ACRONIS DISK DIRECTOR SUITE 10 User Manual Download Page 11

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Installation and Use

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



Programs



Acronis



DiskDirector



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

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 complete set of partition

operations and controls, select

Manual Mode

You can switch between modes at any time (see 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 need to

use the bootable media: (1) after a serious Windows failure or (2) to work on a Linux-

based 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.

Summary of Contents for DISK DIRECTOR SUITE 10

Page 1: ...Acronis Disk Director Suite 10 0 User s guide ...

Page 2: ...or permission is obtained from 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 Third party code may be provided with the Software and ...

Page 3: ...ASING PARTITION FREE SPACE 30 3 3 COPYING PARTITIONS 32 CHAPTER 4 MANUAL PARTITION OPERATIONS 37 4 1 MAIN PARTITION OPERATIONS 37 4 2 ADDITIONAL PARTITION OPERATIONS 56 CHAPTER 5 WORKING WITH ACRONIS RECOVERY EXPERT 66 5 1 AUTOMATIC RECOVERY 67 5 2 MANUAL RECOVERY 70 CHAPTER 6 WORKING WITH ACRONIS DISK EDITOR 73 6 1 GENERAL INFORMATION 73 6 2 THE SELECTION OF THE PARTITION OR A DISK FOR EDITING 73...

Page 4: ...5 CHAPTER 9 BOOTABLE MEDIA BUILDER 107 9 1 GENERAL INFORMATION 107 9 2 CREATING BOOTABLE MEDIA 107 APPENDIX A HARD DISK AND FILE SYSTEMS 110 A 1 HARD DISK ORGANIZATION 110 A 2 HARD DISK PARTITION 111 A 3 PARTITION TYPES 111 A 4 PRIMARY PARTITIONS 112 A 5 EXTENDED PARTITIONS 113 A 6 LOGICAL PARTITIONS 113 A 7 FORMATTING HARD DISKS 113 A 8 FILE SYSTEMS 114 A 9 FILE SYSTEM MAIN SPECIFICATIONS 114 APP...

Page 5: ...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 ...

Page 6: ... hardware is identical on both computers Acronis OS Selector now can manage situations like that and automatically set the disk order required for booting 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 w...

Page 7: ...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 homecomputi...

Page 8: ... 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 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 ...

Page 9: ...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...

Page 10: ...roughly 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 loss Please take all necessary precautions and following these simple rules 1 Create a disk image of the disk on which partit...

Page 11: ...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 complete set of partition operations and controls select Manual Mode You can switch between modes at any time see 2 1 3 Switching modes 1 ...

Page 12: ...ocated 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 detail 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 re...

Page 13: ...tition 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 op...

Page 14: ...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 o...

Page 15: ... per i node which is not found on the FAT menus 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 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 ...

Page 16: ...ill 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 operation for the partition you are working on see 2 4 3 Viewing delayed operations Y...

Page 17: ...rations 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...

Page 18: ...lling a wizard and wizard created pending operations in the usual way selecting Operations Undo or pressing Ctrl Z or clicking Undo Last Action 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 Undo Last Action will undo a user action and all operation...

Page 19: ...tection 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 toolb...

Page 20: ... 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 b...

Page 21: ...on or video files on a partition Store backups images of other partitions disks on a partition Install a new operating system 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 sele...

Page 22: ... 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 Create a new partition You can do this in the Manual partition operations mode 3 On the Partition Siz...

Page 23: ...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 Logical partition type 7 On the next File System wizard page select a file system The wizard will offer you one of the Windows ...

Page 24: ... file allocation table etc 8 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 Appendix C Glossa...

Page 25: ...are assigned to them 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 primarypartitions 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 suitab...

Page 26: ...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 Label 10 The last wizard page graphically shows you the new disk partition structure including those just created Created partition in the disk partition structure Clicking Finish on this page will make Acronis Disk Director Sui...

Page 27: ... page shows logical disks or partitions on the selected physical disk See also Appendix C Glossary Physical disk Logical disk 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 unallo...

Page 28: ...e 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 fro...

Page 29: ...cribed 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 new partition creation 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 creat...

Page 30: ...cing 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 free 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 Increase fre...

Page 31: ... 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 32: ...s 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 creat...

Page 33: ...tion 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 34: ... 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 Partit...

Page 35: ... 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 automatica...

Page 36: ... boot the partition s operating system at startup By copying a partition at the expense of existing partition free space Acronis Disk Director Suite can take the partition space to make sure that partition size is not smaller than 110 of data occupied space 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 Windo...

Page 37: ...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 Creating A New Partition It will enable you to create a partition on unallocated space only If there is no such space it should ...

Page 38: ...tion 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 assigned to other partitions As a result some shortcuts might stop working A detailed discussion of partition letter assignment rules for various operating systems ap...

Page 39: ...ions 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 Therefo...

Page 40: ...on 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 ...

Page 41: ...e 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 Move or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list or click Move the se...

Page 42: ...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 unallocat...

Page 43: ... 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 Creating A New Partition Take special care when moving an operating system partition and its boot code location The OS might stop booting For example Windows NT 4 0 and earlier versions limit boot code l...

Page 44: ...size 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 partic...

Page 45: ... 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...

Page 46: ...on free space Please keep in mind that you are distributing not overall partition size but just free space at this step The program will automatically count how much space is necessary for 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...

Page 47: ...ata 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 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 data from the merged partition will be placed You can create a new fo...

Page 48: ...artition 1 Select a partition to be explored 2 Select Disk Explore or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list or click Explore on the toolbar 3 The program displays a folder 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...

Page 49: ...on 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 Change Label or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list or click Change...

Page 50: ...wap 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 system works with the disk 3 If you select Auto you allow Disk Director Suite to automatically determine the clust...

Page 51: ...sk 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 f...

Page 52: ... might stop working A detailed discussion of partition letter assignment rules for various operating systems appears in 3 1 Creating A 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 c...

Page 53: ...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 To defragment a partition in Windows NT 4 0 and earlier Windows operating systems it is recommended that you install a third party disk defragmenter tool If you need to defragment a hard disk...

Page 54: ... 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 ...

Page 55: ...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 Tree View 2 Select Disk Clear or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list or click Clear the current ...

Page 56: ...ions 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 sys...

Page 57: ...2000 XP might result in problems running applications and opening files on the partition If it is a system or swap file partition it might cause OS boot problems A detailed discussion of partition letter assignment rules for various operating systems appears in 3 1 Creating A New Partition 4 2 2 Converting a file system FAT16 The main disadvantages of FAT16 are Inability to support partitions larg...

Page 58: ...e toolbar or select it from partition or the graphical representation context menu 3 Enter partition type 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 2 4 5 Modifying pending operations The new partition file sys...

Page 59: ...00 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 Hide sidebar item is changed to Advanced 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 t...

Page 60: ...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 Creating A New Partition 4 2 5 Setting active partition If you have sever...

Page 61: ...om booting Setting an active 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 Creating A New Partition 4 2 6 Resizing a root Unlike all others the FAT16 root is located in a special place and has a limited size ...

Page 62: ...ng FAT32 partition cluster size might increase the space occupied by the 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 Advanced Change cluster size or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list or click Change the cluster size of the selected partition ...

Page 63: ...8 Me only uses the partition type field when determining if it can support a partition 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 ch...

Page 64: ... 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 fi...

Page 65: ...ation context menu If you select a partition with another file system mentioned sidebar and context menu items will be unavailable 3 Enter the new amount of bytes per descriptor i node in the Change bytes per i node window Resize i node window 4 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 u...

Page 66: ...uite main window sidebar Using the respective main menu item While working in the Manual mode Using Advanced 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 no unallocated spaces on your ...

Page 67: ...ert 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 wi...

Page 68: ...ind deleted partition s almost at once in a few seconds Partition s found are then added to the list in the 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 must be finished before you can proceed to the next recovery steps The Next button becomes enabled only after the progress bar is...

Page 69: ...hows 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...

Page 70: ...ual 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 th...

Page 71: ...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 Selecting a partition enables the Next button Clicking it you ll stop ...

Page 72: ...o 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 Di...

Page 73: ...her 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 Dis...

Page 74: ...arious 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 values are on the left and the corresponding characters are ...

Page 75: ...aracters 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...

Page 76: ...arning 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...

Page 77: ... 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...

Page 78: ...t sector FAT folder 6 7 Search The Search menu allows you to search a hard disk for some line and to 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 Ctrl F key combination Search parameters can be set in the Search dialog window ...

Page 79: ... 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 ...

Page 80: ... 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 81: ...efine 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 ...

Page 82: ...u 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 set...

Page 83: ... the drive may prevent OS Selector from starting at bootup and force loading its own bootable program or OS We highly recommend that you set the system bootup sequence 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 t...

Page 84: ... 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 alre...

Page 85: ...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 conte...

Page 86: ...S 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 Hi...

Page 87: ...isk 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 3rd 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 ope...

Page 88: ...tomatically 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 ca...

Page 89: ...tically 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 i...

Page 90: ...nis 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 wh...

Page 91: ...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 sid...

Page 92: ...lete 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 unintent...

Page 93: ...indows 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 B...

Page 94: ...ing 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 Selec...

Page 95: ...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 ...

Page 96: ...options window 7 14 3 Display properties Acronis OS Selector can control monitor video modes before Windows is booted and the graphics card and monitor drivers are loaded Display properties window The following properties are available in the Options Display properties section ...

Page 97: ...uration 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 requi...

Page 98: ... 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 99: ...ed 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 situati...

Page 100: ...guration file NTDETECT COM initial hardware detector for more details see Appendix B Particularities of Operating System The main part of Windows OS is located in Windows or WINNT Program Files Documents and settings system folders that might be stored on any hard disk partition or even disk while the bootable part is required to be located on the first hard disk primary partition The disk has to ...

Page 101: ...otup from the boot menu having inserted the disk with the OS distribution Once booted from a disk follow instructions to install the OS During installation the Windows bootable part will automatically place itself on the primary partition you have previously set as active When you boot either version of Windows using Acronis OS Selector later each OS in the list will recognize the partition where ...

Page 102: ...system could boot even if the first disk is damaged or removed However you may choose not to do it The new operating system will then boot from the first disk in spite of its system folders residing on another disk 8 2 5 Installing additional Windows copies In some cases you might need to install two copies of the same Windows OS e g two or more Windows XP copies each having its own properties and...

Page 103: ...ersions If you need to Update an existing Windows version with a new copy of Windows 2000 XP select Yes update existing operating system In this case the New Operating System Wizard will automatically determine Windows versions available for update Leave your existing Windows copies as is select No add new operating system In this case a new copy of Windows 2000 XP will be added to the list of ava...

Page 104: ...ed available for update In the list provided select an OS to update by replacing it with a new copy of Windows 2000 XP When a new OS is configured click Proceed to confirm operations selected If Acronis OS Selector can t automatically determine the location of system folders you will have to provide the information manually System folders might be located on 1 Any physical hard disks shown in the ...

Page 105: ... loaded into memory Instead of supporting multiple file systems Lilo developers went a simpler more universal route a loader just keeps the core file location in its data structure created by the special activator program lilo As this program runs under Linux it can locate any file on a disk by means of the operating system A disadvantage of such a mechanism shows up when moving or reducing the si...

Page 106: ...there s no need to create any special properties for the new OS to hide or change status of any partitions After selecting the loader location you will have to remember that once placed into the MBR it will overwrite the Acronis OS Selector boot record making it inoperable until reactivated from a bootable CD or diskette see 8 1 1 Reactivating the Acronis OS Selector boot menu After Linux is insta...

Page 107: ...ootable media using the Bootable Media Builder For this you will need a CD R RW blank several formatted diskettes the wizard will tell you the exact number or any other media your PC can boot from such as a Zip drive If you have chosen not to install the Bootable Media Builder during Acronis Disk Director Suite installation you will not be able to use this feature Acronis Disk Director Suite 10 0 ...

Page 108: ...nts invoking Acronis OS Selector at bootup To solve this problem just reactivate Acronis OS Selector using a bootable disk To find more about components of other Acronis products see the respective user guides 3 Select the type of bootable media CD R RW or 3 5 diskettes to create If your BIOS has this feature you can create other bootable media such as removable USB flash drives You can also choos...

Page 109: ...capacity If you chose to create a bootable disk ISO image specify the ISO file name and the folder where to place it If you chose to save bootable data on PXE server specify the server and provide the user name and password to access it 5 Next the program will calculate how many blank disks are required in case you have not chosen ISO or PXE and give you time to prepare them When you are finished ...

Page 110: ...en the prefix and suffix portions is 512 bytes in size Both sides of each disk on the spindle are used to store data All tracks that have the same number on all the surfaces of all disks comprise a cylinder For each work surface of a disk in the drive there is a head that enables reading and writing data from to the disk Heads are assembled into a block and are numbered starting with 0 To perform ...

Page 111: ...different operating systems for example Windows 2000 XP and Linux Partitioning provides more effective disk space usage Partitioning enables you to separate system files from user data making personal information storage safer Partitioning provides more effective hard disk maintenance In particular more effective data integrity control file defragmentation and data backup A 3 Partition Types There...

Page 112: ...ntrol Panel whose disk management tools will let you delete and create partitions primary extended logical using free unallocated disk space or format a partition You cannot however change partition structure by means of the Windows operating system To do this you will need software such as Acronis Disk Director Suite It lets you resize move hide partitions set them as active copy and perform othe...

Page 113: ...y are accessible by most operating systems If you need several operating systems you should use logical partitions for booting purposes and leave primary partitions free A 7 Formatting Hard Disks Within each of the partitions information has to be organized in a way understandable to the operating system using that partition This organization is the file system As a rule a formatting program perfo...

Page 114: ...T 2000 XP However there are many other file systems The Linux operating system which is now gaining popularity widely uses three file systems Ext2 is a file system for end users PCs Ext3 is the default file system used by Red Hat Linux ReiserFS is a more secure with respect to data integrity file system that is used on data servers A 9 File System Main Specifications Operating systems allow you to...

Page 115: ... bytes 64 KB 512 bytes 64 KB File record table I node No No Dynamic Table 2 Linux file systems File system Ext2 Ext3 ReiserFS Operating systems Linux Linux Linux Max partition size 16 TB 16 TB 16 TB Max file size Limited by partition size Limited by partition size Limited by partition size Max file name length 255 255 255 Restoration logging No Yes Yes Max files in root Unlimited Unlimited Unlimit...

Page 116: ...s Usually the smallest possible cluster size is selected so that the resulting number of clusters is less than 65 526 The larger the partition size the larger the cluster has to be Most operating systems incorrectly perform with 128 sector clusters thus reducing the maximum FAT16 partition size to 2 Gigabytes Usually the larger the cluster size the more disk space is wasted Table 3 The following t...

Page 117: ... NTFS data structures are special files Like the FAT NTFS uses clusters to store files but cluster size does not depend on partition size NTFS is a 64 bit file system It uses Unicode to store file names It is also a journaling failure protected file system and supports compression and encryption Files in folders are indexed to speed up file search A 9 5 Linux Ext2 Ext2 one of the main file systems...

Page 118: ... MS DOS 5 x 6 x or PC DOS that has Windows 95 98 Me installed over it MS DOS or PC DOS that has Windows NT 2000 installed over it Acronis Disk Director Suite may not support some DOS versions for example the Japanese version In these cases system and configuration file lists should be edited for example font files should be added to avoid conflicts between different copies of these operating syste...

Page 119: ...becomes a configuration file Letter assignment order differs for different DOS versions MS DOS and PC DOS assume the boot partition as the partition to which letter C has been assigned The CONFIG SYS command set differs for different DOS versions MS DOS 7 x 8 0 starts WIN COM instead of COMMAND COM if the MSDOS SYS file includes BOOTGUI 1 MS DOS 8 0 cannot function as a stand alone operating syste...

Page 120: ...heir boot partitions should be located in the first 2 gigabytes of a hard disk B 2 Windows 95 98 Me Under Windows 95 98 Me booting always starts with MS DOS thus everything concerning MS DOS 7 x 8 0 booting applies to Windows 95 98 Me as well B 2 1 Supported Versions Acronis Disk Director Suite supports Windows 95 and Windows 95OSR2 98 Me and can detect their language version B 2 2 Booting Details...

Page 121: ... Director Suite supports Windows NT versions 3 51 4 0 Windows 2000 and Windows XP it can detect the most common language versions B 3 2 Booting Peculiarities Operating systems based on Windows NT consist of two main parts the boot part and the main part These parts can reside on different partitions The boot part consists of the operating system kernel loader NTLDR which is also a simple boot mana...

Page 122: ... the same names on a partition was added to Acronis Disk Director Suite Such folders are called system folders A system folder is moved to its place root folder only when the corresponding operating system is booted otherwise it remains in the OS Selector system folder The above mentioned folders are added to the system folders list automatically when an operating system is detected Nevertheless y...

Page 123: ...al activation program called lilo and the process itself is called activation Since this program is run from Linux the features of the latter allow it to easily locate any file on a disk The disadvantage of such a technique manifests itself when a Linux partition is moved or reduced in size In that case Linux becomes unbootable and a Linux boot floppy is required to reactivate the loader B 5 Other...

Page 124: ...ooting an operating system If a boot manager is installed on a computer it is booted instead of an operating system Then the boot manager boots the user selected operating system itself Boot record The initial part of a partition that contains code and data necessary for booting an operating system May consist of one or several sectors The first sector of a boot record must end with the boot secto...

Page 125: ...describes each file by a chain of numbers like serial numbers of a file s disk clusters The number of the first cluster of each file is stored in the folder Writing deleting and modifying files and folders results in corresponding FAT changes File system Data structure that is necessary to store and manage files A file system does the following functions tracks free and occupied space supports fol...

Page 126: ...lly includes kernel drivers shell and system programs that are used for centralized hardware management and hiding the details of hardware management from the user and applications Operating system booting is initiated by loading its boot sector to memory at 0 7C00h address and passing control to it Since every operating system has its own boot sector it is able to perform all the necessary action...

Page 127: ...is the smallest information unit on a disk that is transferred in a single read or write operation Usually a sector is 512 bytes in size A sector on a disk can be addressed two ways via the absolute number see absolute sector or via cylinder head and sector number on a track System disk partition is a disk partition from which an operating system may be booted Such a disk usually contains the boot...

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