Acronis Disk Director Suite 9.
Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000–2005. 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.
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 MAY CHOOSE NOT TO ACCEPT BY SELECTING "I decline..." AND NOT INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE. The Acronis Disk Director Suite (the Software) is Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000–2005. All rights are reserved. The ORIGINAL PURCHASER is granted a LICENSE to use the software only, subject to the following restrictions and limitations. 1.
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLATION AND USE ............................................................................................. 9 1.1 WHAT’S INCLUDED .............................................................................................................................. 9 1.2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ......................................
7.12 7.13 COPYING OPERATING SYSTEMS ...................................................................................................... 89 SETTING ACRONIS OS SELECTOR OPTIONS..................................................................................... 90 CHAPTER 8. 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 INSTALLING AND USING SEVERAL OPERATING SYSTEMS ON A SINGLE PC 95 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................
Introduction 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.
Introduction • Booting installed operating systems from under Windows • Installation of several operating systems on a single partition • Hiding or protecting with a password any operating system on your PC • Duplicating installed operating systems and defining different configurations for each copy • Recovering boot records, files and folders structure, finding lost clusters and removing viruses.
Introduction Based on current legislation, the «License Agreement» is considered as a contract between user and software vendor. The contract is legally binding; its violation may lead to prosecution. Illegal use or distribution of software is a violation of the law and will be prosecuted. Technical support Users who have legally purchased and registered their copy of Acronis Disk Director Suite will receive free technical support from Acronis.
Installation And Use Chapter 1. Installation And Use 1.1 What’s Included The Acronis Disk Director Suite package includes: • Installation CD-ROM • This guide • License Agreement • Registration card • Advertising information 1.
Installation And Use In Windows 98/Me operational systems the user is not offered to create bootable media during the installation of Acronis Disk Director Suite. To make it will be possible later with help Bootable Media Builder (see Chapter 9 «Bootable Media Builder»). After installing Acronis Disk Director Suite, reboot your PC.
Installation And Use 1.4 Upgrading Acronis Disk Director Suite If you already have Acronis Partition Expert, Acronis OS Selector, Acronis Recovery Expert or Acronis Disk Editor installed on your PC, the installation program will automatically find them and prompt you on their replacement with new versions. Software upgrades (with certain bug fixes) may be downloaded free from the Acronis Web site: http://www.acronis.com/support/updates/. 1.
Installation And Use 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.acronis.
Installation And Use 1.8.3 Running from bootable diskettes or CD Previously, we explained how to create bootable diskettes or a CD (see 1.3 «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.
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 suitable for the majority of users • «Manual partition operations» mode for any partition operations.
Beginning The Work 2.2 Acronis Disk Director Suite Main Window Acronis Disk Director Suite 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»).
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). 2.2.
Beginning The Work 2.3 Calling Partition Operations All partition operations in both modes are called and executed similarly. 2.3.
Beginning The Work 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 Acronis Disk Director Suite main window.
Beginning The Work 2.4.4 Performing pending operations To execute planned hard disk operations, the user has to select one of the two following commands: • Select Operations • Click Commit in the main menu Commit Pending Operations toolbar button This performs all pending operations. You will not be able to undo any actions or operations after you Commit the operation. 2.4.5 Modifying pending operations All of your actions result in the creation of pending operations.
Beginning The Work • Select Operations • Click Undo from the main menu (or press Ctrl+Z) Undo Last Action toolbar button To redo a user action: • Select Operations • Click Redo from the main menu (or press Ctrl+Y) 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.
Beginning The Work 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 Commit or click Commit Pending operations. Wizard-created pending operations will then be performed at this time.
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 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.
Automatic Partition Operations Chapter 3. Automatic Partition Operations The «Automatic partition operations» mode enables you to perform the following typical partition 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 detailed instructions.
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 5.0 GB and 12.0 GB unallocated areas, the wizard will offer to create a partition on the 12.0-GB area. If you want to create a partition on the 5.
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.
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. 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.
Automatic Partition Operations Hard disk partitions are not only assigned letters, but are also numbered. That means some operating system partitions are assigned letters and numbers, in others, only numbers. 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.
Automatic Partition Operations Windows NT/2000/XP operating systems' initial letter assignment is done automatically: in Windows NT 3.x it's similar to Windows 95, and in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000/XP similar to Windows 95OSR/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.
Automatic Partition Operations 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 as well. 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 Finish command results are provided in 2.4.7. «Wizard operations». 3.
Automatic Partition Operations Note that this wizard page represents physical disks actually connected to your PC. The next 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.
Automatic Partition Operations Error message of deficient disk space for partition creation 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 size of the created partition (the wizard automatically determines minimum and maximum partition sizes).
Automatic Partition Operations 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 new partition creation (these actions may only modify an existing operation as well. See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).
Automatic Partition Operations Selecting a partition to increase free space 3. On the Select Partitions wizard page, select a disk partition on which space will be used to increase the selected partition. «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.
Automatic Partition Operations Entering the size to increase partition free space 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.
Automatic Partition Operations 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/trueimage/). The copy partition wizard will let you create a partition copy on the selected disk space.
Automatic Partition Operations 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 PROGRAM(H:) partition in the figure below. The copy will be located after PROGRAM(H:) partition in the figure below.
Automatic Partition Operations 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! 4. 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.
Automatic Partition Operations 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! 5. On the next Partition Size wizard page, you can provide a desired partition size. The wizard will automatically determine the minimum and maximum copy size. The page for partition copy size selection 38 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
Automatic Partition Operations 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 can take the partition space to make sure that partition size is not smaller than 110% of data-occupied space. 6.
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.
Manual Partition Operations 2. 3. Execute operation of partition creation by selecting Disk Create partition or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or by clicking Create partition on the toolbar. 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.
Manual Partition Operations 1. Select a hard disk and a partition to copy. Selecting a partition to copy 2. Execute partition copy operation by selecting Disk in the Operations sidebar list or by clicking to another free space on the toolbar. 3. Copy or a similar item Copy the selected partition Acronis Disk Director Suite will automatically compare the size of a copied partition and disk free space as shown in the Copy Partition window.
Manual Partition Operations 5. In the next wizard page, enter partition copy type (Logical — Primary), size, and location. While copying a partition, you might 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 logical partition. If you need to restore the primary partition from a copy, you will be able to change its type again.
Manual Partition Operations For example, Windows 95/98/Me, unlike Windows NT/2000/XP, does not let users assign random letters to partitions, so you must move a partition to assign it the necessary letter. • Work with some older OS (MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0), that can boot only from binary partitions located in the beginning of the disk • Speed up partition operations For example, you might have a special partition for a swap file.
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.
Manual Partition Operations The size and location of 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»).
Manual Partition Operations 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.
Manual Partition Operations 4.1.5 Changing partition labels Partition label is an optional attribute. It’s a name assigned to a partition for easier recognition of your partitions. 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.
Manual Partition Operations 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, ReiserFS, Swap — Linux file systems 5. Select cluster size (Auto, 512 bytes, 1, 2, 4… 64 KB). Note that: 6. (1) The smaller the cluster size, the less disk space will be lost (see A.9.2 «FAT16» — Table 3).
Manual Partition Operations 1. Select a hard disk and a partition to be deleted. 2. Execute partition deletion by selecting Disk the Operations sidebar list, or by clicking the toolbar. 3. Delete or a similar item in Delete the selected partition on 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.
Manual Partition Operations Deleting a partition Windows 95/98/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». 4.1.8 Checking hard disk partitions for errors Acronis Disk Director Suite enables you to check hard disk partitions for file system errors.
Manual Partition Operations Partition check results window 4.1.9 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 disk operations. File fragmentation significantly reduces PC and server performance, especially when intensive I/O operations are taking place.
Manual Partition Operations Run partition defragmentation window 4. Defragmentation results are shown in the Defragment Partition window. Partition defragmentation results window 4.1.10 Wiping unallocated hard disk space PC hard disks can contain a substantial amount of confidential information. Often users forget that private information be completely destroyed to avoid unauthorized access to it — simply deleting an old file is not sufficient. Windows tools do not guarantee data destruction.
Manual Partition Operations 2. 3. Execute operation of free space clearing by selecting Disk Wipe or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or by clicking selected unallocated space on the toolbar. Wipe the 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 4.1.7 «Deleting a partition». Hard disk passes number window 4. 4.1.
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 Delete partitions and destroy data! For information about the Acronis Disk Director Suite data wiping algorithm see the commentary for 4.1.7 «Deleting a partition».
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 95/98/Me assigns letters to partitions automatically.
Manual Partition Operations The main difference between FAT32 and FAT16 is the support of higher-capacity folders, files and disks, and more flexible root organization that features unlimited size and long filename 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.
Manual Partition Operations other software, Acronis Disk Director Suite can hide any partition independent of its type, primary or logical. If you need to hide a partition: 1. Select a disk and a partition to hide in the list in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window. 2.
Manual Partition Operations 1. Select a disk and partition to unhide from the list in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window. 2. Execute operation of partition unhiding by selecting Disk Advanced Unhide or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or by clicking Unhide the selected partition on the toolbar (or selecting it from partition or the graphical representation context menu). 3.
Manual Partition Operations Set Active Partition 3. By clicking OK in the Set Active Partition window, you'll add the pending operation of setting active partition (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.
Manual Partition Operations 3. Enter the new root size (a number of elements) in the Resize Root window. Resize FAT16 root window FAT16 can contain a maximum of 65,520 elements. 4. 4.2.7 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»).
Manual Partition Operations (3) set new cluster size in the New cluster size field. Cluster size window 4. 4.2.8 By entering a new cluster size and clicking OK in the Cluster Size window, you'll add the pending operation of cluster resizing (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation, See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»). Changing partition type Each partition record includes the «partition type field».
Manual Partition Operations Partition type window 4. By clicking OK in the Partition type window, you'll add the pending operation of partition type changing (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation, See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).
Manual Partition Operations 2. Execute operation of INODE resizing by selecting Disk Advanced Change Bytes per i-node or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or by clicking Change the number of bytes per i-node on the toolbar (or selecting 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. 3.
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.
Working with Working with Acronis Recovery Expert 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. Acronis Recovery Expert checks to see if your hard disks contain unallocated space. If you have no unallocated space, then it makes no sense to search for deleted partitions.
Working with Acronis Recovery Expert Deleted partitions search progress The information about hard disk partitions is stored in a special disk area – the 1st sector of 0th cylinder, 0th head – called the partition table. This sector is called a boot sector or the master boot record (MBR). Acronis Recovery Expert not only checks the partition table for deleted partitions, but also scans the entire disk surface. Therefore the recovery process might take some time to complete.
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.
Working with Acronis Recovery Expert 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. 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 Recovery mode window to select the manual recovery mode.
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.
Working with Acronis Recovery Expert 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. Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
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 variety of actions on a hard disk: to restore boot records and files and folders 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 in an educational setting.
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.
Working with Acronis Disk Editor In this section of the guide, all examples of Acronis Disk Editor’s main window view modes are given for demonstration purposes.
Working with Acronis Disk Editor 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.
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.
Working with Acronis Disk Editor View menu The editor offers seven view modes: • • • • • • • 6.7 hex partition table FAT16 boot sector FAT32 boot sector FAT32 FS info sector NTFS boot sector FAT folder 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.
Working with Acronis Disk Editor The Search dialog window A search line can be set both as char and numeric (hexadecimal) value. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Working with Acronis OS Selector • Rename – renames a selected OS or shortcut • Copy – duplicates a selected OS or shortcut Tools • 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.
Working with Acronis OS Selector 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.
Working with Acronis OS Selector 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.
Working with Acronis OS Selector 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. Partitions properties window Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
Working with Acronis OS Selector 7.7.4 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 95/98/Me/NT utilizes Windows and Program Files folders, while Windows 2000/XP uses the above plus Documents and Settings. 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.
Working with Acronis OS Selector 7.7.5 Files This section allows you to specify the location of system files required by the given operating system. Examples of these 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.
Working with Acronis OS Selector Advanced properties window 7.8 Hiding operating systems If needed, you can hide any operating system installed so it 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.
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.
Working with Acronis OS Selector Copying can take a long time, so you will be prompted to confirm that you want to perform the task.
Working with Acronis OS Selector 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 7.13.
Working with Acronis OS Selector Disolay properties window The following properties are available in the Options section: Display properties • Resolution – you can manually set resolution you want, given 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.
Working with Acronis OS Selector 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. 7.13.5 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.
Working with Acronis OS Selector Input devices properties window 94 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
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 system 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.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC file NTDETECT.COM initial hardware detector (for more details see Appendix B «Particularities of Operating System Function». 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 and even disk, while the bootable part is required to be located on the first hard disk primary partition. The disk has to be the first, according to BIOS.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC When a new item is created, open its Properties with the context menu and select Partitions; Flag the partition you want the OS on as Active; In the left side bar of Acronis OS Selector, in the Tools group select Options → General options and flag Yes, protect folders; In the active OS properties select Folders and set Enable option active for all system folders included; Reboot and select the newly created and edited diskette bootup from the Bo
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC 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 application sets). The first way to do it is described above in section and implies a complete OS installation. The second way is simpler, operating system duplication using the Operating system copy feature described in detail in section 7.12 of this guide.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC 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 available OSes in the Boot menu. If you chose to update the existing OS, the New Operating System Wizard will automatically determine the list of operating systems installed available for update. In the list provided, select an OS to update by replacing it with a new copy of Windows 2000/XP.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC 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 list 2) Any media unsupported by BIOS 8.3 Installing Linux and Windows on the same PC 8.3.1 General information The Linux operating system is a modern, reliable and high-performance platform for both business and home users.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC Linux core is located in a file, which must be 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.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC 8.4 How to install several OS on the same partition In some cases a user might want to install several operating systems onto the same partition. This is usually not possible due to system files conflicts, and even operating systems from the same developer require different partitions for installation. Acronis OS Selector enables you to avoid this restriction easily by protecting system files and folders of various OS from each other.
Bootable Media Builder Chapter 9. Bootable Media Builder 9.1 General information Acronis Disk Director Suite includes an easy-to-use Bootable Media Builder wizard. It allows you to create backup bootable diskettes, CDs and other media that might help restore PC operability after a software or hardware failure. Using backup bootable media, you can: • Create or change hard disk partitions without booting either operating system • Install and re-activate Acronis OS Selector boot manager on your PC 9.
Bootable Media Builder 9.3 Creating bootable diskettes for Acronis Disk Director Suite There are two versions of 1.4 MB bootable diskettes that can be created: • Full version – includes support of USB, PC Card and SCSI interfaces along with the storage devices connected via them • Safe version – doesn’t include USB, PC Card, or SCSI drivers. Recommended for use in case of problems with running Full version You will need four 1.4 MB diskettes for the Full version and two diskettes for the Safe version.
Bootable Media Builder 9.5 Creating bootable CDs If you select a CD-R/RW as bootable media, you will be able to boot both Acronis Disk Director Suite (Full version or Safe version at your option) and Acronis OS Selector. You can then re-activate the Acronis OS Selector boot manager. Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
Hard Disk And Operating System Appendix A. Hard Disk And Operating System Appendices contain additional information about hard disk construction and data storage, partitions, file systems and interaction of operating systems with hard disks. A.1 Hard Disk Organization All hard drives have basically the same structure. Inside the case, there are several disks with a magnetic coating set on a single axis (spindle). A special motor provides the necessary rotation speed to the spindle, e.g.
Hard Disk And Operating System There can be up to several tens of thousands of cylinders per disk. The greater the amount of data that can be stored on one side of a disk,, the more cylinders can be created on it and the larger the capacity of the disk. This design has a lot of technical implementation peculiarities, but those issues are not germane to this explanation. A.2 Hard Disk Partition After low-level formatting creates disk sectors, partitions must be created on the disk.
Hard Disk And Operating System Partition information is stored in a special disk area – the 1st sector of 0 cylinder, 0 head, called the partition table. This sector is called the master boot record, or MBR. The number of primary partitions on a disk is limited, because the partition table contains four records itself. Extended partitioning supports additional division into logical partitions. The amount of logical partitions is unlimited.
Hard Disk And Operating System A.4 Primary Partitions A primary hard disk partition can contain the operating system, applications and user data (files). Only one primary partition can be set as active in a given PC session. Most operating systems can boot from a primary partition only. If you want to use several operating systems, you might have to create several primary partitions. A.
Hard Disk And Operating System After formatting, logical disks are organized as follows: • Logical disks start with the boot sector • One or several copies of the file allocation table (FAT) are placed after the boot sector • A root folder is created • The data area is created Each logical disk has to be formatted with the FORMAT command separately. A.8 File Systems The logical structure that has been created on the hard disk is supported by means of the operating system.
Hard Disk And Operating System A.9 File System Main Specifications Operating systems allow you to work with data by supporting a file system on a disk partition. All file systems contain structures required for data storage and control. These structures usually consist of an OS boot record, files and folders. A file system performs the following main functions: 1. Monitors used and free disk space (including bad sectors) 2. Maintains folders and filenames 3.
Hard Disk And Operating System 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 Limited by partition size size Max. filename length 255 255 255 Restoration (logging) No Yes Yes Max. files in root Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Max.
Hard Disk And Operating System Table 3. The following table gives the approximate dependence of these losses versus the cluster size: Partition Size Waste Cluster Size <127 MB 2 KB 2% 128–255 MB 4 KB 4% 256–511 MB 8 KB 10% 512–1023 MB 16 KB 25% 1024–2047 MB 32 KB 40% 2048–4096 MB 64 KB 50% Like many others, the FAT16 file system has a root folder.
Hard Disk And Operating System A.9.5 Linux Ext2 Ext2, one of the main file systems for the Linux operating system, is a 32-bit file system. Its maximum size is 16 Terabytes. The main data structure that describes a file is an INODE. A place to store the table of all INODEs has to be allocated in advance (during formatting).Linux Ext3 Officially introduced with Red Hat Linux version 7.2, Ext3 is the Red Hat journaling file system. It is forward- and backward-compatible with Linux ext2.
Particularities of Operating System Function Appendix B. Particularities of Operating System Functioning B.1 DOS-type Operating Systems B.1.1 Supported Versions Acronis Disk Director Suite supports the following versions of DOS-type operating systems: • 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 95 OSR2/98) • MS-DOS 8.0 (not a separate product but is included in Windows Me) • PC-DOS 5.x–7.
Particularities of Operating System Function 4. Then the boot manager reads the DOS configuration file (CONFIG.SYS) and if it contains multiple configurations, displays a menu on the screen prompting you to choose one of them; otherwise it just reads the configuration and loads the indicated drivers and operating system parts from the second DOS file. 5. After the configuration file has been processed, the command interpreter (default COMMAND.COM) is loaded and executed.
Particularities of Operating System Function • MSDOS.SYS (for MS-DOS 7.x/8.0) • WINBOOT.INI (alternative MSDOS.SYS) • CONFIG.SYS (for all DOS versions) • AUTOEXEC.BAT (for all DOS versions) B.1.4 Limitations Different DOS versions have the following limitations: • Only MS-DOS 7.1/8.0 supports FAT32 along with the FAT16 file system • Only MS-DOS 7.1/8.0 supports extended BIOS and hard disks larger than 8 GB – but only with FAT16 LBA, FAT32 LBA and EXTENDED LBA partitions.
Particularities of Operating System Function • Windows Me contains MS-DOS 8.0, which supports FAT32, but does not allow the use of MS-DOS B.2.
Particularities of Operating System Function operating system resides is called the system folder partition. Multiple operating systems of Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT/2000 may conflict because of the application folder (see B.2.3 «System Folders»). It is possible for several different Windows NT/2000/XP to be booted from a single loader. B.3.3 System and Configuration Files Windows NT/2000/XP system files list: • NTLDR (mandatory) • BOOTFONT.
Particularities of Operating System Function B.3.5 Limitations Different Windows NT/2000/XP versions have the following limitations: • For any Windows NT/2000/XP version, the boot partition must be a primary partition of the first hard disk • Windows NT versions 3.51 and 4.0 recognize the FAT16 and NTFS file systems, Windows 2000 also recognizes the FAT32 file system • The boot partition of Windows NT version 3.51 and 4.0 must be located among the first 2 gigabytes of the hard disk B.
Particularities of Operating System Function Some modern operating systems have special means allowing them to be booted directly from Windows, among them BeOS and QNX. We recommend that you do not use other partition management software that may be supplied with operating systems together with Acronis Disk Director Suite’s OS Selector, since they frequently make incorrect changes to the partition structure.
Glossary Appendix C. Glossary Absolute sector. All the sectors of a hard disk can be numbered sequentially, starting with zero. Such numbered sectors are called absolute. Active partition. One of the primary partitions of a hard disk is usually active. Default MBR code tries to boot an operating system from the active partition of the first hard disk. Letter assignment in Microsoft operating systems depends on which partitions are active. Bad cluster. A cluster that contains bad sectors.
Glossary Bootable partition. A partition that can host an operating system. At the beginning of such a partition, there should be a boot record. Cluster. Information storage unit in such file systems as FAT and NTFS. Every file occupies a certain number of whole clusters, so the greater the cluster size, the higher the losses due to file size adjustment, but the smaller the cluster the more space the cluster distribution tables occupy. Cylinder.
Glossary tracks and sectors), partitioning and high-level (creation of a file system on a partition). Hard disk (hard drive). Fixed storage media along with integrated electronics that consists of several magnetic platters that rotate synchronously on one spindle. Hard disks have relatively high capacity and high read/write speed. Hard disk geometry. A set of hard disk parameters that usually includes the number of cylinders, heads and sectors per track. Head (magnetic head, read/write head).
Glossary Partition. An independent area on a hard disk where a file system can be located. A partition can be either primary or logical, depending on its position in the partition structure. One of the primary partitions of a hard disk may be active. A partition has the following attributes: type, beginning and size. Some partition management software and boot managers allow for the hiding of partitions. Information about partitions is stored in the partition table. Partitioning.
Glossary System file is a file that contains the code and constant data for an operating system. Each operating system has its own system file set. System folder. Some operating systems keep most of their files in a special folder on a partition that may be different from the system one. For example for Windows 95/98/Me, the IO.SYS system file resides on the system partition, while other system files are located in the system folder, which is usually called WINDOWS.
