Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 User’s guide www.acronis.
Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000–2009. 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.
Table of contents Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLATION AND USE ............................................................................................. 8 1.1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ...................................................................................................................... 8 1.2 SUPPORTED OPERATING SYSTEMS ...............
Table of contents 7.12 7.13 7.14 RENAMING OPERATING SYSTEMS ................................................................................................... 94 COPYING OPERATING SYSTEMS ...................................................................................................... 94 SETTING ACRONIS OS SELECTOR OPTIONS..................................................................................... 94 CHAPTER 8.
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 • Support of boot from CD/DVD in Acronis OS Selector If you insert a bootable CD/DVD, it will be detected and displayed in the Acronis OS Selector boot menu/main window along with available operating systems. The CD/DVD can contain any operating system or bootable program – no matter, you will see its icon in the boot menu. It allows you to boot or install an operating system from a CD.
Introduction that you can’t solve by yourself using this manual and the readme.txt file, e-mail the technical support team. You will need to provide the serial number of your Acronis Disk Director Suite copy bundled with the program. Before you do this, you will have to register your copy at http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/products/registration/ . Support URL: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/support/ Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
Installation and Use Chapter 1. Installation and Use 1.1 System Requirements To take full advantage of Acronis Disk Director Suite you should have: • A PC-compatible computer with a Pentium or similar CPU • 128 MB RAM • A floppy or a CD-RW/DVD-RW drive • A mouse (recommended) 1.2 • • • • Supported Operating Systems Windows Windows Windows Windows 1.3 1.3.1 NT 4.0 SP 6 2000 Professional SP 4 XP SP 2 Vista (all editions).
Installation and Use If you have another Acronis product with its own Bootable Media Builder, such as Acronis True Image, installed on your computer, the installation program will automatically detect it and will not install another Bootable Media Builder regardless of your setting. You can create bootable media for all Acronis products using either product. 4. After installation, reboot your PC. 1.3.
Installation and Use To remove Acronis OS Selector only, select Start Programs Acronis Acronis DiskDirector Install Acronis OS Selector. Then select Uninstall Acronis OS Selector in the installation program window and follow the program instructions. 1.6 User Interface When Acronis Disk Director Suite software is installed, it has a graphical user interface that is controlled by the mouse or by Tab, Shift+Tab, Left, Right, Up, Down, Space, Enter and Escape keys.
Installation and Use 3. Do not perform any partition operations while running other software that has lowlevel 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 1.8.1 Running Acronis Disk Director Suite Running under Windows Under Windows, select Start Programs Acronis DiskDirector Acronis Disk Director Suite.
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 1.7 «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 The program is controlled through the main window. It includes the menu, toolbar, and disk and partition tree (shown/hidden through the View menu). This represents the computer disk and partition list. The main window appearance differs depending on the selected operation mode (see 2.1 «Acronis Disk Director Suite Logical Organization»).
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.
Beginning The Work • Hide/Unhide — hide/unhide a partition • Set Active — set an active partition • Resize Root — resize FAT16 partition root • Change Bytes per i-node — resize i-node table (Linux Ext2/Ext3) • Change Cluster Size — change FAT16/FAT32 partition cluster size • Change Type — change partition type • Recover — recover deleted or damaged partitions (see Chapter 5 «Working with Acronis Recovery Expert»).
Beginning The Work 2.4.3 Viewing delayed operations All pending operations are added to the pending operations list. You can view it in the Pending Operations window by clicking Operations Show: Pending operations list This organization enables you to control all planned operations, double-check your intended work, and undo operations fully or partially, if needed. 2.4.
Beginning The Work 2.4.6 Undoing user actions Calling wizards or dialog boxes for planning disk partition operations are user actions. User entries are necessary operation parameters on the wizard or dialog box pages. One user action in Acronis Disk Director Suite enables you to plan a list of partition operations, for example, calling a wizard for partition creation or resizing. (You can easily verify your actions by looking at the Pending Operations when the wizard finishes its work.
Beginning The Work After clicking Finish on the last wizard page: • The new partition structure is graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window • The wizard creates a list of pending operations; you can see it by selecting Operations Show Remember that no actions are performed on your disks when the wizard finishes working! If you are sure that the new structure is suitable, select Operations Commit or click Commit Pending operations.
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 Set Password. 2. Enter the old password in the Old Password field and the new password in the New Password and Confirm New Password fields in the Set Password window. 3.
Beginning The Work If any step was terminated by an error, the corresponding log will be marked with a red circle with a white cross inside. The right window features the list of steps contained in the selected log. The three buttons to the right control message filters: the white cross in the red circle filters error messages, the exclamation sign in a yellow triangle filters warnings, and the “i” in the blue circle filters information messages.
Automatic Partition Operations Chapter 3. Automatic Partition Operations The «Automatic partition operations» mode enables you to perform the following typical operations: • Create a new partition • Increase partition free space • Copy a partition Recover partitions These operations are performed with wizards, enabling you to enter operation parameters step-by-step and return to any step as needed. Each parameter is provided with 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 GB and 12 GB unallocated areas, the wizard will offer to create a partition on the 12 GB area.
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 Assigning a partition a new letter or hiding it will prevent only its applications and files from running or opening. Other partitions will not be affected by these operations. OS startup problems may appear if you directly change the letter assigned to the system partition or a partition with PAGEFILE.SYS swap file.
Automatic Partition Operations 2. On the Select Hard Disk Drive wizard page, select a disk on which to create a partition. Partition disk selection page Note that this wizard page represents 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.
Automatic Partition Operations The window of existing partition selection to create a new partition By creating a partition using the free space of other partitions, Acronis Disk Director Suite can collect it in such a way that the final partition size is not smaller than 110% of data-occupied space. When creating a partition with the switch set to Free space of the existing partitions, you provide a small partition size.
Automatic Partition Operations In this case, you will have to return to the previous wizard page and select a different partition from which to take the necessary space. 4 On the Partition Size wizard page, enter the size of the created partition (the wizard automatically determines minimum and maximum partition sizes). Created partition size window 5 The next wizard pages provide partition type, file system, letter (if you work in Windows NT/2000/XP), and optional labeling.
Automatic Partition Operations Click Finish on the last wizard page to allow 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»). 3.
Automatic Partition Operations «Enlarging a partition at the expense of another partition» is described above: see 3.1 «Creating A New Partition». Selecting a partition to use to increase free space 4. On the next wizard page, you will see the maximum size available for the selected partition. You must select the size yourself. Entering the size to increase partition free space Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
Automatic Partition Operations Note that although selected partition size is increased at the expense of other partition space, unallocated space also will be used if needed. Unallocated space is automatically considered to be the maximum partition size. 5. In the last Preview wizard window, you will see a graphical representation of the new partition structure, including the resized partition.
Automatic Partition Operations Selecting a partition to copy 3. On the next Partition Location wizard page, a record of copied partition parameters will be created. The page for selecting a disk location for partition copy You will have to select a copy location on one of the disks, among existing partitions. To make your selection, click before or after a partition to mark where you want to locate the copy. In this example, the copy will be located before the PROGRAM(H:) partition in the figure below.
Automatic Partition Operations The copy will be located after the PROGRAM(H:) partition in the figure below. The figure below shows the result of locating a partition copy after clicking after the PROGRAM(H:) partition. You can locate a copy anywhere on your disk(s). The copy partition wizard will automatically perform all necessary operations, even if it has to resize or move other partitions. 1. The selected disk might lack space for a copy.
Automatic Partition Operations The page to select a partition, which will be partly used for a copy location If you do not select a partition to be partly used as the copy location on the Select Partitions wizard page and there is not enough unallocated disk space, you will see an error message: Error message showing not enough disk space for a partition copy In that case, the wizard will prompt you to select a partition from which to take some space.
Automatic Partition Operations The page for partition copy size selection The minimum copy size is determined by the data area size of a copied partition. The maximum size is determined by the available disk space. It includes the space taken from a partition and unallocated disk space. By copying a partition at the expense of existing partition free space, Acronis Disk Director Suite can take the partition space to make sure that partition size is not smaller than 110% of data-occupied space. 3.
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 3. In the Create Partition window, enter a partition label and select a file system and partition type (Primary — Logical) from the list; you can also enter partition size and location using a mouse or by direct input to Partition size, Unallocated space before (and Unallocated space after) fields. As a rule, Primary is selected if a partition is to contain an operating system. If a partition is meant for data storage, Logical should be selected.
Manual Partition Operations If you need to copy a partition: 1. Select a hard disk and a partition to copy. Selecting a partition to copy 2. Select Disk Copy or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list or click 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.
Manual Partition Operations If there is not enough free space to copy a partition on a hard disk, no unallocated space will be available for selection. 4. 5. Select the unallocated disk space to copy a selected partition to it. 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.
Manual Partition Operations For example, Windows 98/Me, unlike Windows NT/2000/XP, does not let users assign random letters to partitions, so you must move a partition to assign it the necessary letter. • Work with some older OS (MS-DOS, 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 Entering moved partition parameters The size and location of a partition copy can be provided with a mouse click or by entering data into the Unallocated space before, Partition size (and Unallocated space after) fields. 6. By clicking OK in the Move partition window, you'll add a pending operation to partition moving (your actions may only undo or modify already existing operation; see 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).
Manual Partition Operations 2. Select Disk Resize or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click Resize/move the selected partition on the toolbar. 3. Resize the partition in the Resize Partition window: (1) Hold the mouse button and drag a corresponding partition rectangle side until you get the proper size in the Partition size field. (2) Specify the partition size in the Partition size field. Resize partition window 4.
Manual Partition Operations Acronis Disk Director Suite features a wizard for performing more complex partition resizing (see 3.2 «Increasing Partition»). Simple partition resizing lets you increase partition size only if there is free (unallocated) space before or after a partition. The wizard lets you perform more complex operations such as increasing partition free space at the expense of other partitions.
Manual Partition Operations Selecting folders to be moved 4. Distribute the source partition free space between the two resulting partitions. Distributing the source partition free space Please keep in mind, that you are distributing not overall partition size, but just free space at this step. The 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.
Manual Partition Operations 5. By clicking Proceed, you'll add a pending operation (your actions may only undo or modify already existing operation; see 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»). The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window. 4.1.6 Merging partitions You can merge two partitions, even if their file systems are different. All data will stay intact and reside on the resulting partition.
Manual Partition Operations Merging an NTFS partition to a partition with file system not supporting security options (for example, FAT32 partition), will result in loss of security settings (partition ownership data and access permissions). With the opposite action (merging a non-secured partition to the secured one), the target partition security settings will be assigned to the resulting partition. 4.1.
Manual Partition Operations Acronis OS Selector also allows editing text files (see 7.7.6 “Files”), but only those included into system files list. The Explore operation shows the real partition contents, read from the disk. If there are some operations pending, like splitting a partition, you will not be able to explore partitions until the operations are committed or canceled. However, operations on folders/files in Explore window are executed immediately. 4. 4.1.
Manual Partition Operations If you need to format an existing partition: 1. Select a disk and a partition. 2. Select Disk Format or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click Format the selected partition on the toolbar. 3. Enter the partition label in the Format Partition window. Format Partition window 4. Select a file system to be created on a partition after formatting. Acronis Disk Director Suite supports the following file systems (see A.
Manual Partition Operations Remember that each operation described must be executed by selecting Operations Commit or clicking operations»). 4.1.10 Commit Pending Operations (see 2.4.4 «Performing pending Deleting a partition After a partition is deleted, its space is added to unallocated disk space. It can be used for a new partition or to resize an existing partition. If you need to delete a partition: 1. Select a hard disk and a partition to be deleted. 2.
Manual Partition Operations 5. By clicking OK in the Delete Partition window, you'll add the pending operation of partition deletion (your actions may only undo an existing operation depending on the situation selected see 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»). The new partition structure will be graphically represented in the Acronis Disk Director Suite main window. Attention! Deleting a partition destroys all its data, including files and folders! Deleting a system partition will make a PC inoperable.
Manual Partition Operations Partition check results window 4.1.12 Defragmenting a partition Defragmentation is reorganizing file storage on a hard disk partition. Defragmentation is the process of eliminating file fragmentation, which causes files to be spread across the disk after operations. File fragmentation significantly reduces PC and server performance, especially when intensive I/O operations are taking place.
Manual Partition Operations Run partition defragmentation window 4. Defragmentation results are shown in the Defragment Partition window. Partition defragmentation results window 4.1.13 Wiping unallocated hard disk space PC hard disks can contain a substantial amount of confidential information. Often users forget that private information must be completely destroyed to avoid unauthorized access to it — simply deleting an old file is not sufficient. Windows tools do not guarantee data destruction.
Manual Partition Operations 2. Select Disk Wipe or a similar item in the Operations sidebar list, or click the selected unallocated space on the toolbar. 3. In the Wipe Unallocated Space window, enter a number of disk passes (up to 99), Wipe For information about the Acronis Disk Director Suite data wiping algorithm see the commentary for 4.1.10 «Deleting a partition». Hard disk passes number window 4. By clicking OK, you'll add a pending operation of unallocated disk space wiping. 4.1.
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 4.1.10 «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 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 file-name support. (For more details see A.9 «File System Main Specifications».) Converting FAT16 to FAT32 You would convert a FAT16 partition to FAT32 in the following cases: 1. If you need a partition larger than 2 GB. 2.
Manual Partition Operations 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. Execute operation of partition hiding by selecting Disk Advanced Hide or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or by clicking Hide the selected partition on the toolbar (or select it from partition or the graphical representation context menu). 3.
Manual Partition Operations 2. Select Disk Advanced Unhide or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or click Unhide the selected partition on the toolbar (or select it from partition or the graphical representation context menu). 3. By clicking OK in the Unhide Partition window, you'll add the pending operation to partition unhiding (your actions may only undo or modify an existing operation, See 2.4.5 «Modifying pending operations»).
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 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». It is a hexadecimal value that defines the file and operating system suitable for a partition.
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. Select Disk Advanced Change Bytes per i-node or a similar item in the Advanced sidebar list, or click Change the number of bytes per i-node on the toolbar (or select it from partition or the graphical representation context menu). If you select a partition with another file system, mentioned sidebar and context menu items will be unavailable. 3. Enter the new amount of bytes per descriptor (i-node) in the Change bytes per i-node window. Resize i-node window 4.
Working with 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 Acronis Recovery Expert Acronis Recovery Expert checks to see if your hard disks contain unallocated space. If you have none, then it makes no sense to search for deleted partitions. If you have unallocated space, it may have contained one or more partitions. Acronis Recovery Expert will search unallocated space thoroughly – either automatically or manually. 5.1 Automatic Recovery You can recover deleted partitions automatically or manually.
Working with 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 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 Working with Acronis Recovery Expert If you exit Acronis Disk Director Suite without confirming the partition recovery operation, it will be canceled. 5.2 Manual Recovery Set the switch to Manual in the Recovery mode window to select the manual recovery mode. Selecting manual recovery mode The next Searching Method window enables you to select one of two deleted partition searching methods: 1) Fast; 2) Complete.
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 Working with Acronis Recovery Expert The manual recovery mode allows you to select all found partitions for recovery. For example, if one of your partitions was deleted intentionally and another by mistake, the manual mode enables you to select and recover only the partition you deleted by mistake. Partitions are selected for recovery by clicking them. Click the partition rectangle to select the deleted partition and continue recovery.
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: restore boot records and files and folder structure, find lost clusters, remove computer virus code from a disk and much more. This program has much to offer a beginner as well. It can be used as an educational tool.
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 The current editing position is shown by the cursor that can be either in the left or right part of the window In this section of the guide, all examples of Acronis Disk Editor’s main window view modes are given for demonstration purposes.
Working with Acronis Disk Editor see that the Save sector item in Edit menu will become enabled as well as the appropriate toolbar button. If you do not save your changes, you effectively reject them. Save sector operation If you have made changes in a hard disk sector and decide to exit the editor without saving them, you will see a warning about saving your changes. Saving modified sector 6.
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: • hex • partition table • FAT16 boot sector • FAT32 boot sector • FAT32 FS info sector • NTFS boot sector • FAT folder 6.7 Search The Search menu allows you to search a hard disk for some line and 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) values. During a search, you can ignore letter case as well as search for a given line at a given offset inside the sector. During a search, disk data is interpreted according to the encoding selected. If you selected a search mode without letter case matching, not only case but also elements above the characters will be ignored.
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. If you insert a bootable CD/DVD, it will be detected and displayed in the boot menu/main window as well.
Working with Acronis OS Selector • Delete – deletes a selected operating system or shortcut • Rename – renames a selected OS or shortcut • Copy – duplicates a selected OS or shortcut Tools • Activate OS Selector – select to always display Acronis OS Selector boot menu at bootup • Deactivate OS Selector– select to always boot up the specified operating system • OS Detection Wizard – invokes OS Detection Wizard for detecting deleted or notdetermined-automatically operating systems • Options – se
Working with Acronis OS Selector 7.4.1 Booting an OS using the boot menu Having turned on the PC, wait for the Acronis OS Selector boot menu to be invoked and select and double-click an operating system to boot. You can also boot a selected OS by: • Clicking Boot in the Operations section of the boot menu sidebar • Clicking Boot on the toolbar • Selecting Boot in the OS section of the main menu 7.4.
Working with Acronis OS Selector To set a password: • Select an OS to protect • Click Set Password in the Operations section of main window sidebar • Enter and confirm a password in the Set Operating System Password dialog and click OK An operating system password must be at least six characters long. You can also set an operating system password by clicking Set Password on the toolbar, in the OS section of the main menu, or in the context menu, invoked by a right-click. 7.
Working with Acronis OS Selector 7.7.2 Boot configuration This section allows you to set the following boot parameters: • Write Boot Sector – write boot sector each time an operating system boots • Boot as MS-DOS 7.1 – can be set for operating systems compatible with MS-DOS 7.
Working with Acronis OS Selector Partitions properties window 7.7.4 Disks Generally, Windows can boot from HDD only if its boot files reside on the first (according to BIOS) hard disk (see details in 8.2.1 “General information”). If you connect a live system HDD, taken from another computer (where it was the first disk), to your computer, where it becomes the second (3rd etc.) disk, boot from that HDD will be impossible, even if the hardware is identical on both computers.
Working with Acronis OS Selector Disks properties window Moreover, you can choose the disk order when installing a new Windows operating system so that its boot files are installed on the same disk where its main part resides (see 8.2.4 “Installing another Windows on a different disk”). Doing so makes operating systems on your first, second and so on disks fully independent. You will be able, for example, to boot from the second disk even if the first one is damaged or disconnected.
Working with Acronis OS Selector already installed (see 8.2.3 “Installing another Windows on the same partition”). When you copy an operating system using Acronis OS Selector Copy feature, the recovery option enables automatically. Folders properties window • Enable – enable folder contents recovery at bootup; • Disable – leave folder contents as is. 7.7.6 Files This section allows you to specify the location of system files required by the given operating system and edit these files.
Working with Acronis OS Selector Files properties window Properties of system files will provide you with the following options: • Automatic deletion of a selected file with Acronis OS Selector under the given OS. Check Yes, delete when the operating system starts to enable the option. This might become necessary when two system files are in conflict, causing possible OS bootup problems.
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 Selecting where to search an OS • If you selected the hard disk, select the partition where the OS (to be exact, its boot part) is located. When detecting Linux, choose the partition containing Linux loader. For Windows, see 8.2.1 “General information.” Then click Bootable. Whatever OS location is selected, you can set options of available partitions, for example, hide some of them.
Working with Acronis OS Selector will be enough. Having selected the second, you will have to specify a path to the file, containing a previously saved boot sector of the detected operating system. You can save boot sectors by means of Acronis Disk Editor. In addition, Windows sometimes creates boot sector copies itself. For example, Windows XP, being installed over Windows 98, creates bootsec.dos file, containing the Windows 98 boot sector. • Next, you will see a list of detected operating systems.
Working with Acronis OS Selector System folder protection is required when multiple OSes are on a single PC, especially in situations when several operating systems are located on the same hard disk partition. General options window To choose a suitable configuration, click one of the options below: • Yes, protect folders – folders protection will be enabled automatically when new operating systems are detected.
Working with Acronis OS Selector Startup options window 7.14.3 Display properties Acronis OS Selector can control monitor video modes before Windows is booted and the graphics card and monitor drivers are loaded: Display properties window The following properties are available in the Options Display properties section: 96 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
Working with Acronis OS Selector • Resolution – you can manually set the resolution you want, provided that it’s supported by your graphics card and monitor and ranges from VGA (640 x 480) to SXGA (1280 x 1024.) • Bit depth – you can set the number of colors displayed, choosing among Low (8-bit, 256 colors); Medium (16-bit, 65,536 colors); and High (24-bit, 16,777,216 colors.) • Refresh rate – you can manually set the display refresh rate, which is set to 60Hz by default.
Working with Acronis OS Selector 7.14.5 Input devices In this section of Acronis OS Selector options, you can provide extended support of input devices (mouse, etc.) in Acronis OS Selector boot menu. Using the Default parameter, the program automatically determines installed input devices.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC Chapter 8. Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC 8.1 Introduction One of the key benefits offered by Acronis OS Selector is the ability to add almost any new operating system to a PC, even if it already has one or more operating systems installed. Using Acronis OS Selector, a user is able to install: • Several different copies of the same OS (e.g.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC If this happens, you won’t have to reinstall Acronis OS Selector, but you will have to restore it by reactivating from a backup bootable disk (for more details see Chapter 9 «Bootable Media Builder»). After loading it, select Activate OS Selector in the Tools section of the main menu. Besides, automatic reactivation is provided for Windows 98 operating system. To do this, Acronis OS Selector adds a REINSTAL.COM launch line into AUTOEXEC.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC 8.2.2 • Installing another Windows on a separate partition Prepare a free primary partition for the new Windows system. You can do this by using unallocated space (for partition creation instructions see 3.1 «Creating A New Partition» and 4.1.1 «Creating partitions»). If there’s no unallocated space, you can free it by resizing respective partitions (see 4.1.4 «Resizing and/or moving a partition»).
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC • Now you can start installing a new OS in the ordinary way from a bootable diskette or CD or from under Windows. 8.2.4 Installing another Windows on a different disk To install a new Windows OS onto a different disk, do the following. When installing a new OS from CD, select the CD item in the Operating systems area of Acronis OS Selector main window.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC New Operating System Wizard Having installed Windows 2000 or Windows XP, you can either save or replace alreadyexisting Windows versions. 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.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC 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. When a new OS is configured, click Proceed to confirm operations selected.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC 8.3 8.3.1 Installing Linux and Windows on the same PC General information The Linux operating system is a modern, reliable and high-performance platform for both business and home users. Since its popularity is growing, many Windows users are choosing to sample Linux; however, not all of them are willing to change operating systems completely or have a second PC on which to install Linux.
Installing and using several operating systems on a single PC 8.3.4 Installing Linux Having created partitions, you can start Linux installation from a bootable CD with Linux distribution or diskettes created from images usually located on the first installation CD. As Linux is installed only into partitions prepared for it, there’s no need to create any special properties for the new OS to hide or change status of any partitions.
Bootable Media Builder Chapter 9. Bootable Media Builder 9.
Bootable Media Builder Selecting components to place on the bootable media Acronis Disk Director Suite offers the following components: • Disk Director full version Includes support of USB, PC Card and SCSI interfaces along with the storage devices connected via them, therefore is highly recommended. • Disk Director safe version Doesn’t include USB, PC Card, or SCSI drivers. Recommended for use in case of problems with running Full version.
Bootable Media Builder Selecting type of the bootable media 4. If you are creating a CD, diskettes or any removable media, insert the blank disk so the program can determine its 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.
Hard Disk And File Systems Appendix A. Hard Disk And File Systems These 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 File Systems A.2 Hard Disk Partition After low-level formatting creates disk sectors, partitions must be created on the disk. A partition is an area on a hard disk that can be used to install an operating system and/or used as data storage. Creating separate sections on a disk is called partitioning. (Think of slicing a pie into different pieces.) Disk partitions are analogous to separate, physical disk drives and do not depend on each other.
Hard Disk And File Systems • Create a primary partition with a single logical disk • Create an extended partition and divide it into logical partitions (disks) • Set the active partition (a partition to boot an operating system from) Typical hard disk partition structure can look like: MBR Primary partition 1-1. System logical disk C:. Extended partition 1-2. Logical partition 1-5 Logical disk D:. Logical disk E:. Logical disk F:.
Hard Disk And File Systems A.5 Extended Partitions The extended hard disk partition was developed as a way to avoid the four-primarypartitions limit. The extended partition is used only for creating a desired number of logical partitions. An extended partition does not contain any data directly. A.
Hard Disk And File Systems A.8 File Systems The logical structure that has been created on the hard disk is supported by means of the operating system. The file system itself presents the information on the disk as an ensemble of files and folders. For the user, a file is a unit of storage of logically connected information, including texts, graphics, and sound. For data storage organization, a file is a chain of connected sectors or clusters. A cluster is a unit of several sectors.
Hard Disk And File Systems Table 1. Windows file systems. File system FAT16 FAT32 NTFS Operating systems Almost all Windows 95OSR2/98/Me, 2000/XP, Linux Windows NT/2000/XP, Linux (for reading) Max. partition size 4 GB (2 GB for 2 TB 16 EB Max. file size Limited by partition size 4 GB Limited by partition size Max. file-name length 255 255 32767 Restoration (logging) No No Yes Max. files in root Set at formatting Unlimited Unlimited Max.
Hard Disk And File Systems A.9.2 FAT16 The FAT16 file system is widely used by DOS (DR-DOS, MS-DOS, PC-DOS, etc.), Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000/XP operating systems and is supported by most other systems. Main features of FAT16 are the file allocation table (FAT) and clusters. The FAT is the core of the file system. To increase data safety, it is possible to have several instances of the FAT (there are usually two of them). A cluster is a minimum data storage unit in the FAT16 file system.
Hard Disk And File Systems A.9.3 FAT32 The FAT32 file system appeared in Windows 95 OSR2 and is also supported by Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000/XP. FAT32 grew out of FAT16. The main differences between FAT32 and FAT16 are 28-bit cluster numbers and more flexible root folder implementation, which is not limited in size.
Particularities of Operating Systems Appendix B. Particularities of Operating Systems B.1 B.1.1 DOS-type Operating Systems 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–7.0 • DR-DOS 7.
Particularities of Operating Systems 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 Systems • 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 Systems B.2.
Particularities of Operating Systems • NTLDR (mandatory) • BOOTFONT.BIN (mandatory for those language versions that use their own font) • NTDETECT.COM (mandatory) • NTBOOTDD.SYS (mandatory if the system folder partition cannot be accessed with usual BIOS hard disk access function) Configuration files list: • BOOT.INI (mandatory). B.3.
Particularities of Operating Systems B.4 Linux Acronis Disk Director Suite automatically detects and supports any Linux distribution if it is booted by Lilo or ASPLoader installed in the MBR, or if it is booted by any loader installed in the boot sector of the Linux partition. Usually Linux itself is installed on an Ext2, Ext3 or ReiserFS partition, which can be both primary and logical, and can be located on any hard disk. Linux also requires another partition to manage its virtual memory (Linux Swap).
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 Cylinder. A group of all the tracks on all the magnetic platters of a hard disk that can be accessed without moving the magnetic head. Access to the data inside one cylinder is much faster than moving the head from one cylinder to another. Disc. A non-magnetic storage media (compact disc, CD-RW or DVD). Disk. A magnetic storage media (floppy disk or hard disk). (Note: Disc and Disk are often used interchangeably.) Drive.
Glossary Hidden partition. A partition that is somehow made invisible to the operating system. Usually partitions are hidden by changing their type. Label. An optional name that can be assigned to a partition to simplify its identification. Usually has the same limitation as file names. For example, FAT partitions have labels up to 11 characters long, but may contain spaces. Letter (of a drive, partition). All operating systems that are DOS-compatible use Latin letters to identify drives and partitions.
Glossary MBR can contain not more than one partition entry and one table entry. This simplifies the partition structure greatly – all the logical partitions form one chain. Partition table. It is the table that contains the information about partitions and links to other partition tables. A partition table cannot have more than four entries. The main partition table is located in the hard disk MBR, and the other partition tables are called extended.
