ACRONIS PARTITIONEXPERT 2003 User's Guide

User’s GuidePartitionExpert 2003Compute with confidencewww.acronis.com

3. Do not perform any partition operations while running other software that has low-level disk access, for example anti-virus or backup tools. Cl

Chapter 2. Beginning The Work 2.1 Acronis PartitionExpert Logical Organization Acronis PartitionExpert provides two operation modes (see 1.8 «Runn

2.2 Acronis PartitionExpert Main Window Acronis PartitionExpert is controlled through the main window. It includes the menu, toolbar, disk and pa

In the manual partition operations mode the main window also includes all unallocated disk space, while only partitions are shown in the automatic m

2.2.2 Customizing the main window appearance You can customize the main window appearance as you would like using the View menu — in particular to

2.3.2 Additional operations Additional hard disk partition operations are: • Convert — convert FAT16 partition file system to FAT32, Ext2 to Ext3,

2.4.2 Pending operations All Acronis PartitionExpert operations are pending, that is they are performed later, when you are completely sure they ar

tion, and label. You can easily view the Acronis PartitionExpert pending operation for the partition you are working on (see 2.4.3 «Viewing de-layed

And vice versa, redoing a user action results in the addition of one or several pending operations. Depending on your situation, undoing an action

Remember that no actions are performed on your disks when the wizard fin-ishes working! If you are sure that the new structure is suitable, select

Copyright © SWsoft, 2000–2002. All rights reserved. Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks and c

If you need to protect Acronis PartitionExpert with a password 1. Select Disk Æ Set Password, 2. Enter a password in the New Password and Confirm

Chapter 3. Automatic Partition Operations In the «Automatic partition operations» mode Acronis PartitionExpert enables you to perform the followi

Partition creation method selection window The partition creation wizard provides the following operations: 3. If you want to create a partition

3.3 On the next wizard page select partition type — Active (Active Pri-mary), Primary or Logical. Typically Primary is selected to install an opera

Partition file system selection window Selecting a partition file system results in partition formatting, i.e. creating partition data storage st

Create, delete, move partition operations, as well as hiding/unhiding a partition and direct letter change may result in problems running appli-cati

Windows NT/2000/XP Windows NT/2000/XP operating systems initial letter assignment is done automatically: in Windows NT 3.x it's similar to Win

Clicking Finish on this page to make Acronis PartitionExpert create a pending operation for new partition creation, (your actions may only modify a

Note that this wizard page represents physical disks actually connected to your PC. The next page shows logical disks (or partitions) on the sele

If you do not select a partition to take space from on the Select Parti-tions wizard page and there is no unallocated disk space, you will see an er

Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ... 5 CHAPTER 1. INS

Clicking Finish on the last wizard page allows Acronis PartitionExpert to create a pending operation list for new partition creation (these ac-tio

If you need to increase partition free space (size): 1. Run the increase free space wizard by selecting Wizards Æ Increase free space or a simila

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 si

May we again recommend our backup solution — Acronis TrueImage. It enables you to create a backup (image) of a partition and/or entire hard disk in

3. On the next Partition Location wizard page a record of copied partition parameters will be created (Copy of Win98(C:) on the figure below). Th

The figure below shows the result of locating a partition copy after clicking after PROGRAM(J:) partition. You can locate a copy anywhere on your

If you do not select a partition to be partly used as the copy location on the Select Partitions wizard page and there is no (or not enough) unallo

By copying a partition at the expense of existing partition free space, AcronisPartitionExpert can take the partition space to make sure that parti

The new partition structure will be graphically represented in Acronis PartitionExpert main window. Copied partition in Acronis PartitionExpert ma

Chapter 4. Manual Partition Operations Unlike the «Automatic partition operations» mode (see 2.1) the «Manual parti-tion operations» mode is intend

4.1.11 CLEARING A HARD DISK...55 4.2 ADDITIONAL PARTITION OPERATIONS ...

If you need to create a new disk partition: 1. Select hard disk and unallocated space in Acronis PartitionExpert main window; Create a new partit

3. In the Create Partition window enter a partition label, select a file sys-tem and partition type (Primary — Logical) from the list; you can also

If you need to copy a partition: 1. Select a hard disk and a partition to copy. Data (K:) partition of the hard disk 2 is selected for copying on

3. Acronis PartitionExpert will automatically compare the size of a copied partition and disk free space as shown in the Copy Partition window. Onl

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

If you need to move a partition to unallocated disk space: 1. Select hard disk and partition to move. Data (K:) partition of hard disk 2 is selecte

3. Acronis PartitionExpert will automatically compare moved partition size and available free space, indicating it in the Move Partition window. O

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 (a

3. Resize the partition in the Resize Partition window: (1) Hold mouse button and drag a corresponding partition rectangle side until you get the

Moving a partition to unallocated disk space in Windows 95/98/Me can change the order of letters, assigned to other partitions. As a result, some s

Introduction What is Acronis PartitionExpert Acronis PartitionExpert is a hard disk partition manager, enabling you to: • Create hard disk partiti

4.1.6 Formatting a partition Acronis PartitionExpert lets you logically format a partition. It includes orga-nizing a file system that supports f

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

4. Confirm partition deletion by clicking OK in the Delete Partition window; 5. By clicking OK in the Delete Partition window, you add the pending

5. Check results are shown in the Check Partition window. Partition check results window 4.1.9 Defragmenting a partition Defragmentation is reorg

3. By clicking OK in the Defragmentation window, you run partition de-fragmentation, Run partition defragmentation window 4. Defragmentation res

If you need to wipe unallocated disk space: 1. Select hard disk and unallocated space in Acronis PartitionExpert main window — Wipe unallocated spa

3. Select the clearing method in the Clear Hard Drive window; you can: (1) just delete hard disk partitions (without wiping disk sectors) — set th

4.2 Additional Partition Operations Additional hard disk partition operations include some rarely used but use-ful operations of converting partiti

Directly changing a partition letter might affect shortcuts to existing partitions. Chang-ing a partition letter in Windows NT/2000/XP might resul

3. Enter partition type (Logical — Primary) in the Convert Partition window, Convert partition window 4. By clicking OK, you add a pending operati

4. Simpler and faster disk maintenance. Bad sector and OS error check, defragmentation of a 6–8 GB partition is significantly faster than that of

3. By clicking OK in the Hide Partition window, you add a pending operation to partition hiding (your actions may only undo or modify an existing o

3. By clicking OK in the Unhide Partition window, you add the pending opera-tion to partition unhiding (your actions may only undo or modify an exis

3. By clicking OK in the Set Active Partition window, you add the pending operation of setting active partition (your actions may only undo or mod-

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 65520 elemen

3. In the Cluster Size window you can: (1) see the current cluster size of selected partition, (2) see average statistics of disk space losses fo

If you need to change partition type: 1. Select disk and partition to change type of from the list in Acronis PartitionExpert main window, 2. Exe

The «bytes per a single INODE» value indicates the average partition file size. If there are many small files, there must be many descriptors, each

Appendix A. Hard Disk And Operating System Provided Appendices contain additional information about hard disk construc-tion and data storage, partiti

There can be up to several tens of thousands of cylinders per disk. The higher the write density on the disk, the more cylinders can be created on it

Partition information is stored in the special disk area – the 1st sector of 0 cylinder, 0 head, called Partition Table. This sector is called Master

Chapter 1. Installation And Running 1.1 What’s Included Acronis PartitionExpert package includes: • Installation CD-ROM, • This Guide, • License

A.4 Primary Partitions Primary hard disk partition can contain operating system, applications and user data (files). Only one primary partition can b

After formatting logical disks are organized as follows: • Logical disks start with the boot sector; • One or several copies of file allocation ta

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

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. fi

Table 3. The following table gives the approximate depend-ence of these losses versus the cluster size: Partition Size Cluster Size Wastes <127 M

A.9.5 Linux Ext2 Ext2 is one of the main file systems for the Linux operating system. Ext2 is a 32-bit file system. Its maximum size is 16 Terabytes.

Appendix B. Glossary Absolute sector. All the sectors of a hard disk can be numbered sequentially, starting with zero. Thus numbered sectors are call

Bootable partition. A partition that can host an operating system. In the be-ginning of such a partition there should be a boot record. Cluster. Info

with tracks and sectors), partitioning and high-level (creation of file system on a partition). Hard disk (hard drive). Fixed storage media along wit

Since a boot manager usually supports multiple operating systems on one computer and even one partition, it has to perform some preparatory actions (

Having installed Acronis PartitionExpert, reboot your PC. 1.4 Upgrading Acronis PartitionExpert If Acronis PartitionExpert was damaged during in

System disk/partition is a disk/partition from which an operating system may be booted. Such disk usually contains the boot sector and system files o

1.6 User Interface Acronis PartitionExpert software is installed in OS Windows, has graphical user interface and is controlled by the mouse or by Ta