User Guide

To work with a hard disk you must know where and what data is stored on
it. As a complete disk editing program, DiskEditor allows you to create a
complete partition on a disk without the use of the FDISK utility (or any other
utilities). DiskEditor is also capable of much more: while the FDISK utility al-
lows you to create only FAT16/32 partitions, DiskEditor allows you to create
partitions for almost any types known. Look closely at the Partition type drop-
down list.
Partition types supported by Acronis DiskEditor
This list also contains a substantial group of partition types, that may seem
exotic to some users.
3.3 Formatting a Partition
We now use the FORMAT utility, also supplied with Windows operating sys-
tem, to format the created primary partition with /S option that allows to
transfer system files to partition:
FORMAT C: /S
(The disk can have another letter assigned, for example, D:.)
Formatting a partition with the FORMAT utility results in the creation of
partition bootsector contents.
The following modes allow you to view a bootsector: as FAT16 bootsector, as
FAT32 bootsector, and as NTFS bootsector. You should keep in mind that
simple selection of a view mode does not automatically result in positioning
DiskEditor to a partition bootsector. You have to do it manually. For this pur-
pose you can use Search Æ Go To… menu while working with the entire hard
disk and enter the sector offset from the Partition table into Absolute sector
field in the dialog window.
22 Chapter 3 : Main Window View Modes