recognize unallocated disk space in this mode.

Page 15

Beginning The Work

Acronis Disk Director Suite main window, Manual Mode

2.2.1 Disk and partition information

The main window shows the partition’s disk number, assigned letter, label, type, status, size, free space size and file system. Disk and partition information is also provided in the partition and disk tree.

The bottom part of the main window graphically indicates the selected disk and its partitions as rectangles with basic data on them (label, letter, size, type, file system).

2.3 Calling Partition Operations

All partition operations in both modes are called and executed similarly.

2.3.1 Calling the main operations

Any operation can be launched:

• By selecting it from the Disk submenu

• From customizable toolbars

• From the partition context menu (both in the main window and the graphical panel)

• From Operations and Advanced sidebar lists

Note that the list of available operations in the Disk submenu and the Operations sidebar depends on the selected partition type. This holds true for unallocated space as well.

2.3.2 Advanced operations

Advanced operations are:

• Convert — convert the FAT16 partition file system to FAT32, Ext2 to Ext3, and vice

versa

Page 16

Beginning The Work

• Hide/Unhide — hide/unhide a partition

• Set Active — set an active partition

• Resize Root — resize FAT16 partition root

• Change Bytes per i-node — resize i-node table (Linux Ext2/Ext3)

• Change Cluster Si ze — change FAT16/FAT32 partition cluster size

• Change Type — change partition type

• Recover — recover deleted or damaged partitions (see Chapter 5 «Working with Acronis

Recovery Expert»).

• Edit — edit hard disk data (see Chapter 6 «Working with Acronis Disk Editor»).

Advanced partition operations are called from the Advanced sidebar list, the same pa rtition context menu item or toolbar button.

Note that the additional operations list of the partition context menu or toolbar depends on the selection of a partition type. For example, the FAT16 partition menu contains Advanced Æ Resize Root; this is absent in the FAT32 partition menu. The Linux Ext2/Ext3 partition context menu contains

the FAT menus

Advanced Æ Change Bytes per i -node, which is not found on

2.3.3 Invoking Acronis Disk Director Suite wizards

Wizards are invoked from the Wizards submenu and the corresponding sidebar list. For example, select Wizards Æ Create Partition for the partition creation wizard.

2.4 Partition Operation Properties

2.4.1 Displaying operation results

Results of any disk partition operation are immediately displayed in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

If you create a partition, it will be immediately shown in the hard disk partition list in the main window, as well as in graphical form on the bottom of the main windows.

Any partition changes, including resizing, relocating and labeling are also immediately displayed in the main window.

2.4.2 Pending operations

All operations are pending until the user issues the command for the changes to be made permanent. Until then, Acronis Disk Director Suite will only show the new partition

structure that is provided by operations to be performed. Therefore, you can view the graphical rep resentation of the new partition structure first

and then decide whether to perform or cancel specific operations.

Page 17

Beginning The Work

2.4.3 Viewing delayed operations

All pending operations are added to the pending operations list. You can view it in the

Pending Operations window by clicking Operations Æ Show:

Pending operations list

This organization enables you to control all planned operations, double-check your intended work, and undo operations fully or partially, if needed.

2.4.4 Performing pending operations

To execute planned hard disk operations, the user has to select one of the two f ollowing commands:

• Select Operations Æ Commit in the main menu

• Click Commit Pending Operations toolbar button

To prevent you from performing any unintentional change on your disk, the program will first display the list of all pending operations. Clicking Proceed will launch their execution. You will not be able to undo any actions or operations after you Proceed the operation.

2.4.5 Modifying pending operations

All of your actions result in the creation of pending operations. For example, you can create a new partition by providing its type, file system, size, location and label. You can easily view the pending op eration for the partition you are workin g on (see 2.4.3 «Viewing delayed operations»).

You can always change any operation parameter, including type, file system, size, location, etc. before performing the operation. Using Change type, Convert, Move, Resize, and similar operations, you will also see that your actions

do not

result in creating new pending operations. These actions will only change the existing pending operation parameters.

If you decide to change the label of a different, existing partition, Acronis Disk Director Suite will immediately create a new pending operation . Thus the same actions sometimes result in the creation of a new pending operation or modification of existing operations.

Page 18

Beginning The Work

2.4.6 Undoing user actions

Calling wizards or dialog boxes for planning disk partition operations are user actions. User entries are necessary operation parameters on the wizard or dialog box pages.

One user action in Acronis Disk Director Suite enables you to plan a list of partition operations, for example, calling a wizard for partition creation or resizing. (You can easily verify your actions by looking at the Pending Operations when the wizard finishes its work.)

You can also create a partition by selecting Disk Æ Create Partition. This requires a list of actions to be performed (enter a label, select partition type, file system, size and location), resulting in the creation of a single partition create operation o nly.

The difference between user actions and partition operations should be kept in mind if you wish to undo user actions.

Any user action in Acronis Disk Director Suite can be undone or redone before committing the operation. To undo a user action:

• Select Operations Æ Undo from the main menu (or press Ctrl+Z)

• Click the Undo Last Action toolbar button

To redo a user action:

• Select Operations Æ Redo from the main menu (or press Ctrl+Y)

• Click the Redo Last Action toolbar button

As user actions result in creating pending partition operations, as mentioned above, undoing them results in canceling one or more partition operations. And conversely, redoing a user action results in the addition of one or more pending operations.

Depending on the situation, undoing an action may cancel a pending operation or undo changes of an existing operation (see 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

Similarly, redoing an action might add a pending operation to the list again or redo a change of a pending operation parameter.

You can undo user actions one at a time or all at once by selecting Operations Æ Undo All. Similarly, you can redo user actions (alon representation of partition reconfiguration) one-by-one or all at once by selectin

Operations Æ Redo All.

with the corresponding graphical

2.4.7 Wizard operations

Pending partition operations created by Acron is Di sk Di rector Suit e wizards differ in that a user must provide a list of operation parameters to perform them. Each parameter is entered on a separate wizard page.

Entering operation parameters, you change wizard pa ges using Back and Next buttons until you reach the Preview page with the Finish button.

On the Preview wizard page, you can click Back to return and change any operation parameter.

Page 19

Beginning The Work

After clicking Finish on the last wizard page:

• The new partition structure is graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite

main window

• The wizard creates a list of pending operations; you can see it by selecting Operations

Æ Show

Remember that no actions are performed on your disks when the wizard finishes working! If you are sure that the new structure is suitable, select Operations Æ Commit or click

Commit Pending operations. Wizard-created pending operations will then be performed at this time.

Before you select Operations Æ Commit or click Commit Pending operations, you can undo your actions (calling a wizard) and wizard-created pending operations in the usual

way (selecting Operations Æ Undo or pressing

Acronis Disk Director Suite shows the wizard and its results as a user action by creating the list of operations. Any pending actions can be fully undone by any of the mentioned methods, i.e. pressing by the wizard.

Undo Last Action will undo a user action and all operations planned

Ctrl+Z) or clicking Undo Last Action.

2.5 Protecting Acronis Disk Director Suite With A Password

You should always be aware of possible unauthorized access to your data. To protect your hard disk, partition, applications and data, Acronis Disk Director Suite provides password protection.

If you need to protect Acronis Disk Director Suite with a password:

1. Select Disk

Æ Set Password.

2. Enter a password in the New Password and Confirm New Password fields in the Set Password window.

Page 20

Beginning The Work

3. Click OK to enable password protection. After you run the program, you’ll be prompted to enter a password in the Password

Protected window:

If you enter a wrong password, you'll be asked to re-enter it. Clicking Cancel will close the program.

If you need to change the password:

1. Select Disk Æ Set Password.

2. Enter the old password in the Old Password field and the new password in the New

Password and Confirm New Password fields in the Set Password window.

3. Click OK to enable password protection.

If you protect Acronis Disk Director Suite with a password and forget it, you will have to uninstall Disk Director Suite (see 1.5 Removing Software), and install it again.

2.6 Viewing logs

Acronis Disk Director Suite allows users to view its working logs. They provide information about partition operations, including reasons for failure, if any.

To invoke the log window, select Show log on the toolbar or from the Tools menu. The log browsing window contains two panes: the left one features the log list, while the

right one shows selected log contents. The left panel can contain up to 50 logs. If there are more, you can browse the list using

the More and Less buttons with the left and right arrows. To delete a log, select it and click Delete.

Page 21

Beginning The Work

If any step was terminated by an error, the corresponding log will be marked with a red circle with a white cross inside.

The right window features the list of steps contained in the selected log. The three buttons to the right control message filters: the white cross in the red circle filters error messages, the exclamation sign in a yellow triangle filters warnings, and the “i” in the blue circle filters information messages.

To select columns (step parameters) to display, right-click the headers line or left-click the Choose Details button. Then check the desired parameters.

To sort messages by a particular parameter, click its header (click again to reverse order) or the Arrange Icons by button (the second from the right) and select the desired parameter.

You can also change column width by dragging the borders with a mouse.

Page 22

Automatic Partition Operations

Chapter 3. Automatic Partition Operations

The «Automatic partition operations» mode enables you to perform the following typical operations:

• Create a new partition

• Increase partition free space

• Copy a partition

• Recover partitions

These operations are performed with wizards, enabling you to enter operation parameters step-by-step and return to any step as needed. Each parameter is provided with detaile d instructions.

For a detailed description of the Recover Partitions Wizard see Chapter 5 «Working with Acronis Recovery Expert».

3.1 Creating A New Partition

You might need a new hard disk partition to:

• Store several same-type files — for example, an MP3 collection or video files on a

partition

• Store backups (images) of other partitions/disks on a partition

• Install a new operating sy stem (or swap file) on a partition

Create partition wizard lets you create a partition of any type (Active, Primary or Logical), select a file system, label, assign a letter, and other disk management functions.

1. If you need to create a partition:

1. Run the create partition wizard by selecting Wizards Æ Create partition or a similar Wizards list item on the sidebar, or by clicking

Create partition on the toolbar.

2. T he wi zard will analyze computer disks and partitions. If the wizard finds unallocated space, you will see the Action Selection wizard page.

It will ask you to select how to create a new partition: (1) using disk unallocated space. (2) using existing partitions free space

Unallocated space is the space not used by any existing partitions. In contrast, partition free space is the space free from any data.

Page 23

Automatic Partition Operations

Partition creation method selection window

2. If you want to create a partition using unallocated disk space:

1. Set the switch to Unallocated space.

2. The wizard will offer to create a partition on the largest unallocated area.

For example, if you have 5 GB and 12 GB unallocated areas, the wizard will offer to create a partition on the 12 GB area.

If you want to create a partition on the 5 GB unallocated space, you will have to reject the wizard’s suggestion and simply select this area and click this in the «Manual partition operations» mode.

On the Partition Size wizard page, set the partition size.

Create a new partition. You can do

New partition size window

Page 24

Automatic Partition Operations

4. On the next wizard page, select partition type — Active (Active Primary), Primary or

Logical.

5. Typically Primary is selected to install an operating system to a partition. If the

partition is for data storage, select Logical.

6. Select Active if you want to install an operating system on this partition to boot at

startup.

Note that if you enter a size of more than 2 GB, you will not be able to use the FAT16 file system on this partition. It will be disabled in the

File System wizard page.

Partition type selection window

A hard disk can contain up to four primary partitions. If they already exist, Active and Primary options will be disabled and you will be able to select only the Lo

ical partition

type.

7. On the next File System wizard page, select a file system. The wizard will offer you

one of the Windows file systems — FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS, — or Linux file systems — EXT2, EXT3, ReiserFS, Swap — or to leave the partition Unformatted.

More details about the properties of main file systems, the operating systems, and disks

are provided in the

A.9 «File System Main Specifications» appendix.

Page 25

Automatic Partition Operations

Partition file system selection window

Selecting a partition file system results in partition formatting, i.e. creating partition data storage structures – boot record, file allocation table, etc.

On the next wizard page, you will be asked to select a partition letter.

Partition Logical Drive Letter selection window

At startup, an operating system assigns letters (C:, D:,…) to partitions. These letters are used by applications and the operating system to locate files on partitions. For example, C:\Program Files\Acronis\Disk Director\DiskDirector.exe. See also — «

Letter (of a drive, partition)».

Appendix C «Glossary»

Page 26

Automatic Partition Operations

Hard disk partitions are not only assigned letters, but are also numbered . That me ans some operating system partitions are assig ned lette rs and numbers, in othe rs, only number s.

Create-, delete- and move-partition operations, as well as hiding/unhiding a partition and direct letter change may result in problems running applications, opening files (as some shortcuts become unusable) or booting an operating system.

Therefore, when performing partition operations, you must be careful and remember that each operating system works differently with partition letters. Each OS has its own partition letter assignment rules.

Windows 98/Me

Windows 98/Me assign partition letters automatically in fixed order, according to these rules:

• Partition letters start from C: and continue until Z:. The C: partition is considered

system, i.e. used for OS startup.

Note that these OS canno t recognize all p artitions, but o nly 1 (FAT12), 4 and 6 (FAT16), 11 (FAT32), 12 (FAT32 LBA) and 13 (FAT16 LBA) not by partition type, but by its contents. Partitions of other types are passed (no letters are assigned to them).

types. File system type is determined

The first primary active partition found on the first hard disk is assigned C:. If there’s

•

no such partition, C: is assigned to the first suitable primary partition

• Similarly and consecutively, one of the primary partitions from other hard disks is

considered. They are assigned D:, E:, etc. (If there is no suitable partition found on the first disk, then C:, D:, etc. are assigned.)

• Next, all suitable logical partitions are considered in the sequence order on the first,

second, third, etc. hard disks. They are assigned E:, F:, G:, for example

• Finally, in order, letters are assigned to all remaining suitable primary partitions of the

first, second, third, etc. disks.

Partition operations in the mentioned operating systems may result in problems running applications, opening files and other problems if letter assignments change.

Windows NT/2000/XP

Windows NT/2000/XP operating systems' initial letter assignment is done automatically: similar to Windows 98. Windows NT 4.0 does not support FAT32, but assigns letters to such partitions.

Please note that letter order in these operating systems can differ depending on the number of hard disks and other disk drives recognized by the BIOS.

All these operating systems enable you to change initially assigned letters. Partition create, delete and move operations do not affect letters assigned to other partitions. Assigning a partition a new letter or hiding it will prevent only its applications and files from running or opening. Other partitions will not be affected by these operations.

Page 27

Automatic Partition Operations

OS startup problems may appear if you directly change th e letter assigned to the system partition or a partition with PAGEFILE.SYS swap file.

Hard disk partition let ter assignme nt i n var ious ope rating s ystems is fu rth er ex pla ined in all guide chapters where the partition op erations mi ght affect PC ope ration or booting .

On the next page, you can enter an optional partition label that will enable you to distinguish one created partition from another.

In Windows, a partition label is shown in the Explorer disk and folder tree; for example, WIN98(C:), WINXP(D:), DATA(E:), etc. WIN98, WINXP and DATA are partition labels. See also Appendix C «Glossary» — «

10.

The last wizard page graphically shows you the new disk partition structure, including

Label».

those just created.

Created partition in the disk partition structure

Clicking Finish on this page will make Acronis Disk Director Suite create a pending operation for new partition creation, (your actions may only modify an existing operation. See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»). The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

More details about the Finish command results are provided in 2.4.7. «Wizard operations».

3. If you want to create a new partition using other partition free space:

1. On the Action Selection wizard page, set the switch to Free space of the existing

partitions.

Page 28

Automatic Partition Operations

2. On the Select Hard Disk Drive wizard page, select a disk on which to create a

partition.

Partition disk selection page

Note that this wizard page represents phy sical disks actually connected to your PC. The next page shows Appendix C «Glossary» — «Physical disk», «Logical disk ».

logical disks (or partitions) on the selected physical disk. See also

3. On the next Select Partitions wizard page, select the disk partition(s) whose space

you want to use to create a new partition.

This means that if these partitions have free space, their size can be reduced. As a result, the freed space will be automatically considered as unallocated (not used by any partitions). A new partition can be created in this space.

Page 29

Automatic Partition Operations

The window of existing partition selection to create a new partition

By creating a partition using the free space of other partitions, Acronis Disk Director Suite can collect it in such a way that the final partition size is not smaller than 110% of data-occupied space.

When creating a partition with the switch set to

Free space of the existing partitions,

you provide a small partition size. If it is possible to create it using unallocated disk space, the partition will be created this way; the existing partitions will not be resized. If a partition cannot be created using unallocated space only, then the deficit will be taken from existing partitions.

If you do not select a partition to take space from on the Select Partitions wizard page and there is no unallocated disk space, you will see an error message:

Error message of deficient disk space for partition creation

Page 30

Automatic Partition Operations

In this case, you will have to return to the previous wizard page and select a different partition from which to take the necessary space.

4 On the Partition Size wizard page, enter the si ze of the created partition (the wizard

automatically determines minimum and maximum partition sizes).

Created partition size window

5 The next wizard pages provide partition type, file system, letter (if you work in

Windows NT/2000/XP), and optional labeling.

Further actions for partition creation are the same as described in 3.1 «Creating A New Partition» section.

Clicking Finish on the last wizard page allows Acronis Disk Director Suite to create a pending operation list for ne w p a r ti ti o n c r ea t io n (these actions may only modify an existing operation. See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

The list will include not only the operation of partition creation itself, but also operations of partition resizing for creating a new partition.

If you want to create a new partition and there is no free space on disks:

Run the create partition wizard, by clicking

Create a new partition.

You will immediately see the Select Hard Disk Drive wizard page, passing the Action Selection page.

Further actions for partition creation are the same as described in 3.1 «Creating A New Partition» section.

Page 31

Automatic Partition Operations

Click Finish on the last wizard page to allow Acronis Disk Director Suite to create a pending operation list for ne w p a r ti ti o n c r ea t io n (these actions may only modify an existing operation. See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

3.2 Increasing Partition Free Space

You might need to increase partition free space in some cases:

• There is no free space to install new applications or store data

• Some programs, like defragmenters, could stop working correctly if partition

free space is smaller than a certain value

Reducing system partition free space below a certain value might cause operating system problems. The Increase free space wizard will enable you to enlarge a partition using other partitions' free space. If there is not enough fr ee space in other partitions, it can use unallocated disk space.

If you need to increase partition free space:

1. Run the Increase free space wizard by selecting Wizards Æ Increase free space or a

similar item in the Wizards sidebar list or by clicking

Increase free space on a

partition on the toolbar.

2. On the Select Partition To Increase wizard page, select a partition that you want to

enlarge.

Selecting a partition to increase free space

3. On the Select Partitions wizard page, select a disk partition whose space will be used

to increase the selected partition.

Page 32

Automatic Partition Operations

«Enlarging a partition at the expense of another partition» is described above: see

3.1 «Creating A New Partition».

Selecting a partition to use to increase free space

4. On the next wizard page, you will see the maximum size available for the selected

partition. You must select the size yourself.

Entering the size to increase partition free space

Page 33

Automatic Partition Operations

Note that although selected partition size is increased at the expense of other partition space, unallocated space also will be used if needed. Unallocated space is automatically considered to be the maximum partition size.

5. In the last Preview wizard window, you will see a graphical representation of the

new partition structure, including the resized partition.

Clicking Finish on the last wizard page will all ow Acronis Disk Director Suite to create the pending operation list for partition resizing (your actions may only modify an existing operation. See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

Similar to creating a new partition (see 3.1 «Creating A New Partition»), Acronis Disk Director Suite considers the results of partition free space increase as a single complex operation that can be undone only as a whole.

3.3 Copying Partitions

Having copied a partition, you get the duplicate of all its data. Partition copy can be used:

• As a partition backup (or rather as a data backup)

• A system partition backup is advised if you want to upgrade the existing operating

system

• To quickly move all data from an old disk to a new disk

We again recommend our backup solution — Acronis True Image. It enables you to create a backup (image) of a partition and/or entire hard disk in a compressed archive file, while allowing comments and password protection. See

http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimag e/).

The copy partition wizard will let you create a partition copy on the selected disk space. It can be created on unallocated disk space or at the expense of existing partition space, inserted between other partitions or resized after comparison with the original. It can also change the type or file system and assign a label or a letter if needed.

If you need to copy a partition:

1. Run the wizard by selecting Wizards Æ Copy partition or a similar item in the

Wizards sidebar list, or by clicking

2. On the Select Partition To Copy wizard page, select a partition to copy.

Copy a partition on the toolbar.

Page 34

Automatic Partition Operations

Selecting a partition to copy

On the next Partition Location wizard page, a record of copied partition parameters

will be created.

The page for selecting a disk location for partition copy

You will have to select a copy location on one of the disks, among existing partitions. To make your selection, click before or after a partition to mark where you want to locate the copy.

In this example, the copy will be located before the PROGRAM(H:) partition in the figure below.

Page 35

Automatic Partition Operations

The copy will be located after the PROGRAM(H:) partition in the figure below.

The figure below shows the result of locating a partition copy after clicking after the PROGRAM(H:) partition.

You can locate a copy anywhere on your disk(s). The copy partition wizard will automatically perform all necessary operations, even if it has to resize or move other partitions.

1. The selected disk might lack space for a copy. Nevertheless, you can copy a partition

by selecting another partition whose space will be partly used. This can be done in the Select Partitions window.

Page 36

Automatic Partition Operations

The page to select a partition, which will be partly used for a copy location

If you do not select a partition to be partly used as the copy location on the Select Partitions wizard page and there is not enough unallocated disk space, you will see an

error message:

Error message showing not enough disk space for a partition copy

In that case, the wizard will prompt you to select a partition from which to take some space.

If there is not enough space, the partition will not be copied!

2. On the next Partition Size wizard page, you can provide a desired size. The wizard will

automatically determine the minimum and maximum copy size.

Page 37

Automatic Partition Operations

The page for partition copy size selection

The minimum copy size is determined by the data area size of a copied partition. The maximum size is determined by the available disk space. It includes the space taken from a partition and unallocated disk space.

By copying a partition at the expense of existing partition free space, Acronis Disk Director Suite c an ta ke the pa rti tion s pace t o make sur e that part ition size is not s maller than 110% of data-occupied space.

On the next Partition Type wizard page, you can select partition copy type: Active,

Primary and Logical.

As a rule, Primary is selected if a partition contains an operating system. If a partition is intended for data storage, you should select Logical.

Select Active if you want to boot the partition’s operating system at startup.

Further actions for copying a partition are the same as described in sections 4-7 of 3.1 «Creating A New Partition».

Copying a partition in Windows 98/Me and assigning it a letter can change the order of letters assi detailed discussion of partition letter assi

3.1 «Creating A New Partition».

ned to other partitions. As a result, some shortcuts might stop working. For a

nment rules for various operating systems, see

Clicking Finish on the last wizard page will all ow Acronis Disk Director Suite to create the pending operation list for c o py in g a pa r ti ti on (your actions may only modify an existing operation. See

2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

Page 38

Manual Partition Operations

Chapter 4. Manual Partition

Operations

Unlike the «Automatic partition operations» mode (see 2.1), the «Manual partition operations» mode is intended for experienced users only, and offers much wider operation lists. Manual operation parameters are entered in the dialog boxes.

To switch to the «Manual partition operations» mode, select View -> Manual mode.

4.1 Main Partition Operations

Main hard disk partition operations include the typical, most frequently used operations of partition creation (selecting a type, file system, formatting, etc.), assigning label and letter partition, resizing, relocating, clearing, deletion, etc.

4.1.1 Creating partitions

If there is unallocated space on a disk, you can create a partition using manual disk operations.

Note that the Create partition wizard mentioned above can create a partition using both unallocated disk space and the space of existing partitions (see 3.1 «Creatin Partition»). It will enable you to create a partition on unallocated space only. If there is no such space, it should be provided by resizing and moving existing partitions.

A New

If you need to create a disk partition:

1. Select hard disk and unallocated space in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main

window. The Create partition button will become available on the toolbar, and the

Create Partition operation on the sidebar and in the context menu.

Selecting unallocated disk space

2. Select Disk Æ Create partition or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click

Create partition on the toolbar.

Page 39

Manual Partition Operations

3. In the Create Partition window, enter a partition label and select a file system and

partition type (Primary — Logical) from the list; you can also enter partition size and location using a mouse or by direct input to Partition size, Unallocated space before (and Unallocated space after) fields.

As a rule, Primary is selected if a partition is to contain an operating system. If a partition is meant for data storage, Logical should be selected.

Created partition parameters window

4. By clicking OK, you'll add the pending operation of new partition creation. The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director

Suite main window.

Creating a partition in unallocated disk space in Windows 98/Me can change the order of letters assi detailed discussion of partition letter assignment rules for various operatin appears in 3.1 «Creating A New Partition».

ned to other partitions. As a result, some shortcuts might stop working. A

systems

4.1.2 Copying a partition to unallocated disk space

The reasons for copying a partition were discussed above (see 3.3 «Copying Partitions»). Partition copy can be used:

• As a partition backup (or rather a data backup)

• As a system partition backup if you want to upgrade the existing operating system

• To quickly move all data from the old disk to the new

If you need to copy a partition:

Page 40

Manual Partition Operations

1. Select a hard disk and a partition to copy.

Selecting a partition to copy

2. Select Disk Æ Copy or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list or click Copy

the selected partition to another free space on the toolbar.

3. Acronis Disk Director Suite will automatically compare the size of a copied partition

and disk free space as shown in the Copy Partition window.

Free space available for copying

Note that the unallocated space is smaller than copied partition size, but its data area is smaller than unallocated space. Therefore copying is possible.

If there is not enough free space to copy a partition on a hard disk, no unallocated space will be available for selection.

Page 41

Manual Partition Operations

4. Select the unallocated disk space to copy a selected partition to it.

5. In the next wizard page, enter partition copy type (Logical — Primary), size and

location.

While copying a partition, yo u m ight have to change its type. For example, you have to copy a primary partition, but there are already four primary partitions on the disk. You will be able to copy it only as a logica l pa rtition. If you need to restor e the primary partition from a copy, you will be able to change its type again.

Entering partition copy parameters

The size and location of a partition copy can be provided with a mouse or by entering data into the Unallocated space before, Partition size (and Unallocated space after) fields.

6. By clicking OK in the Copy Partition wizard, you'll add the pending operation of

partition copying and location (your actions may only undo or modify already existing operation; see 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

Copying a partition in Windows 98/Me and assigning it a letter can change the order of letters assi detailed discussion of partition letter assignment rules for various operatin appears in 3.1 «Creating A New Partition».

ned to other partitions. As a result, some shortcuts might stop working. A

systems

4.1.3 Moving a partition to unallocated disk space

You might need to move a partition to:

• Change order of letters assigned by operating system

Page 42

Manual Partition Operations

For example, Windows 98/Me, unlike Windows NT/2000/XP, does not let users assign random letters to partitions, so you must move a partition to assi letter.

Work with some older OS (MS-DOS, Windows NT 4.0), that can boot only from binary

•

n it the necessary

partitions located in the beginning of the disk

• Speed up partition o perations

For example, you might have a special partition for a swap file. If you move this partition closer to the beginning of a disk, OS might work much faster with it.

•

Change partition configuration

If you need to move a partition to unallocated disk space:

1. Select the hard disk and partition to move.

Selecting a partition to move

2. Select Disk Æ Move or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list or click Move

the selected partition to another free space on the toolbar.

3. Acronis Disk Director Suite will automatically compare moved partition size and

available free space, indicating it in the Move Partition window.

Page 43

Manual Partition Operations

Unallocated space available for partition moving

Note that the unallocated space is smaller than moved partition size, but its data area is smaller than unallocated space. Therefore, moving the partition with its data intact is possible.

If there is not enough free space to copy a partition on a hard disk, no unallocated space will be available for selection.

4. Select free space to move the selected partition to.

5. On the next wizard page, select the type of moved partition (Logical — Primary),

size and location.

Changing partition type is not as necessary here as with partition copying (see 4.1.2 «Copying a partition to unallocated disk space»). Nevertheless, Acronis Disk Director Suite gives you this added flexibility.

Page 44

Manual Partition Operations

Entering moved partition parameters

The size and location of a partition copy can be provided with a mouse click or by entering data into the Unallocated space before, Partition size (and Unallocated space after) fields.

6. By clicking OK in the Move partition window, you'll add a pending operation to

partition moving (your actions may only undo or modify already existing operation; see

2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

Moving a partition to unallocated disk space in Windows 98/Me can change the order of letters assi detailed discussion of partition letter assignment rules for various operatin appears in 3.1 «Creating A New Partition».

Take special care when moving an operating system partition and its boot code location.

he OS might stop booting. For example, Windows NT 4.0 and earlier versions limit boot

code location to the first 2016 MB.

ned to other partitions. As a result, some shortcuts might stop working. A

systems

4.1.4 Resizing and/or moving a partition

You may find that there is not enough free space on a certain partition. For example, maybe it is almost filled with MP3 files. Acronis Disk Director Suite lets you enlarge a partition easily.

Reasons for moving a partition were discussed above (see 4.1.3 «Moving a partition to unallocated disk space»).

If you need to resize and/or move a partition:

1. Select the hard disk and a partition to be resized.

Page 45

Manual Partition Operations

2. Select Disk Æ Resize or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click

Resize/move the selected partition on the toolbar.

3. Resize the partition in the Resize Partition window:

(1) Hold the mouse button and drag a corresponding partition rectangle

side until you get the proper size in the Partition size field.

(2) Specify the partition size in the Partition size field.

Resize partition window

4. Relocate a partition on a disk by one of the following methods:

(1) Holding the mouse button and dragging the corresponding partition

rectangle left side to resize free space before the partition.

(2) Having pointed to the rectangle, hold the left mouse button and

move a partition as a whole until you get the necessary MB or GB amount in the Unallocated space before field.

(3) Specifying the necessary value in the Unallocated space before field.

Acronis Disk Director Suite automatically considers the limitations of file systems and parameters provided. In particular, it won’t let you enlar maximum 2 GB (4 GB for Windows 98/Me) value.

e a FAT16 partition over the

5. By clicking OK in the Resize Partition window, you'll create a pending operation for

partition resizing and moving (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation; see 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

Page 46

Manual Partition Operations

Acronis Disk Director Suite features a wizard for performing more complex partition resizing (see 3.2 «Increasing Partition»). Simple partition resizin only if there is free (unallocated) space before or after a partition. The wizard lets you perform more complex operations such as increasing partition free space

other partitions

Take special care when moving an operating system partition and its boot code location.

he OS might stop booting. For example, Windows NT 4.0 and earlier versions limit boot

code location to the first 2016 MB.

ned to other partitions. As a result, some shortcuts might stop working. A

lets you increase partition size

at the expense of

systems

4.1.5 Splitting partitions

You can split a partition in two, moving the selected folders to the new partition and leaving the rest of the data on the old one. The new partition will have the same file system. This operation can also be used for creating an empty partition from another partition’s free space.

There must be some free space on a partition to enable its splitting. The amount of free space necessary for splitting can be calculated as follows:

• Space for the new partition file system – depending on the file system type, maximum

20 MB

• Plus space for the program’s housekeeping data – about 25 MB

• Plus 3% of the size of the data being moved to the newly created partition.

With splitting completed, this space will be free again (except for space for the new partition file system) and will be distributed between the two resulting partitions. If there is not enough space on the partition, you will get a message that splitting is impossible.

If you need to split a partition:

1. Select a partition to be split.

2. Select Disk Æ Split or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click Split on

the toolbar.

3. In the folders tree, select folders to be moved t o the newly created par tition. If you

want to create an empty partition, do not select any folders.

Page 47

Manual Partition Operations

Selecting folders to be moved

Distribute the source partition free space between the two resulting partitions.

Distributing the source partition free space

Please keep in mind, that you are distributing not overall partition size, but just free space at this step. The pro the folders being moved to the new partition, and will add the specified free space share to that size. Thus, if you divide free space in equal parts, it does not mean that the two resulting partitions will be equal in size.

ram will automatically count how much space is necessary for

Page 48

Manual Partition Operations

5. By clicking Proceed, you'll add a pending operation (your actions may only undo or modify already existing operation; see 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

4.1.6 Merging partitions

You can merge two partitions, even if their file systems are different. All data will stay intact and reside on the resulting partition. The resulting partition will have the same file system as the target partition (to which data from another partition will be added).

If you need to merge one partition with another:

1. Select a partition to be merged to the target partition.

2. Select Disk Æ Merge or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click Merge

on the toolbar.

3. Select the target partition.

4. Select a folder on the target partition to which the da ta from the merged partition will be placed. You can create a new folder, using icons above the folder tree. If the folder already exists, it must be empty.

Selecting the target folder

5. By clicking Proceed, you'll add a pending operation (your actions may only undo or modify already existing operation; see 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

Page 49

Manual Partition Operations

Merging an NTFS partition to a partition with file system not supporting security options (for example, FAT32 partition), will result in loss of security settin data and access permissions). With the opposite action (merging a non-secured partition to the secured one), the tar partition.

et partition security settings will be assigned to the resulting

s (partition ownership

4.1.7 Exploring partitions

You can explore and manage partition contents before configuring operations on that partition directly from the Acronis Disk Director Suite.

If you need to explore a partition:

1. Select a partition to be explored.

2. Select Disk Æ Explore or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click

Explore on the toolbar.

3. The program displays a fold er tree. Now you can explore or manage the partition

contents. You can copy, paste, rename and delete files and folders and create folders on the selected partition. To do so, right-click on the file/folder or use icons above the folder tree.

Exploring partition contents

You are also enabled to view or edit text files up to 64 kb in size. To do so, rightclick on the file and select Edit. To illustrate why it may be necessary, imagine that your operating system failed to boot. You can run Acronis Disk Director Suite from Acronis OS Selector main window (if the program is not installed, start it from bootable disk), and change some critical files contents.

Page 50

Manual Partition Operations

Acronis OS Selector also allows editing text files (see 7.7.6 “Files”), but only those included into system files list.

The Explore operation shows the real partition contents, read from the disk. If there are some operations pending, like splitting a partition, you will not be able to explore partitions until the operations are committed or canceled. However, operations on folders/files in Explore window are executed immediately.

4. When you’re finished exploring, click OK.

4.1.8 Changing partition labels

The partition label is an optional attribute. It’s a name assigned to a partition for easier recognition. For example, one could be called System — a partition with an operating system, Program — an application partition, Data — a data partition, etc.

In Windows, partition labels are shown in the Explorer disk and folder tree: WIN98(C:), WINXP(D:), DATA(E:), etc. WIN98, WINXP and DATA are partition labels. A partition label is shown in all application dialog boxes for opening and saving files. (See Appendix C «Glossary» — «

Label».)

If you need to change a partition label:

1. Select Disk Æ Change Label or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click

Change the selected partition label on the toolbar.

2. Enter a new label in the Partition label window.

Partition label window

3. By clicking OK in the Partition Label window, you'll add the pending operation of

partition label changing (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation; see 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

The new label will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

4.1.9 Formatting a partition

Acronis Disk Director Suite lets you logically format a partition. It includes organizing a file system that supports files and folder data storage.

If you need to format an existing partition:

Page 51

Manual Partition Operations

1. Select a disk and a partition.

2. Select Disk Æ Format or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click

Format the selected partition on the toolbar.

3. Enter the partition label in the Format Partition window.

Format Partition window

4. Select a file system to be created on a partition after formatting. Acronis Disk Director Suite supports the following file systems (see A.9 «File System Main

Specifications»):

• FAT16/FAT32, NTFS — Windows file systems

• Linux Ext2, Ext3, Re iserFS, Swap — Linux file systems

5. Select cluster size (Auto, 512 bytes, 1, 2, 4… 64 KB). Note that:

(1) The smaller the cluster size, the less disk space will be lost (see A.9.2

«FAT16» —

Table 3).

(2) The smaller the cluster size, the bigger the file allocation table (FAT).

The bigger the FAT, the slower the operating sy stem works with the disk.

(3) If you select Auto, you allow Disk Director Suite to automatically

determine the cluster size depending on selected file system and partition size.

6. By clicking OK in the Format Partition window, you'll add the pending operation of

partition formatting (your actions may only modify an existing operation. See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

Attention! Partition formatting destroys all its data, including files and folders! Take special care when performing this operation.

Remember that each operation described must be executed by selecting Operations Æ

Commit

operations»).

or clicking Commit Pending Operations (see 2.4.4 «Performing pending

Page 52

Manual Partition Operations

4.1.10 Deleting a partition

After a partition is deleted, its space is added to unallocated disk space. It can be used for a new partition or to resize an existing partition.

If you need to delete a partition:

1. Select a hard disk and a partition to be deleted.

2. Select Disk Æ Delete or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click

Delete the selected partition on the toolbar.

3. Select the deletion method in the Delete Partition window; you can:

(1) just delete a hard disk partition (without wiping disk sectors) — set

the switch to Delete partition.

(2) delete a hard disk partition and fully wipe partition sectors — set the

switch to Delete partition and destroy data.

Delete Partition window

Having set the switch to Delete partition and destroy data, enter a number of passes for wiping.

Wiping unallocated disk space means multiple writing of special data to hard disk sectors. Acronis Disk Director Suite features a rather simple wiping algorithm. Durin symbol sequence or lo sectors. Only logical zeroes are written during the last pass. the more complete the wiping will be.

Acronis offers extremely powerful hard disk/partition wiping software — Acronis Privacy

Expert Suite destruction

, featuring strict algorithms for guaranteed confidential information wiping and

ical zeroes (0x00) or ones (0xFF) is written to unallocated space

The more passes performed,

each pass, a

4. Confirm partition deletion by clicking OK in the Delete Partition window.

5. By clicking

OK in the Delete Partition window, you'll add the pending operation of

partition deletion (your actions may only undo an existing operation depending on the situation selected see

2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

Page 53

Manual Partition Operations

The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

Attention! Deleting a partition destroys all its data, including files and folders! Deleting a system partition will make a PC inoperable. Take special care when performing this operation.

Deleting a partition Windows 98/Me can change the order of letters assigned to other partitions. As a result, some shortcuts might stop working. A detailed discussion of partition letter assignment rules for various operating systems appears in 3.1 «Creatin New Partition».

4.1.11 Checking hard disk partitions for errors

Acronis Disk Director Suite enables you to check hard disk partitions for file system errors. Hard disk partitions should be checked before any partition operations (see 1.7 «Before

You Run ».

If you need to check a hard disk partition:

1. Select a hard disk and partition in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

2. Select Disk Æ Check or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click

Check the selected partition for error s on the toolbar.

3. If you want to find and fix errors, chose one of the next options:

• Check partitions for errors

• Check and fix found errors

• Check and fix errors and locate bad sectors.

4. By clicking OK, you'll run partition checking.

5. Results are shown in the Check Partition window.

Page 54

Manual Partition Operations

Partition check results window

4.1.12 Defragmenting a partition

Defragmentation is reorganizing file storage on a hard disk partition. Defragmentation is the process of eliminating file fragmentation, which causes files to be

spread across the disk after operations. File fragmentation significantly reduces PC and server performance, especially when

intensive I/O operations are taking place. Conversely, file defragmentation can increase performance, as the read head has to move less across the disk to read all file parts.

Acronis Disk Director Suite supports defragmentation in Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server only. Windows 2000 has its own embedded disk defragmenter. partition in Windows NT 4.0 and earlier Windows operatin that you install a third-party disk defragmenter tool.

systems, it is recommended

o defragment a

If you need to defragment a hard disk partition:

1. Select a hard disk and partition to defragment in the Acronis Disk Director Suite

main window.

2. Select Disk Æ Defragment or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click

Defragment the selected partition on the toolbar.

3. By clicking OK in the Defragmentation window, you'll run partition defragmentation.,

Page 55

Manual Partition Operations

Run partition defragmentation window

4. Defragmentation results are shown in the Defragment Partition window.

Partition defragmentation results window

4.1.13 Wiping unallocated hard disk space

PC hard disks can contain a substantial amount of confidential information. Often users forget that private information must be completely destroyed to avoid unauthorized access to it — simply deleting an old file is not sufficient.

Windows tools do not guarantee data destruction. Deleted files can be restored easily. Formatting and even deleting a partition leaves hard disk sector contents the same. Acronis Disk Director Suite offers a simple but reliable algorithm for wiping hard disk unallocated space.

If you need to wipe unallocated disk space:

1. Select a hard disk and unallocated space in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main

window — Wipe unallocated space becomes available on the toolbar.

Page 56

Manual Partition Operations

2. Select Disk Æ Wipe or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click Wipe

the selected unallocated space on the toolbar.

3. In the Wipe Unallocated Space window, enter a number of disk passes (up to 99),

For information about the Acronis Disk Director Suite data wiping algorithm see the commentary for 4.1.10 «Deleting a partition».

Hard disk passes number window

4. By clicking OK, you'll add a pending operation of unallocated disk space wiping.

4.1.14 Clearing a hard disk

Acronis Disk Director Suite lets you clear not only unallocated disk space, but an entire disk as well.

If you need to clear the entire hard disk:

1. Select a hard disk on the Tree View panel of Acronis Disk Director Suite — Clear the

current hard disk drive button becomes available on the toolbar (if there is no Tree View panel in the main window, show it by selecting View Æ Tree View).

2. Select Disk Æ Clear or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click

Clear

the current hard disk drive on the toolbar.

3. Select the clearing method in the Clear Hard Drive window; you can:

(1) just delete hard disk partitions (without wiping disk sectors) — set the

switch to Delete partitions.

(2) delete hard disk partitions and fully clear hard disk sectors — set the

switch to Delete partitions and destroy data. Having set the switch to Delete partitions and destroy data, enter the

number of passes for wiping.

Page 57

Manual Partition Operations

Hard disk clearing parameters window

4. By clicking OK, you'll add a pending operation of hard disk clearing.

Deleting hard disk partitions does not destroy disk sector contents. They can be restored by special means, if needed. Therefore, if you need to destroy confidential information, set the switch to

For information about the Acronis Disk Director Suite data wiping algorithm see the commentary for 4.1.10 «Deleting a partition».

Deleting a partition in Windows 98/Me can change the order of letters assigned to other partitions. As a result, some shortcuts might stop working. A detailed discussion of partition letter assignment rules for various operating systems appears in 3.1 «Creatin Partition».

Delete partitions and destroy data!

A New

4.2 Additional Partition Operations

Additional hard disk partition operations include some rarely used but useful operations for converting partition file systems, hiding and unhiding partitions, setting active partitions, changing root size and changing partition cluster size.

4.2.1 Changing partition letter

Some operating systems assign letters (C:, D:,…) to hard disk partitions at startup. They are used by applications and operating systems to locate files on partitions.

Connecting an additional disk, as well as creating or deleti ng a partition on existing disks, might change your system configuration. As a r esult, some applicati ons might stop w orking or user files might not be opened. To prevent this, you can change letters assigned by an operating system.

If you need to change a letter assigned to a partition by an operating system:

1. Select the hard disk and partition on it.

2. Select Disk Æ Advanced Æ Change Letter or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar

list, or click

3. Select a new letter in the Change letter window.

Change the logical drive letter on the toolbar.

Page 58

Manual Partition Operations

Change letter window

4. By clicking OK in the Change letter window, you'll add a pending operation to

partition letter assignment (your actions may only undo or modify already existing operation; see 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

Only Windows NT/2000/XP lets you change letters assigned to partitions. Windows 98/Me assigns letters to partitions automatically.

Directly changing a partition letter might affect shortcuts to existing partitions. Changing a partition letter in Windows NT/2000/XP might result in problems running applications and openin problems. A detailed discussion of partition letter assi systems appears in 3.1 «Creating A New Partition».

files on the partition. If it is a system or swap file partition, it might cause OS boot

4.2.2 Converting a file system

FAT16

The main

disadvantages

• Inability to support partitions larger than 2 GB

• Inability to work with files larger than 2 GB

• Inability to work with hard disks larger than 8 GB

• Limited root size — up to 512 elements

• File names containing up to eight name symbols, a dot and three extension

of FAT16 are:

symbols (Windows NT do not have this limitation)

nment rules for various operating

FAT32

The FAT32 file system appeared in Windows 95 OSR2 and is supported by Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000/XP.

Its main purpose was to remove FAT16 limitations. FAT32 is the evolution of FAT16.

Page 59

Manual Partition Operations

The main difference between FAT32 and FAT16 is the support of higher-capa city folders, files and disks, and more flexible root organization that features unlimited size and long file-name support. (For more details see A.9 «File System Main Specifications».)

Converting FAT16 to FAT32

You would convert a FAT16 partition to FAT32 in the following cases:

1. If you need a partition larger than 2 GB.

2. If you replace a small-capacity hard disk with a high-capacity hard disk

If you need to convert a FAT16 partition to FAT32:

1. Select the disk and FAT16 partition to convert to FAT32 from the list in the Acronis

Disk Director Suite main window.

2. Select Disk Æ Advanced Æ Convert or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or

click

Convert the file system on the selected partition on the toolbar (or select it

from partition or the graphical representation context menu).

3. Ente r pa r t i ti o n t y pe ( Logical — Primary) in the Convert Partition window.

Convert partition window

4. By clicking OK, you'll add a pending operation of FAT16 partition conversion to

FAT32 partition (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation. See

Modifying pending operations»).

2.4.5

The new partition file system will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

Attention! Converting a FAT16 partition to FAT32 might cause the installed operating system to stop «understanding» the file system and/or the allocation table. For more information about compatibility of file and operating systems see A.9 «File System Main Specifications».

4.2.3 Hiding a partition

Acronis Disk Director Suite allows you to hide a partition. It can be useful for protecting important information from unauthorized or casual access. Unlike other software, Acronis Disk Director Suite can hide any partition independent of its type, primary or logical.

If you need to hide a partition:

Page 60

Manual Partition Operations

1. Select a disk and a partition to hide in the list in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main

window.

2. Execute operation of partition hiding by selecting Disk Æ Advanced Æ Hide or a

similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or by clicking

Hide the selected partition on the toolbar (or select it from partition or the graphical representation context menu).

3. By clicking

OK in the Hide Partition window, you'll add a pending operation of partition

hiding (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation. See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

Hide Partition window

A hidden partition is labeled Hid in the Flags field of the partition list in the main window.

Attention! Hiding a system partition will prevent your PC from booting. Hiding a swap file partition in Windows NT/2000/XP will produce a similar result. If you have several primary partitions with different operating systems, hiding an active system partition will automatically make another partition active.

Note that the Advanced Æ Hide sidebar item is changed to Advanced Æ Unhide after you select a hidden partition from the list. The partition context menu also changes.

Hiding a partition in Windows 98/Me can change the order of letters assigned to other partitions. As a result, some shortcuts mi a partition does not affect letters assi partition shortcuts will stop workin rules for various operating systems appears in 3.1 «Creating A New Partition».

ht stop working. In Windows NT/2000/XP, hiding

ned to other partitions. As a result, only hidden

. A detailed discussion of partition letter assignment

4.2.4 Unhiding a partition

Unhiding a partition is performed so an operating system can "see" the partition, assign it a letter and provide access to its files.

If you need to unhide a partition:

1. Select a disk and partition to unhide from the l ist in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

2. Select Disk Æ Advanced Æ Unhide or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or click

Unhide th e selected partition on the toolbar (or select it from partition or

the graphical representation context menu).

Page 61

Manual Partition Operations

3. By clicking OK in the Unhide Partition window, you'll add the pending operation to partition unhiding (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation, See

2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

Unhide partition window

The partition Hid label will disappear from the Flags field.

Note that the Advanced Æ Unhide sidebar item is changed to Advanced Æ Hide after you select a hidden partition from the list. The partition context menu changes the same.

If you unhide the only primary partition on a disk, it will be set active.

Unhiding a partition in Windows 98/Me can change the order of letters assigned to other partitions. As a result, some shortcuts might stop working. A detailed discussion of partition letter assignment rules for various operating systems appears in 3.1 «Creatin Partition».

A New

4.2.5 Setting active partition

If you have several primary partitions, you must specify one to be the boot partition. For this, you can set a partition to active. A disk can have only one active partition.

If you need to set an active partition:

1. Select a primary partition to set to active from the list in the Acronis Disk Direct or Suite main window.

2. Select Disk Æ Advanced Æ Set Active or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or click

Set the selected partition as active on the toolbar (or select it from

partition or the graphical representation context menu).

Set Active Partition

Page 62

Manual Partition Operations

3. By clicking OK in the Set Active Partition window, you'll add the pending operation of sett ing a ctive parti tion (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation. See

2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

The partition will be marked Act in the Flags field. T he primary partition is also marked Pri, so the Flags field will contain Pri, Act.

Before you make a partition active, you must make sure it is formatted and contains an operating system. Otherwise your PC will not boot from this partition!

If you set a partition to active and there was another active partition on a disk, it will be

automatically. This also might prevent your PC f r om booting.

unset Setting an active partition in Windows 98/Me can change the order of letters assigned to

other partitions. As a result, some shortcuts mi partition letter assignment rules for various operating systems appears in 3.1 «Creatin New Partition».

ht stop working. A detailed discussion of

4.2.6 Resizing a root

Unlike all others, the FAT16 root is located in a special place and has a limited size (512 elements after standard formatting). Acronis Disk Director Suite lets you change the root size of existing partitions.

If you need to resize a FAT16 partition root:

1. Select a disk and FAT16 partition from the list in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

2. Select Disk Æ Advanced Æ Resize Root or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or click

Change the number of files that can be located in the root of the selected partition on the toolbar (or select it from partition or the graphical representation context menu).

If you select a partition with another file system, mentioned sidebar and context menu items will not be available.

3. Enter the new root size (a number of elements) in the Resize Root window.

Resize FAT16 root window

Page 63

Manual Partition Operations

FAT16 can contain a maximum of 65,520 elements.

4. By clicking OK, you'll add the pending operation of FAT16 partition root resizing (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation. See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

4.2.7 Changing cluster size

Smaller clusters (see Appendix C «Glossary» — «Cluster») might significantly reduce disk space losses because any file occupies at least one cluster/block.

Disk space losses, depending on cluster size, are shown in Appendix A (see A.9.2 «FAT16» —

Table 3).

However, reducing FAT32 partition cluster size might increase the space occupied by t he file allocation table (FAT) and slow down file access.

If you need to change cluster size:

1. Select a disk and partition from the list in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

2. Select Disk Æ Advanced Æ Change cluster size or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or click

Change the cluster size of the selected partition on the

toolbar (or select it from partition or the graphical representation context menu).

3. In the Cluster Size window, you can:

(1) see the current cluster size of the select ed partition. (2) see average statistics of disk space losses for the selected partition

and different cluster size.

Some cluster sizes might become unavailable for a partition because there will not be enough clusters to store the actual partition data.

(3) set new cluster size in the New cluster size field.

Page 64

Manual Partition Operations

Cluster size window

4. By entering a new cluster size and clicking OK in the Cluster Size window, you' ll a d d the pending operation of cluster resizing (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation, See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

4.2.8 Changing partition type

Each partition record includes the «partition type field». It is a hexadecimal value that defines the file and operating system suitable for a partition.

his hexadecimal value is optional, as some operating systems use it and some do not. In particular, Windows 98/Me only uses the «partition type» field when determinin support a partition.

if it can

Usually, partition type is set during its creation depending on the file system to be used. However, you might need to select the type manually. For example, if a partition is created without a file system or if a partition is meant for use with a specific OS, it must be assigned a corresponding type.

If you need to change partition type:

1. Select a disk and partition from the list in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.

2. Select Disk Æ Advanced Æ Change type or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or click

Change the type of the selected partition on the toolbar (or select it

from partition or the graphical representation context menu).

3. Select the necessary partition type in the Partition type window.

Page 65

Manual Partition Operations

Partition type window

4. By clicking OK in the Partition type window, you'll add the pending operation of part iti on t ype cha ngin g ( your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation, See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

Attention! Changing partition type might prevent some operating systems from working with it, even if it is a compatible file system!

Changing partition type in Windows 98/Me can hide a partition and change the order of letters assi detailed discussion of partition letter assignment rules for various operatin appears in 3.1 «Creating A New Partition».

ned to other partitions. As a result, some shortcuts might stop working. A

systems

4.2.9 Resizing i-node table in Linux Ext2/Ext3

In Linux Ext2/Ext3, the i-node index descriptor is the main data structure describing files. Each descriptor contains a file description, including file type, size, data block pointers,

etc. Data block addresses reserved for a file are stored in its index descriptor. The space for all i-nodes must be allocated in advance (at formatting). In the Ext2/Ext3

file systems, the maximum number of files is set at formatting. The «bytes per a single i-node» value indicates the average partition file size. If there ar e

many small files, there must be many descriptors, each of which occupies some space. Large files require fewer descriptors.

Acronis Disk Director Suite enables you to resize i-node tables of existing partitions to change the maximum file amount on them.

If you need to resize an i-node table of an existing Linux Ext2/Ext3 partition:

1. Select a disk and Linux Ext2/Ext3 partition from the list in the Acronis Disk Director

Suite main window.

Page 66

Manual Partition Operations

2. Select Disk Æ Advanced Æ Change Bytes per i-node or a similar item in the Advanced

sidebar list, or click

Change the number of bytes per i-node on the toolbar (or

select it from partition or the graphical representation context menu).

If you select a partition with another file system, mentioned sidebar and context menu items will be unavailable.

Enter the new amount of bytes per descriptor (i-node) in the Change bytes per i-node window.

Resize i-node window

By clicking OK in the Change bytes per i-node window, you'll add the pending

operation of Linux Ext2/Ext3 partition i-node resizing (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation, See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).

Page 67

Working with Acronis Recovery Expert

Chapter 5. Working with Acronis Recovery

Expert

Acronis Recovery Expert allows recovery of hard disk partitions accidentally deleted or damaged due to a hardware or software failure. It uses a wizard interface.

You can run Acronis Recovery Expert in the following ways. While working with Acronis Disk Director Suite in the Automatic mode:

• Using Recover Partition item in the wizards section of the Acronis Disk Director

Suite main window sidebar

• Using the respective main menu item

While working in the Manual mode:

• Using Advanced Æ Recover item of the context menu by hovering a mouse pointer

over Unallocated space and right-clicking

Then Acronis Recovery Expert begins reading the partition configuration of your hard disks.

After the process is finished, you may see a warning that there are n o unallocated spaces on your hard disks:

Hard disks do not have any unallocated spaces

Please note: the entire hard disk space can be partly partitioned and/or partly unallocated. If you delete a disk partition – whether intentionally or by mistake – its space becomes unallocated. You can create a new partition using unallocated space only.

Page 68

Working with Working with Acronis Recovery Expert

Acronis Recovery Expert checks to see if your hard disks contain unallocated space. If you have none, then it makes no sense to search for deleted partitions. If you have unallocated space, it may have contained one or more partitions. Acronis Recovery Expert will search unallocated space thoroughly – either automatically or manually.

5.1 Automatic Recovery

You can recover deleted partitions automatically or manually. To do so, set the switch to the necessary position in the Recovery mode window.

Let us describe automatic partition recovery first. Set the switch to Automatic.

Selecting Automatic recovery mode

In the next Searching for Deleted Partitions window, Acronis Recovery Expert searches for all deleted partitions. The search progress is shown in the lower part of the window.

Page 69

Working with Acronis Recovery Expert

Deleted partitions search progress

The information about hard disk partitions is stored in a special disk area – the 1

cylinder, 0th head – called the partition table. This sector is called a boot sector or the

0 master boot record (MBR). Acronis Recovery Expert not only checks the partition table for

sector of

deleted partitions, but also scans the entire disk surface. Therefore the recovery process might take some time to complete.

Please note: Acronis Recovery Expert may find deleted partition(s) almost at once (in a few seconds). Partition(s) found are then added to the list in th e Searching for Deleted Partitions window. The search will, however, continue until the entire disk is scanned for partitions.

In the automatic recovery mode, the search m ust be finished before you can proceed to the next recovery steps. The

Next button becomes enabled only after the progress bar is

full in the Searching for Deleted Partitions window. The manual mode however enables you to work at once (see 5.2 «Manual Recovery»).

Partitions found during the search are shown in the list with their main parameters:

• number

• status

• label

• capacity

• partition free space

• file system

Please note: Found partitions are automatically added to the list

during the search.

Page 70

Working with Working with Acronis Recovery Expert

A deleted partition found

Note that you do not have to select partitions for recovery in the automatic mode. Acronis Recovery Expert will recover

all partitions found.

The Recovered Partitions window shows a partition to recover as a part of hard disk partition structure, marking it with an icon in the upper right corner of its rectangle.

A hard disk partition to be recovered

A partition has been found by Acronis Recovery Expert and is shown in the disk structure, but has not yet been recovered.

This finishes partition recovery preparations. To complete this operation, select Commit in the Operations section of the Main menu. This will complete the given partition recovery.

Page 71

Working with Acronis Recovery Expert

If you exit Acronis Disk Director Suite without confirming the partition recovery operation, it will be canceled.

5.2 Manual Recovery

Set the switch to Manual in the Re covery mode window to select the manual recovery mode.

Selecting manual recovery mode

The next Searching Method window enables you to select one of two deleted partition searching methods: 1) Fast; 2) Complete.

What's the difference? Using the Fast search method, Acronis Recovery Expert checks the beginning of each side of every cylinder of a hard disk. Using the Complete method, Acronis Recovery Expert checks every hard disk sector.

The Fast method takes less time, while the Complete method is slower but more thorough.

Note that the Fast method should find all deleted partitions in most cases!

Page 72

Working with Working with Acronis Recovery Expert

Searching method selection

The Searching for Deleted Partitions window shows you parameters of a partition that existed on the selected unallocated space before it was deleted.

A deleted hard disk partition found by Acronis Recovery Expert

Unlike in the automatic recovery mode, you do not have to wait until the search for deleted hard disk partitions is finished in the manual mode. As a found partition or multiple partitions are added to the list, you can select them for immediate recovery. Selectin partition enables the

Next button. Clickin

it, you'll stop the search and proceed to

recovery.

Page 73

Working with Acronis Recovery Expert

The manual recovery mode allows you to select all found partitions for recovery. For example, if one of your partitions was deleted intentionally and another by mistake, the manual mode enables you to select and recover only the partition you deleted by mistake. Partitions are selected for recovery by clicking them.

Click the partition rectangle to select the deleted partition and continue recovery.

A deleted partition selected for recovery

This finishes partition recovery preparations. To complete this operation, select Commit in the Operations section of the Main menu.

If you exit Acronis Disk Director Suite without confirming a partition recovery operation, it will be canceled.

Page 74

Working with Acronis Disk Editor

Chapter 6. Working with Acronis Disk

Editor

6.1 General information

Acronis Disk Editor is a professional-grade program that performs a va riety of actions on a hard disk: restore boot records and files and folder structure, find lost clusters, remove computer virus code from a disk and much more.

This program has much to offer a beginner as well. It can be used as an educational tool. It is one thing to read a few books about hard disk construction and data storage, but it’s quite another to observe it yourself with the Acronis Disk Editor.

6.2 The selection of the partition or a disk for editing

Disk or partition data editing operations are only available in the Manual mode of Acronis Disk Director Suite.

To start editing hard disk or partition data:

• Select the necessary partition (disk) to edit with Acronis Disk Editor from the list of

available partitions (disks) in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window

• Select Edit in the Advanced section of the main window sidebar or the respective

item of the context menu invoked by right-clicking. You can also access editing operations selecting main menu: Disk Æ Advanced Æ Edit

This will invoke Acronis Disk Editor, providing access to other editing operations of the selected partition (disk):

Page 75

Working with Acronis Disk Editor

6.3 Main Window of the Program

The main window shows the numbers of disk and sector where the internal program cursor is positioned. It usually contains information about the work of various modes. Below the main window of the program is the view as partition table mode.

The main window in the view as partition table mode

To make the information contained in this field sensible, the current sector should be the MBR or the extended partition table.

The next figure shows the partition table as a single dump (hexadecimal byte v alues are on the left, and the corresponding characters are on the right).

The main window in the view as hex mode

Page 76

Working with Acronis Disk Editor

The current editing position is shown by the cursor tha t can be either in the left or right part of the window

In this section of the guide, all examples of Acronis Disk Editor’s main window view modes are given for demonstration purposes.

The main menu of Acronis Disk Editor contains the following items:

• Disk – allows you to browse properties of a disk being edited

• Edit – allows you to manipulate blocks of selected hard disk partitions; also allows you

to save contents of a disk sector after editing

• View – allows you to select a view mode for more convenient presentation of data

• Search – allows you to search a partition (or a hard disk) for any line (or any

sequence of characters) and go to a certain disk sector according to its absolute offset

• Help – allows you to get help concerning the editor window or about the program’s

developer and version

6.4 Edit Hard Disks

The Edit menu of the Acronis Disk Editor main window allows you to access the main operations with blocks of given hard disk sectors. You can edit hard disk data directly in the fields of any view mode (see the View menu). You can manipulate data blocks using

Edit menu in the view as hex mode.

Edit menu

Any view mode allows you to select blocks with the help of the mouse by clicking and holding its left button, or with the help of the keyboard, advancing the window with

Shift key pressed.

When viewing in hex mode, simply changing data in the hexadecimal or character area in the main window — or in any fields of other view modes — will not change the given disk sector. To execute the changes, you must save them first. After making changes, you will

Page 77

Working with Acronis Disk Editor

see that the Save sector item in Edit menu will become enabled as well as the appropriate toolbar button. If you do not save your changes, you effectively reject them.

Save sector operation

If you have made changes in a hard disk sector and decide to exit the editor without saving them, you will see a warning about saving your changes.

Saving modified sector

6.5 Write Block to a File and Read from a File

The Write to file… and Read from file… menu items allow you to save the selected block to a file or to read the block from a file and save it to a disk sector.

The selection of the Write to file… item results in opening the Write to file window (the block to be saved should already be selected). In this window, enter the file name and its path or locate a file by clicking the automatically. To save a file, click the

Browse… button. The file size will be calculated

OK button.

Page 78

Working with Acronis Disk Editor

Write to a file

To read a block from a file and insert it into a disk sector, you must place the cursor on the necessary sector byte and then select Read from file… menu item. The selection of this menu item will result in opening the Read from file window. In this window, enter the file name and its path or locate a file by clicking the

Browse… button. To insert file

contents to a sector from the current cursor position (or considering offset in the file), click the

OK button.

Read from a file

6.6 View

Information in the Acronis Disk Editor window can be viewed and edited in several different modes. You can select the appropriate view mode with the help of the View menu.

Page 79

Working with Acronis Disk Editor

View menu

The editor offers seven view modes:

• hex

• partition table

• FAT16 boot sector

• FAT32 boot sector

• FAT32 FS info sector

• NTFS boot sector

• FAT folder

6.7 Search

The Search menu allows you to search a hard disk for some line and t o go to a disk sector according to its absolute offset.

Search Menu

Selecting the Search item in the same menu will give you access to functions for searching lines in the disk being edited. (You can do the same by pressing combination.) Search parameters can be set in the Search dialog window.

Ctrl+F key

Page 80

Working with Acronis Disk Editor

The Search dialog window

A search line can be set both as char and numeric (hexadecimal) values. During a search, you can ignore letter case as well as search for a given line at a given offset inside the sector.

During a search, disk data is interpreted according to the encoding selected. If you selected a search mode without letter case matching, not only case but also elements above the characters will be ignored.

After the search process is finished, the current position will be moved to where a line was found, or will remain the same if no lines were found. You can search for the next line from the current position by selecting Find next item in the Search menu or by pressing

F3 key.

You can go to the necessary sector according to its absolute offset by selecting the Go to… line the Search menu (or by pressing

Alt+P key combination). Selecting this line

opens the Go to… dialog window.

Go to sector…

The transition is performed by entering absolute sector offset, or cylinder, head and sector numbers. The listed parameters are bound by this expression:

(CYL x HDS + HD) x SPT + SEC – 1, Where CYL, HD and SEC are numbers of cylinder, head and sector in the CHS coordinates

(Cylinder – Head – Sector); HDS is the number of heads per disk and SPT is the number of heads per track.

You can return to a sector from another one by selecting the Back item in the Search menu (or by pressing

Ctrl+Backspace key combination).

Page 81

Working with Acronis Disk Editor

6.8 Working with Different Encodings

The main window of the program features a list of encodings available in Acronis Disk Editor. This list is shown closed and dropped down below.

The closed and dropped-down list of encodings

The list of encodings is intended for correct interpretation of hard disk sector contents. Selecting the necessary encoding, you will be able to view sector contents correctly. This is interpreted in the right part of the program’s main window in the hex mode.

Page 82

Working with Acronis OS Selector

Chapter 7. Working with Acronis OS

Selector

7.1 General information

Acronis OS Selector is a powerful, reliable and easy-to-use boot manager that allows several operating systems on a single PC and lets you create different configurations for any OS installed. With Acronis OS Selector you can:

• Install several different operating systems on a single PC

• Load installed operating systems from any hard disk partition or boot the PC from

bootable CD/DVD

• Load installed operating systems from under Windows

• Install several operating systems on a single partition

• Hide or protect with a password any operating system on your PC

• Duplicate installed operating systems and define different configurations for each copy

7.2 Starting the work

After Acronis OS Selector is installed together with Acronis Disk Director Suite, all operating systems that exist on the given PC will be automatically located and added to the boot menu. The software will also automatically set the parameters and properties for every OS found (see section 7.7 «Setting operating system properties».

You can run Acronis OS Selector by clicking the respective item in the tools section of the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window sidebar or in the main menu.

• Acronis OS Selector can also be run as a separate application by clicking Start Æ

Programs Æ Acronis Æ Disk Director Suite Æ OS Selector

You can control Acronis OS Selector in two ways:

• From its main window under Windows

• From the Acronis OS Selector boot menu invoked at bootup before the operating

system is booted. The boot menu has the same interface and structure as the main window.

Page 83

Working with Acronis OS Selector

Acronis OS Selector Main Window

The key part of the main window, Operating systems, contains a list of operating systems available for loading on this PC. Acronis OS Selector automatically determines all operating systems installed and lists them in the boot menu at PC bootup and in the Acronis OS Selector main window under Windows. If you insert a bootable CD/DVD, it will be detected and displayed in the boot menu/main window as well. The CD/DVD can contain an operating system or any bootable program – in all cases, you will see a new icon in the operating systems area.

The left part of the window (the sidebar) contains the following sections also available in the main menu and customizable toolbar:

Operations

This section includes actions available for selected operating systems or their shortcuts (see section 7.9 «Using shortcuts»).

• Boot – boots the selected operating system or its configuration (shortcut)

• Set Default – sets the default operating system

• Set password – protects the selected operating system with a password

• Properties – sets properties of the selected operating system

Edit

This section provides the following means of operating system and shortcut management:

• Hide – hides a selected operating system or shortcut from the boot menu

• Create Shortcut – creates a shortcut for a selected operating system

Page 84

Working with Acronis OS Selector

• Delete – deletes a selected operating system or shortcut

• Rename – renames a selected OS or shortcut

• Copy – duplicates a selected OS or shortcut

Tools

• Activate OS Selector – select to always display Acronis OS Selector boot menu at

bootup

• Deactivate OS Selector– select to always boot up the specified operating system

• OS Detection Wizard – invokes OS Detection Wizard for detecting deleted or not-

determined-automatically operating systems

• Options – sets Acronis OS Selector options

Details

This section provides brief context help on the selected operating system or its shortcut.

7.3 Setting the Boot Menu

After Acronis OS Selector is installed, the boot menu is automatically activated. If your CD/DVD drive is set as the first bootup device in BIOS, a bootable CD/DVD inside

the drive may prevent OS Selector from starting at bootup and force loading its own bootable program or OS. We highly recommend that you se t the system bootup seq uence in BIOS so that the HDD will be the first device.

To prevent the Acronis OS Selector boot menu from being invoked at bootup, select Deactivate OS Selector in the Tools section of the Acronis OS Selector main menu under Windows or in the respective boot menu section at PC bootup. Then you will be prompted to select an operating system to be booted after the boot menu is deactivated.

You can avoid appearing the Acronis OS Selector boot menu at bootup even if OS Selector is active. To do so, press F6 immediately after turning on the computer, before the first messages will appear on the screen. This will boot an OS from the partition that is active, according to Master Boot Record (MBR).

7.4 Booting operating systems

You can boot any operating system with Acronis OS Selector:

• From the boot menu (if activated)

• From under Windows from the Acronis OS Selector main window

Page 85

Working with Acronis OS Selector

7.4.1 Booting an OS using the boot menu

Having turned on the PC, wait for the Acronis OS Selector boot menu to be invoked and select and double-click an operating system to boot.

You can also boot a selected OS by:

• Clicking Boot in the Operations section of the boot menu sidebar

• Clicking Boot on the toolbar

• Selecting Boot in the OS section of the main menu

7.4.2 Booting OS from the Acronis OS Selector main window

With Acronis OS Selector, you can boot an available operating system from under Windows by:

• Running Acronis OS Selector

• Double-clicking the operating system icon in the central part of the main window

You will be prompted to reboot. Click OK to confirm and continue.

If you select the same operating system you are in at the moment, the PC will reboot after your confirmation.

You can also boot the selected OS using:

• The Boot button in the Operations section of the Main Window

• The Boot button on the toolbar

• The Boot item in the OS section of the main menu

7.5 Setting an operating system as the default

Any operating system can be set as the default. This means it will already be selected when the boot menu is invoked.

If you install a new operating system after Acronis OS Selector installation, it will be set as the default automatically.

You can set an operating system as the default by clicking Set default in the

Operations section of the sidebar or the respective item in the OS section of the main menu, or the respective item of the context menu invoked by a right-click.

7.6 Setting operating system passwords

If needed, you can protect any installed operating system with a password to prevent its unauthorized booting.

To set a password:

Page 86

Working with Acronis OS Selector

• Select an OS to protect

• Click Set Password in the Operations section of main window sidebar

• Enter and confirm a password in the Set Operating System Password dialog and

click OK

An operating system password must be at least six characters long.

You can also set an operating system password by clicking Set Password on the toolbar, in the OS section of the main menu, or in the context menu, invoked by a right-click.

7.7 Setting operating system properties

Acronis OS Selector automatically determines properties of all operating systems installed on a PC. If needed, you can set them by manually clicking Properties in the Operations section of the main window sidebar, boot menu, the respective main menu, toolbar or context menu items. You can set the following properties:

7.7.1 General Properties

This section allows you to change the name and icon for any operating system listed in the boot menu.

General properties window

7.7.2 Boot configuration

This section allows you to set the following boot parameters:

Page 87

Working with Acronis OS Selector

• Write Boot Sector – write boot sector each time an operating system boots

• Boot as MS-DOS 7.1 – can be set for operating systems compatible with MS-DOS

7.1+ that were not automatically located by Acronis OS Selector

• Boot as OS/2 – can be set for operating systems compatible with OS/2 that were not

automatically located by Acronis OS Selector

• Enable large disks support – enables large disks support for Windows 98/Me

operating systems

Boot configuration window

7.7.3 Partitions

Acronis OS Selector allows you to hide hard disk partitions (except for the system). To hide a partition, select it and enable the Hidden option for it. This is not applicable to Windows 2000 partitions. You can perform this operation under that operating system using the Advanced section.

Page 88

Working with Acronis OS Selector

Partitions properties window

7.7.4 Disks

Generally, Windows can boot from HDD only if its boot files reside on the first (according to BIOS) hard disk (see details in 8.2.1 “General information”). If you connect a live system HDD, taken from another computer (where it was the first disk), to your

computer, where it becomes the second (3

etc.) disk, boot from that HDD will be impossible, even if the hardware is identical on both computers. OS Selector can manage situations like that and automatically set the disk order required for booting the selected operating system.

Page 89

Working with Acronis OS Selector

Disks properties window

Moreover, you can choose the disk order when installing a new Windows operating system so that its boot files are installed on the same disk where its main part resides

8.2.4 “Installing another Windows on a different disk”). Doing so makes operating

(see systems on your first, second and so on disks fully independent. You will be able, for example, to boot from the second disk even if the first one is damaged or disconnected. You also will be able to individually back up and restore each system disk: every operating system will be bootable when restored to its disk.

Changing the disk order for an operation system already installed may prevent that system from loading.

7.7.5 Folders

Acronis OS Selector automatically determines system folders for all Windows operating systems. System folders contain files required for an operating system to work properly. Windows 98/Me/NT utilizes Windows and Program Files folders, while Windows 2000/XP uses the above plus Documents and Settings.

For other operating systems (e.g. Linux), you will have to specify system folders manually using the Add button. If needed, you can edit the list using the Remove button.

Under other operating systems (e.g., Linux OS), you can add folders to the system folders list only if host partitions are FAT16/32 or NTFS.

Each folder in the list has its Properties section which, with the help of the Enable/Disable parameter, allows you to specify if folder contents are to be restored at operating system bootup. This can help avoid conflicts among multiple operating systems, making them invisible to each other. For example, you will have to enable system folders recovery when installing another Windows on a partition where one Windows OS is

Page 90

Working with Acronis OS Selector

already installed (see 8.2.3 “Installing another Windows on the same partition”). When you copy an operating system using Acronis OS Selector Copy feature, the recovery option enables automatically.

Folders properties window

Enable – enable folder contents recovery at bootup;

•

• Disable – leave folder contents as is.

7.7.6 Files

This section allows you to specify the location of system files required by the given operating system and edit these files. Examples of systems files might be command.com, config.sys, msdos.sys, and autoexec.bat.

For all Windows operating systems, the list of system files is populated automatically and can be changed, if needed.

Page 91

Working with Acronis OS Selector

Files properties window

Properties of system files will provide you with the following options:

• Automatic deletion of a selected file with Acronis OS Selector under the given OS.

Check Yes, delete when the operating system starts to enable the option. This might become necessary when two system files are in conflict, causing possible OS bootup problems.

• During installation, Acronis OS Selector automatically determines system files of any

Windows versions and makes them Changeable. You can change this option manually if needed.

• For operating systems that use FAT16/FAT32 file systems (Windows 9x, DOS) the

IO.SYS file must be located in the starting 2 KB of root folder. If you set a fragmentation limit for this file (in bytes), Acronis OS Selector will automatically defragment it when the limit is exceeded.

7.7.7 Advanced

You can’t hide a partition under the Windows 2000 operating system just by setting Hidden options. To perform this operation, you will need to check the Force hiding partitions box available in this section.

Page 92

Working with Acronis OS Selector

Advanced properties window

7.8 Hiding operating systems

If needed, you can hide any operating system installed so i t won’t be shown in the boot menu and Operating systems section of the Acronis OS Selector main window.

To hide an operating system:

• Select an OS

• Click Hide in the Edit sidebar section, on the toolbar, or in the Edit section of the

main menu. You can also hide an operating system using the context menu invoked by a right-click

This will hide the selected OS from the list of available ones. To unhide an operating system:

• Select Show Hidden in the View section of Acronis OS Selector main menu to see

the list of all hidden operating systems in the lower part of the Operating systems window

• Select an operating system and click Unhide in the Edit sidebar section or select the

respective items of the main menu (Edit section) or the context menu

If there are other operating systems on this list, you can hide them again by unchecking Show hidden in the View section of the main menu.

Page 93

Working with Acronis OS Selector

7.9 Using shortcuts

Acronis OS Selector allows you to create shortcuts for any operating system in the boot menu. Shortcuts enable you to create several different configurations for the same

operating system. Shortcut parameters are set in the same way as those of the operating system. Shortcuts can be copied, deleted and renamed like operating systems. You can create a shortcut for a selected operating system in the following ways:

• Clicking Create shortcut in the Edit sidebar section, main window toolbar or boot

• Clicking Create Shortcut in the Edit section of the main menu

• Clicking Create Shortcut on the toolbar

• Using a context menu invoked by a right-click

7.10 Deleting operating systems from OS Selector boot menu

With the Delete operation, you can delete any operating system from the OS Selector boot menu and main window along with its shortcuts.

You can delete all Windows system folders from the hard disk along with deleting Windows from the boot menu by checking Delete the operating system directories check-box in the Confirmation dialog window.

7.11 Detecting operating systems

The OS detection tool allows an unintentionally deleted from the boot menu operating system to be found and added to OS Selector boot menu and main window. Besides, if an operating system on a newly connected disk was not detected automatically, you can tr y to add it to the boot menu using this tool.

A deleted Windows operating system cannot be detected if its system folders have been deleted from the hard disk. A deleted Linux system cannot be detected if its loader was located in MBR.

To run the OS Detection Wizard, select it from the Tools menu.

•

• Select whether you want to detect an OS on the hard disk, on CD, or to detect its

record in the MBR.

Page 94

Working with Acronis OS Selector

Selecting where to search an OS

If you selected the hard disk, select the partition where the OS (to be exact, its boot

•

part) is located. When detecting Linux, choose the partition containing Linux loader. For Windows, see 8.2.1 “General information.” Then click Bootable.

Whatever OS location is selected, you can set options of available partitions, for example, hide some of them. These settings will be applied to the partitions each time you boot the detected operating system.

Selecting the partition where to search an OS

If you selected Detect OS in MBR or on a FAT hard disk partition, select if you want

•

to use Boot sector on partition or Boot sector in file. Generally, the first setting

Page 95

Working with Acronis OS Selector

will be enough. Having selected the second, you will have to specify a path to the file, containing a previously saved boot sector of the detected operating system.

You can save boot sectors by means of Acronis Disk Editor. In addition, Windows sometimes creates boot sector copies itself. For example, Windows XP, being installed over Windows 98, creates bootsec.dos file, containing the Windows 98 boot sector.

Next, you will see a list of detected operating systems. Click Finish to add them to the

•

Acronis OS Selector boot menu and main window.

7.12 Renaming operating systems

Acronis OS Selector users can assign any name to operating systems or their shortcuts. That can be done by clicking Rename on the sidebar, toolbar, main menu or context menu.

7.13 Copying operating systems

Acronis OS Selector allows you to duplicate any installed operating system or its shortcut. It might be useful if you want to test unknown software before having it on main OS.

Copying an OS implies duplicating all its system files and folders and configuration files, as well as all programs installed, into a separate folder located inside the hidden system BOOTWIZ folder (see 1.3.2 «Acronis OS Selector installation»).

Copying can take a long time, so you will be prompted to confirm that you want to perform the task.

To copy an operating system, you need to:

• Select an operating system in the boot menu or program main window

• Click Copy in the Edit sidebar section or select a respective item in the main menu

or context menu

After this, you will see a copy of this OS in the Operating systems window with a number automatically appended to its name, depending on the num ber of copies already made. If needed, you can rename a copy by clicking Rename in the Edit sidebar section or selecting a respective item in the main menu or context menu.

7.14 Setting Acronis OS Selector options

You can set Acronis OS Selector options by clicking Options in the Tools sidebar section or selecting a respective item on the Toolbar or main menu.

7.14.1 General options

Acronis OS Selector is able to protect system folders automatically when a new operating system is detected.

Page 96

Working with Acronis OS Selector

System folder protection is required when multiple OSes are on a single PC, especially in situations when several operating systems are located on the same hard disk partition.

General options window

To choose a suitable configuration, click one of the options below:

• Yes, protect folders – folders protection will be enabled automatically when new

operating systems are detected. Settings for the existing operation systems will be left intact

• No, do not protect folders – Acronis OS Selector will not enable folder protection

when new operating systems are detected

7.14.2 Startup Options

In this section, you can set Acronis OS Selector bootup behavior:

• At once (ESC for menu) – if activated, Acronis OS Selector will boot the default

operating system and you will have to press Escape to enter the boot menu

• With timeout – if activated, the default operating system will be booted after an

interval (in seconds.)

• Disable – you will have to manually select an operating system from the boot menu.

This is active by default

Page 97

Working with Acronis OS Selector

Startup options window

7.14.3 Display properties

Acronis OS Selector can control monitor video modes before Windows is booted and th e graphics card and monitor drivers are loaded:

Display properties window

The following properties are available in the Options Æ Display properties section:

Page 98

Working with Acronis OS Selector

• Resolution – you can manually set the resolution you want, provided that it’s

supported by your graphics card and monitor and ranges from VGA (640 x 480) to SXGA (1280 x 1024.)

• Bit depth – you can set the number of colors displayed, choosing among Low (8-bit,

256 colors); Medium (16-bit, 65,536 colors); and High (24-bit, 16,777,216 colors.)

• Refresh rate – you can manually set the display refresh rate, which is set to 60Hz by

default. If you select Optimal, the program will determine your graphics configuration automatically and set the maximum available refresh rate. The maximum rate that can be set manually is 150Hz

7.14.4 Passwords

You can set, change or remove Acronis OS Selector global passwords, including:

• Boot menu password – asked for each time Acronis OS Selector starts, except for

cases when the boot menu is disabled to boot the default operating system immediately

• Administrator password – required when a user tries to change any options and

settings of Acronis OS Selector and operating systems

To disable global passwords, leave both input fields blank.

Password properties window

When the default operating system is booted without invoking the boot menu, you might have to enter the boot menu password running Acronis OS Selector under Windows.

Page 99

Working with Acronis OS Selector

7.14.5 Input devices

In this section of Acronis OS Selector options, you can provide extended support of input devices (mouse, etc.) in Acronis OS Selector boot menu.

Using the Default parameter, the program automatically determines installed input devices.

If needed, you can manually specify an input device to use:

• Mouse or compatible device (touch pad, TrackPoint or its notebook analog) on PS/2 or

USB

• Mouse on COM1

• Mouse on COM2

• Do not use mouse

Input devices properties window

Page 100

Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC

Chapter 8. Installing and using several

operating systems on a single PC

8.1 Introduction

One of the key benefits offered by Acronis OS Selector is the ability to add almost any new operating system to a PC, even if it already has one or more operating systems installed. Using Acronis OS Selector, a user is able to install:

• Several different copies of the same OS (e.g. Windows XP);

• Different operating systems from the same developers (e.g. Microsoft Windows 98 and

Windows XP);

• Operating systems from various developers (e.g. a Windows version and a Linux

variant).

In all cases, Acronis OS Selector eliminates software conflicts that might affect operating system stability and even result in failures.

Acronis OS Selector supports and automatically recognizes the following operating systems:

• Various DOS environments: MS DOS 5.x–6.x; MS DOS 7.0 (not a separate product but

is included in Windows 95); MS DOS 7.1 (not a separate product but is included in Windows 98); MS DOS 8.0 (not a separate product but is included in Windows Me). All Windows 9x and Windows NT operating systems: Windows 95/95 OSR2/98/Me/NT/2000/XP

• The most widespread Linux distributions

• The most widespread Unix PC distributions: FreeBSD, Solaris, QNX

Below, you will find instructions for some of the most typical situations related to adding a second OS to a PC that already has one installed. Please be aware that peculiarities of some operating systems may place additional limitations and/or require additional actions. We recommend that you look into Appendix B “Particularities of Operating Systems.”

Please note that a newly installed operating system will be set as the default in the Acronis OS Selector boot menu. If you require another OS to have this status, you will have to adjust the respective operating system properties (see 7.5 «Setting an operatin system as the default»).

8.1.1 Reactivating the Acronis OS Selector boot menu

Because operating systems can change the Master Boo t Record (MBR) during installation , Acronis OS Selector, which also uses the MBR, might become inoperable.

100

Acronis DISK DIRECTOR SUITE 10.0 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

What is Acronis Disk Director Suite?

What’s new in Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0?

Software use cond itions

Technical support

Chapter 1. Installation and Use

1.1 System Requirements

1.2 Supported Operating Systems

1.3 Installation Process

1.3.1 Acronis Disk Director Suite installation

1.3.2 Acronis OS Selector installation

1.4 Upgrading Acronis Disk Director Suite

1.5 Removing Software

1.6 User Interface

1.7 Before You Run Acronis Disk Director Suite

1.8 Running Acronis Disk Director Suite

1.8.1 Running under Windows

1.8.2 Running Acronis Disk Director Suite for the first time

1.8.3 Running from bootable diskettes or CD

Pending Operations window by clicking Operations Æ Show:

After the search process is finished, the current position will be moved to where a line was found, or will remain the same if no lines were found. You can search for the next line from the current position by selecting Find next item in the Search menu or by pressing