User's Guide OS Selector 8.0 Compute with confidence www.acronis.
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Table of Contents ABOUT THIS GUIDE ............................................................................................ 9 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 11 1.1 ACRONIS OS SELECTOR AS A BOOT MANAGER ............................ 11 1.2 ACRONIS OS SELECTOR AS A PARTITION MANAGER.................... 12 1.3 ACRONIS OS SELECTOR KEY FEATURES ...................................... 12 1.4 MAIN DISK ADMINISTRATOR FEATURES .....................
CHAPTER 4. BOOT MENU .............................................................................. 35 4.1 BOOTING OPERATING SYSTEMS ..................................................... 36 4.2 RUNNING ACRONIS OS SELECTOR TOOLS .................................... 37 4.3 TUNING ACRONIS OS SELECTOR .................................................. 37 CHAPTER 5. ACRONIS OS SELECTOR SETUP ............................................... 39 5.1 AUTOMATIC SETUP OPERATION MODE.....................................
.5 7.6 7.7 DELETING A PARTITION ................................................................ 75 CHANGING THE PARTITION LABEL................................................ 76 VIEW DETAILS ABOUT A PARTITION ............................................. 77 7.7.1 GENERAL PROPERTIES SHEET ...................................................................77 7.7.2 FILE SYSTEM PROPERTIES SHEET .............................................................78 7.7.3 ERRORS SHEET ..............................
11.1.3 2ND INSTALLATION STAGE .......................................................................105 11.2 INSTALLING WINDOWS 2000/XP ..................................................... VIA UPGRADING WINDOWS 95/98/ME ....................................... 105 11.3 INSTALLING WINDOWS 2000/XP ..................................................... BY UPGRADING ANOTHER WINDOWS NT/2000/XP.................... 108 11.4 RESTORING (REPAIRING) AN ALREADY-INSTALLED ........................
About This Guide The purpose of this Guide is to help in using Acronis OS Selector and solving problems that might arise while working with it. User Guide consists of the following chapters and appendices: Chapter 1 «Introduction» provides an overview of Acronis OS Selector and its main features. Chapter 2 «Basic Information» makes the user acquainted with the basic concepts, terms and principles that are necessary when working with Acronis OS Selector.
Appendix B. «Disk Editor» acquaints the user with the additional feature – direct sector-by-sector hard disk editing. Appendix C. «Acronis OS Selector On-Line Help» covers the functioning of the Acronis OS Selector built-in hypertext On-Line Help. Appendix D. «Compatibility with Other Software» describes how different programs react on partition structure and actions performed by Disk Administrator. Appendix E.
Chapter 1. Introduction This chapter contains the following general information about Acronis OS Selector: Acronis OS Selector as a Boot Manager Acronis OS Selector as a Partition Manager Acronis OS Selector Key Features Main Disk Administrator features Acronis OS Selector System Requirements How does Acronis OS Selector Function? What is a Boot Context? 1.
partition and allows hiding any specified partitions from any given operating system. Aside from performing its main function, Acronis OS Selector has many additional features. 1.2 Acronis OS Selector as a Partition Manager When new operating systems are installed, hard disks are replaced or added and in some other cases the necessity arises in relocating the information on hard disks.
The following features are unique to Acronis OS Selector: 1.4 • Standardized intuitive user interface. • Power-off from Boot Menu. • Flexible Boot Menu appearance adjustment. • Fast creating and adjustment of different configurations of an operating system. • Actions that can be performed from the installation media (usually a bootable diskette or a CD-ROM), such as activating and deactivating Acronis OS Selector, uninstalling it, running Disk Administrator etc.
The following features are unique to Disk Administrator: 1.5 • Choose the precise position of a partition on the disk and in the partition structure (primary/logical), its size, file system type, label, and cluster size (when the partition is created, moved or resized). All these actions can be performed in one pass. • As a result, you can copy a partition to free space of smaller size. • Built-in sector-by-sector hard disk and partition editor. • Different sorting modes of the partition list.
1.6 How does Acronis OS Selector Function? During the installation on your computer, Acronis OS Selector writes its own code into the MBR of the first hard disk, and thus gains control before any other operation system. The old MBR content is stored in the \BOOTWIZ\ MBRBACKS.DAT file to enable a restore of the configuration as it was before Acronis OS Selector installation. Acronis OS Selector MBR contains the information about what hard disk and partition holds the main part of the boot manager.
• System files of an operating system that are backed up by Acronis OS Selector in its own folder and are copied by it to their place (usually the root folder of the operating system partition) before booting the operating system. Backing up the system files allows the installation of multiple operating systems with same system file names, like IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, COMMAND.COM, NTLDR etc. on one partition.
Chapter 2. Basic Information This chapter elaborates on basic concepts that are related to hard disk partitioning. This will help you to better understand and use Acronis OS Selector. 2.1 What is a Hard Disk? A hard disk is a part of a computer that is used for long-term information storage. Unlike Random Access Memory (RAM) that loses all the data when the power is switched off, a hard disk continually stores data, thus allowing the saving of programs, documents and other information.
2.2 Hard Disk Formatting A computer needs to have access to the necessary information at any time, but even the smallest of hard disks can hold millions and millions of bits. So how does a computer know where to look for the data required or where to store the new data? Dividing the disks into small easily identifiable parts solves this problem. This allows the computer to easily find the needed data. The process of creation of such parts is called formatting. There are two levels of formatting: 2.2.
For more detailed information about file systems see paragraph 2.3 «File Systems». Formatting of a whole hard disk for one file system heavily limits the number of operating systems that can be installed on this hard disk. Fortunately this problem can be solved. Prior to logical formatting a hard disk it must be partitioned. Each partition can then be formatted with its own file system. This will allow installing different OSes. Partitioning also allows more efficient use of disk space.
Usually the larger the cluster size the greater disk space losses (waste) become. For more detailed information about cluster size management see paragraph 2.6 «Managing Partitions». The FAT16 file system, like many others, has a root folder. But unlike all others its root folder is stored in a special place and is limited in size (standard formatting creates a root folder with 512 entries). Acronis OS Selector Disk Administrator allows you to change the size of the root folder for an existing partition.
Administrator allows you to change the size of i-nodes table for an existing partition. 2.3.5 Linux Ext3 Officially introduced with their version 7.2 of the Linux operating system, Ext3 is the Red Hat Linux journaling file system. It is forward and backward compatible with Linux Ext2. It has multiple journaling modes and broad cross-platform compatibility in both 32- and 64-bit architectures. 2.3.6 Linux ReiserFS The ReiserFS file system was officially added to Linux in 2001.
Status flag of a partition on the first hard disk usually tells the default MBR code that boot should be performed from this partition. Partition type identifies it with a certain operating system. An operating system usually recognizes only partitions with the numbers it knows and ignores the rest. Such table structure has the following limitations: • Maximum amount of partitions is four; • Maximum number of types – 255; • Maximum supported hard disk size is 4 terabytes.
2.5 Boot Sequence 2.5.1 Very Beginning Whenever a computer is turned on or rebooted, control is given to BIOS (Base Input/Output System) that is stored in the computer ROM. BIOS initializes and tests the hardware and then loads the first sector from the boot disk device (usually it is the first hard disk, and the sector is the MBR) and passes control to it. All the actions that follow depend on the contents of this sector. Some words should be said about how the hard disks are counted.
2.6 Managing Partitions 2.6.1 Setting an Active Partition If you do not have a boot manager but you have created several primary partitions, then you must select a partition from which the operating system will be booted. There is a status flag for that in the partition table. This flag should be on only for one partition, and it should be a partition and not an unused entry or a reference to the partition table.
losses (waste) due to the adjustment of allocated space to cluster boundaries. The following table gives the approximate dependence of these losses (hard disk waste) versus the cluster size: Partition size Cluster size Wastes <127M 2K 2% 128÷255M 4K 4% 256÷511M 8K 10% 512÷1023M 16K 25% 1024÷2047M 32K 40% 2048÷4096M 64K 50% One of the ways to reduce losses is to break the disk space into smaller partitions.
2.8 Drive Letters Most operating systems when booting assign letters (C, D,...) to all partitions on all hard disks. You, your applications and the operating system itself identify file placement in a partition using these letters. An operating system may change letter assignment if you plug or unplug hard disks or perform different actions with partitions. Some changes in letter assignment may lead to troubles in parts or in the entire configuration of an operating system.
• The first suitable active primary partition from the first hard disk is looked for. If there is none then the first suitable primary partition is looked for. • Then the first suitable primary partitions of the rest hard disks are looked for in a similar way. • Then all the suitable logical partitions are looked for following the chain on the first, then on the second, the third etc. hard disk. • Then all the remaining primary partitions of the first, second etc. hard disks are looked for.
does not matter if hard disks and other disk drives that are connected to the computer are visible to BIOS or not. When changing the structure of partitions it is necessary to make sure that the letters for the partitions where the swap file (\PAGEFILE.SYS) do not change, otherwise the system may become unbootable. 2.10 Troubles Arising from Changing Letter Assignment Changing letters may damage your application setup.
since this was done in different ways, there appeared several BIOS functioning modes: • Normal. In this mode cylinder number takes 12 bits, and head number takes 6 bits, allowing for 4096 cylinders and 64 heads. • Large and LBA. In these modes cylinder number takes 10 bits and head number takes 8 bits, allowing for 1024 cylinders and 256 heads. Few operating systems support the Normal mode.
2.12 64K Boot Code Limit Some operating systems, namely MS-DOS 6.x and earlier versions, and Windows NT 4.0 and earlier versions, have an error in the boot code in converting the absolute sector number into cylinder, head, and sector numbers. They suppose that the result of division of absolute sector number by the number of sectors per track will not exceed 16 bits, i.e. 64 K. Since most modern hard disks have 63 sectors per track, this results in 2016megabyte limitation of boot code location.
Chapter 3. Installing and Uninstalling Acronis OS Selector 3.1 Getting Started Before installing Acronis OS Selector you should undertake several additional steps to insure yourself from data losses: • BACK-UP ALL IMPORTANT DATA! You may even want to purchase a copy of Acronis TrueImage – it takes an exact image of your hard disk drive or separate partitions for complete back-up, and allows you to restore all of their contents, including operating systems, programs, personal data and settings.
3.2 Installation To install the Acronis OS Selector: 1. Insert the Acronis OS Selector installation CD into the CD-ROM drive and start the installation procedure. 2. Carefully follow the installation program instructions on the screen. 3. The Acronis OS Selector Installation Wizard will ask you to select the partition on which you wish the Acronis OS Selector to be installed. Acronis OS Selector requires a FAT partition to work.
4. After making your installation choices and copying of Acronis OS Selector files onto your hard disk, you will be offered to create a bootable rescue diskette or CD-R/W (you may omit this step if you have purchased the boxed product that contains a bootable CD). It’s very important to create the rescue media. Using it you will be able to repair/restore the software. After the installation of Acronis OS Selector is completed, you should restart your computer.
3.3 Repairing/Upgrading Acronis OS Selector To upgrade or repair your software, start the OS Selector installation program.
Chapter 4. Boot Menu The Boot Menu is a program that opens a dialog box with the same name that contains a list of configurations of operating systems that you can see every time you reboot your computer. The Boot Menu does not show up in two cases: 1. If you have deactivated Acronis OS Selector. 2. If you have indicated in the Setup options that default configuration should be booted at once. In the first case you should activate Acronis OS Selector by booting from the installation media.
4.1 Booting operating systems From «Configuration» menu you can perform the following actions: Boot begins booting the configuration that is selected in the configuration list. Double-clicking the item, clicking the OK button or pressing the Enter key also does it. An access password can be set for any operating system configuration or Boot from floppy section. This password will be required for every booting of a protected configuration or Boot from floppy section.
4.2 Running Acronis OS Selector Tools Choosing the «Tools» menu you can: 4.3 • Setup manually runs Setup thus allowing the performance of all the actions necessary for configuring Acronis OS Selector. Also available from the toolbar or with Ctrl+S hotkey. • Disk Administrator runs Disk Administrator. Also available from the toolbar or with Ctrl+D hotkey. • If administration password (see 5.7.
• boot menu item alignment (configurations; left, center, right); If the left or center alignment is enabled, icons are shown to the left of the configurations. In case of the right alignment, icons are shown to the right. • display properties. Selecting View -> Display properties, you can change: 38 • resolution (800 x 600 pixels by default) • color mode - 16-bit, 32768 colors by default; also available: 8-bit and 24bit modes; refresh rate (horizontal; ranges from 60 to 150 Hz).
Chapter 5. 5.1 Acronis OS Selector Setup Automatic Setup Operation Mode In 1.6 «How does Acronis OS Selector Function?» it was said that Acronis OS Selector Loader executes Setup in two cases: • If the Loader detects any changes in the hard disk partition structure; • On the first run after installation or update. In these cases Setup scans the hard disks of your computer for operating systems, tries to identify them and adds their configurations to the Boot Menu.
5.2 Acronis OS Selector Setup Main Window Acronis OS Selector Setup Main Window is a dialog box with pull-down menu bar, toolbar, configuration list and OK and Help buttons. You can get to the main window by manually running Setup from Boot Menu. The following action can be performed from the Setup main window: • 40 In the «Configuration» menu: • New/Boot from floppy (in Configurations view). It adds a new Boot from floppy section to the configurations list of the Boot menu.
• • Delete Information about a removed hard disk (in Operating systems view). It deletes the information about the selected removed hard disk and all the operating systems on it. Also can be done by pressing the Del key or from the toolbar. See 5.5.2 «Deleting». • Hide/Unhide Configuration. It hides/unhides the selected configuration. Also available from the toolbar or with Ctrl+H hotkey. See 5.4.4 «Hiding». • Hide/Unhide Operating System (in Operating systems view).
• • 5.3 In the «Other» menu: • OS Detection Wizard. It starts the wizard with the same name. See 5.8. • Windows 95/98/ME Installation Wizard. It starts the wizard with the same name. See Chapter 10. • Deactivate Acronis OS Selector. It allows temporary deactivation of Acronis OS Selector. See 5.9. • Uninstall Acronis OS Selector. Allows uninstalling of Acronis OS Selector from your computer. See 5.10. In the «Help» menu: • Contents.
• Operating systems. In this mode you can see a 4–level tree: first level shows the hard disks (each hard disk is shown with its number and size); the second one shows partitions (each partition comes with its number, label, size and type); the third one shows operating systems; and the fourth one shows operating system configurations. Only in this mode is it possible to copy and delete operating systems, edit operating system properties, and delete information about removed hard disks.
disk as removed, along with all partitions, operating systems, and configurations on it. Hidden and locked items are not displayed in the Boot menu and are grayed in the Setup lists. 5.4 Manipulating an Operating System Configuration 5.4.1 Setting a Default Configuration A selected configuration can be made a default configuration. This means that every time you get into the Boot Menu selection bar it will point on this configuration.
See 5.5.2 «Deleting» on details about deleting the information about an operating system. 5.4.4 Hiding An operating system configuration can be temporarily removed from Boot Menu list by hiding it. Hidden configuration can be unhidden again. Hidden configurations are grayed in Setup list and marked with «HIDDEN» sign. HIDDEN status can be toggled with corresponding «Configuration» menu or with the Ctrl+H hotkey. 5.4.
• Files. On this sheet different actions can be performed with the configuration files list: Files can be added, deleted and edited with help of a built-in text editor. • Other. On this sheet you can turn on booting from a diskette in the configuration context, hide/unhide the configuration and set, change or disable an access password (this password will then be required on booting the configuration). In the upper part of the box there is an edit box that allows editing configuration name.
5.5 Manipulating an Operating System 5.5.1 Copying Acronis OS Selector allows not only copying a configuration of an operating system but can also copy a whole operating system. Copying an operating system includes copying all its system files, all system folders and all the configurations. Copying the system folders may be a lengthy process so Setup requests a confirmation if any is present. 5.5.
5.5.3 Hiding Hiding an operating system results in hiding all its configurations, similarly the reverse operation («Unhide») makes all the configurations visible. 5.5.4 Editing Operating System Properties Browsing and editing of operating system properties is done in a dialog box with four property sheets: 48 • Files.
• Partitions. On this sheet you can see what partitions are visible to this operating system, hide some partitions or show some of the hidden ones, and change the active partitions settings. If the given operating system uses letters to access partitions, these letters are shown in the list and they change dynamically when partitions are hidden. For Windows NT/2000/XP type operating systems the letters are shown tentatively. Hidden partitions are grayed.
• Boot as OS/2 operating system: check it if the boot sector should be modified in memory when booting an OS/2 operating system from a logical partition; • Boot as Windows 95OSR2/98/ME operating system: check it if the boot sector should be modified in memory when booting a Windows 95OSR2/98/ME operating system from a logical partition; • Large hard disks support for Windows 95OSR2/98/ME operating system: If this checkbox is checked, LBA type is set for all FAT partitions spanning beyond the 1023rd cyl
5.6 Special Configuration List Items 5.6.1 Boot From Floppy Section Boot From Floppy section allows you to: • Boot from a diskette directly from Acronis OS Selector Boot Menu; • Boot from floppy drive B: (if, of course, the operating system on the bootable diskette allows you to do this); • Flexibly adjust the Boot From Floppy context.
• Partitions. Similar to an operating system, on this sheet you can choose which partitions will be visible and which will not be, when booting will be done from a diskette. Since it is not known in advance what operating system will be booted from the diskette, letters are not shown in the partition list but it is possible to hide partitions of any type. • Other. On the last property sheet it is possible to select various general properties of the Boot from floppy section.
A separator can be added either with the «Separator» item of the «New» submenu of the «Configuration» menu, or from the toolbar, or with the Ctrl+E hotkey. If the selection bar in the list is on an operating system configuration, a dialog box appears where you can associate this separator with this operating system. An associated separator will be hidden, disabled and deleted together with the operating system that it is associated to. A separator is added before the current list item.
A comment can be copied, deleted and hidden just like an operating system configuration. Like an operating system configuration, a comment has some properties: 5.7 • View. On this page you can toggle icon display for the comment and choose its type and color. • Other. Here you can chose if the comment should be hidden.
5.7.1 Standard Options The following parameters can be edited on the Standard sheet: • If a default configuration should be booted at once (in this case the Boot Menu is not displayed at all), or after the number of seconds that is entered in the edit box passes (selection bar in Boot Menu list blinks until the timeout expires, then the default section is booted automatically), or the default booting can be turned off.
5.7.3 Passwords On this sheet the global Acronis OS Selector passwords may be set, disabled or changed. Global passwords are the Administration password and the Boot Menu access password. Boot Menu access password is required on every Acronis OS Selector booting except when Boot Menu is not displayed, i.e. if you choose Boot default configuration at once. Administration password is required when running Setup and Disk Administrator, and when attempting to edit configuration files.
5.8 OS Detection Wizard OS Detection Wizard is used for manual addition of operating systems that Acronis OS Selector could not detect automatically, including the operating systems who’s boot sectors are stored in files. With help of this Wizard you can select which partitions will be hidden from an operating system. It is useful for example for Windows 95/98/ME operating systems for which system folders reside in different partition than the system files do. 5.8.
5.8.3 • Boot part. button allows a partition to be scanned for an operating system (this partition will become a boot partition for the would-be found operating system); • Hide/Unhide button hides a visible partition or makes a hidden partition visible.
Please note that since the letter order for the detected operating system is not known in advance, default Acronis OS Selector partition enumeration is used instead of drive letters. Choose an appropriate boot sector and click the Next > button, OS Detection Wizard will then attempt to find an operating system with the specified parameters. 5.8.4 Search Result Page If OS Detection Wizard finds an operating system that is not yet present in Boot Menu, you get to the Search Result page.
5.9 Deactivating Acronis OS Selector Acronis OS Selector can be temporarily deactivated (with the corresponding item of the «Other» Setup menu or by booting from the installation media and selecting the corresponding action in the Acronis OS Selector Installation Wizard). In this case you will be prompted to select the configuration that will be booted bypassing Acronis OS Selector. When deactivated, Acronis OS Selector does not have control of your bootable operating systems or their parameters.
Two courses of events are the possible: 1. If no actions preventing the original configuration of the computer from restoration (such as uninstalling and deleting operating systems, moving, resizing or deleting partitions with operating systems) were performed since Acronis OS Selector had been installed, you will be prompted to re-confirm your desire. 2.
Chapter 6. Disk Administrator This chapter contains the following information: Running Disk Administrator Disk Administrator Main Window Survey Disk Administrator Interface Disk Administrator Appearance Setup Menu («View» Menu) Pending Operations Getting Help 6.1 Running Disk Administrator In spite of Disk Administrator being very carefully debugged and tested software, different external factors, such as power failures and other hardware troubles may result in data loss.
• Current hard disk info line. • Partition list. • OK and Help buttons. The title bar and the frame allow you to move the window around the screen and also exit Disk Administrator. The pull-down menu bar allows you to perform all the actions on partitions and hard disks as well as adjust their appearance and get help. All basic actions are grouped in the toolbar. Here they are available on one click. Please note: the toolbar is unavailable in the Acronis OS Selector text mode.
OK button exits the Disk Administrator. Help button opens the help on main window. 6.3 Disk Administrator Interface All the functions of Disk Administrator can be performed from the keyboard and most of them – with the mouse. 6.3.1 Using the Mouse The Disk Administrator interface is very mouse-oriented. Left-clicking the necessary partition or free space, and then choosing the desired action from the toolbar, can perform most actions.
6.3.2 Using the Keyboard Press Alt+ to get into the menu. For example pressing Alt+H opens the Help menu. To choose an item from the menu either press the corresponding hot key or use the Up and Down keys to move the highlight bar to the chosen item and press Enter. Press Esc or Alt to leave the menu without performing any action. 6.
• Partition numbers or letters for the chosen operating system are shown. • Simple or advanced view. Here is an example of an advanced main window view. Advanced view differs from the simple one because along with partitions and free space it also shows the positions of all partition tables on the disk, and instead of sizes, it shows the cylinders, heads and sectors of the beginning and end of each disk area. 6.
All the actions with pending operations are available from the «Operations» menu. 6.6 • Undo: Undoes the last pending operation. Undone pending operations can be redone. • Redo: Redoes the last undone pending operation. • Undo all: Undoes all pending operations. • Redo all: Redoes all undone pending operations. • Commit: Actually performs all the pending operations.
Chapter 7. Main Operations with Disk Administrator This chapter covers the following operations with partitions: Creating a Partition Copying or Moving a Partition Resizing a Partition Formatting a Partition Deleting a Partition Changing the Partition Label View Details about a Partition Getting Detailed Information about a Hard Disk 7.1 Creating a Partition The Create Partition function allows you to create primary or logical partitions.
Creating Bootable Partitions Before creating a partition where you plan to install an operating system, you should know the limitations that different operating systems impose on their boot partition. FAT16 FAT32 NTFS MS-DOS 6.22 +2 – + – – – 2G 10M Windows 95 (MS-DOS 7.0) +2 – + – – – 8G 50M Windows 95 OSR2 (MS-DOS 7.1) +2 +2 + + – – no 150M Windows 98 (MS-DOS 7.1) +2 +2 + + – – no 300M Windows ME (MS-DOS 8.0) +2 +2 + + – – no 600M Windows NT 3.
7.1.2 Creating a Partition with Disk Administrator Creation of a partition requires the following steps: 1. Choose the desired free space in the partition list. 2. Choose the «Create partition» operation (from the menu, toolbar or by pressing Insert key). 3. Enter the parameters of the new partition in the dialog box. 4. Confirm partition creation by pressing Enter key or the OK button in the lower part of the box.
• • On the «Cluster/Block size» sheet: • Cluster size (for FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS) or block size (for Linux Ext2/Ext3). This parameter is usually set automatically, but sometimes it is necessary to define it manually. • Allows the creation of a partition that is larger than the file system (only for FAT16). When this mode is on, Disk Administrator can create partitions that exceed the size of the file system by a cluster or more.
7.2 Copying or Moving a Partition The Copy partition function allows you to create a partition with the same information as in the original. You may need to copy a partition in the following cases: • To duplicate an operating system before upgrading it without losing the older version. • To make a fast copy of one hard disk to another. • To create a backup copy of the whole partition.
4. Choose the target free space. 5. Choose the parameters of the new partition in the dialog box. The dialog box for choosing the partition parameters has the same look and functionality as the one that appears during partition creation. Please note that it is impossible to change the file system (only the FAT16ÙFAT32 conversion is possible), and that cluster size can be changed only for FAT16/FAT32.
7.3 Resizing a Partition Resizing a partition allows you to both resize it and to move it inside the hard disk area where it was initially located, without data loss. Decreasing partition size requires free space inside it, while increasing takes some free space next to the partition. If you need to increase the size of a partition, and there is no free space next to it, you can get some by moving and resizing other partitions.
The Choose partition parameters dialog box looks and functions just like the Move partition dialog box. 4. Confirm the operation by pressing Enter or clicking the OK button in the lower part of the dialog box. 7.4 Formatting a Partition Format partition function allows you to format the chosen partition logically, while erasing all the information that was previously stored on it. The following steps should be taken to format a partition: 1. Choose the partition to format from the list. 2.
To reduce the probability of accidental partition deletion, the Disk Administrator asks for an additional confirmation. Here are the steps that lead to deleting a partition: 1. Choose the partition to delete from the list. 2. Select the Delete partition function (from the menu, toolbar or with the Del key). 3. Confirm deletion by pressing Y or clicking the Yes button in the confirmation dialog box.
7.7 View Details about a Partition To get the details about a partition, you must do the following: 1. Choose the desired partition from the list. 2. Choose the Properties function (from the menu, toolbar or with the Enter key). 3. Press Enter or Esc or click the OK button in the lower part of the dialog box to return to the main window after viewing the partition properties.
7.7.2 File System Properties Sheet This page is not displayed for partitions with fatal errors in the file system or with a file system that is not supported by Disk Administrator, nor for free spaces and tables. 7.7.3 Errors Sheet This sheet appears if the partition structure or its file system contains errors. These errors are listed on this sheet.
7.8 Getting Detailed Information about a Hard Disk With help of Disk Administrator you can get all the information about a hard disk that is available from BIOS. This requires the following steps: 1. Choose the hard disk (if there are several of them). 2. Choose the Hard disk properties function (from the Disk menu, the toolbar or with the Alt+P hotkey). 3. Press Enter or Esc or click the OK button in the lower part of the dialog box to return to the main window after viewing the disk properties.
This is where the 7.9 GB maximum accessible disk size limitation for the usual functions comes from. The areas of a hard disk that lay beyond this limit can be accessed only via extended disk access functions (interrupt 13h, functions 41h–48h). • 7.8.2 Total size is the size of the hard disk that is available for Acronis OS Selector. Hard Disk Property Sheet This sheet shows the information that is stored in the BIOS hard disk parameters table.
7.8.3 Extended Properties Sheet The presence of this sheet tells that the disk may be accessed with extended BIOS functions. It shows the following information: 7.8.4 • Physical hard disk geometry (it does not necessarily match the geometry reported by function 8). Here it does not have much practical value since extended functions work with absolute sector numbers. • The hard disk size in sectors. This is the most interesting parameter on this sheet. • Sector size.
Chapter 8. Advanced Operations with Disk Administrator This chapter describes the following operations with partitions: Converting a Partition Changing the Partition Type Setting an Active Partition Hiding a Partition Resizing Clusters/Blocks Resizing the FAT16 Root Folder Moving a Partition in the Partition Table 8.1 Converting a Partition Two types of partition conversion are possible with help of Disk Administrator: 1. Primary Ù logical. 2. FAT16 Ù FAT32.
8.2 Changing the Partition Type Each record in any partition table contains a «partition type» field. This is a certain number that tentatively defines what file system and what operating system that this partition addresses.
8.3 Setting an Active Partition If no boot manager is installed on your computer, then the default master boot record code located at the beginning of the first hard disk will attempt to boot an operating system from the primary partition that is marked as active. Only one primary partition may be active. The following steps allow you to make a partition active with help of the Disk Administrator: 1. Choose the first hard disk. 2. Choose the primary partition. 3.
8.5 Resizing Clusters/Blocks Resizing clusters/blocks is not a stand-alone operation as it is in other similar programs. Instead Acronis OS Selector combines it with the create, copy, move and resize partition functions, as this allows the performance of several different actions on a partition in one pass. The word «cluster» is used for Microsoft file systems: FAT16, FAT32, NTFS. The word «block» is used for all other file systems.
The «Auto» checkbox is by default checked and the «Auto» label shows that the cluster/block size is set automatically. Auto-selection gives the cluster/block size that the partition would have after being formatted with the standard FORMAT command. Uncheck this checkbox to be able to choose the cluster/block size manually. Now you can choose the desired cluster/block size with the radio-buttons. For the description of other controls that can appear on this sheet see 7.1.
The size of the root folder of an existing partition can be changed on the «Other» sheet of the partition resizing (creation, conversion, copying, moving, and formatting) dialog. The Automatic checkbox is checked by default. To be able to manually select the size of the root folder, uncheck it. Now you can enter the desired size of the root folder in the input field next to the checkbox. The following steps are required to resize the root folder: 1. Choose the partition from the list. 2.
1. Choose the partition from the list. 2. Choose the «Arrange in table» function (from the menu or by clicking Ctrl+G hotkey). 3. Arrange the partition in the list in the dialog box by dragging it with the mouse or with arrow keys.
Chapter 9. Particularities of Operating System Functioning 9.1 DOS-type Operating Systems 9.1.1 Supported Versions Acronis OS Selector 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 95OSR2/98); • MS-DOS 8.0 (not a separate product but is included in Windows ME); • PC-DOS 5.x–7.0; • DR-DOS 7.x.
3. Boot manager initializes the memory, scans the partition structure and assigns letters to partitions, defining the DOS boot partition on the way. 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.
• DRVSPACE.BIN (mandatory for MS-DOS 6.22–8.0); • LOGO.SYS (optional for MS-DOS 7.x/8.0); • COMMAND.COM (optional for all DOS versions). Configuration files list: 9.1.4 • 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). Limitations Different DOS versions have the following limitations: • Only MS-DOS 7.1/8.0 supports FAT32 along with FAT16 file system. • Only MS-DOS 7.1/8.
Drivers that were loaded rescan the partition structure and assign letters to partitions that were not visible from MS-DOS. There are several differences between Windows 95/98/ME versions: 9.2.3 • Windows 95 contains MS-DOS 7.0, does not support FAT32 and due to MS-DOS 7.0 limitations cannot be booted from partitions that are located beyond the 1024th cylinder. • Windows 95OSR2/98 contains MS-DOS 7.1 and supports FAT32. • Windows Millennium Edition contains MS-DOS 8.
Another special thing about the installation program is that it can be run only from DOS and during the very first stage creates system and applications folders. The name of the latter is always fixed (but depends on language version of Windows). This causes problems in the following cases: • If you wish to install another Windows 95/98/ME on the same partitions. • If you wish to install Windows 95/98/ME on the system folders partition where Windows NT/2000/XP already resides.
the 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 9.2.3 «System Folders»). It is possible that several different Windows NT/2000/XP are booted from one single loader. 9.3.3 System and Configuration Files Windows NT/2000/XP system files list: • NTLDR (mandatory); • BOOTFONT.BIN (mandatory for those language versions that use their own font); • NTDETECT.
Acronis OS Selector can manage the Windows NT/2000/XP system folders only if they reside on a FAT16/FAT32 partition. 9.3.5 Limitations Different Windows NT/2000/XP versions have the following limitations: 9.4 • For any Windows NT/2000/XP version the boot partition must be a primary partition of the first hard disk. • Windows NT version 3.51 and 4.0 recognizes the FAT16 and NTFS file systems, Windows 2000 also recognizes the FAT32 file system. • Boot partition of Windows NT version 3.51 and 4.
Acronis OS Selector automatically detects even operating systems unknown to it, if they are booted from the boot sector. 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 maybe supplied with operating systems, together with Acronis OS Selector, since they frequently make incorrect changes to the partition structure.
Chapter 10. Windows 95/98/ME Installation Wizard Windows 95/98/ME Installation Wizard will assist you in arranging your computer for new Windows installation with flexible prior location tunings. We strongly recommend, even advanced users, use Windows 95/98/ME Installation Wizard before Windows installation because in some cases desirable PC configuration may be impossible without it assistance. 10.
Next page allows you to choose what would you like to use the Wizard for. The following options are available: • Upgrading an existing Windows 95/98/ME operating system without saving its old version; • Upgrading an existing Windows 95/98/ME operating system and saving its old version; • Installing a new Windows 95/98/ME operating system. Select the desired option and press Next > to proceed to the following page. All the following actions of the Wizard depend on your choice. 10.
10.3 Preparation to Upgrading Windows 95/98/ME with Saving its Old Version In this mode Windows 95/98/ME Installation Wizard first prompts you to select the operating system that you wish to upgrade. Choose the operating system from the list and click the Next > button. On the following page the Wizard summarizes your choice and tells you about its following actions. Confirm your decision by clicking the Finish button. The Wizard quits and the selected operating system will be copied.
10.4 Preparation to New Windows 95/98/ME Operating System Installation Since Acronis OS Selector supports various non-standard ways to position Windows 95/98/ME operating systems and also allows positioning several such operating systems so that they share system folder partitions, some preparatory actions are necessary in almost all cases. This is what the third mode of the Wizard is about.
• Selection of hidden partitions (partitions that will be inaccessible to the operating system and would not have letters assigned to them). Hiding partitions is done with the Hide button, and they are grayed in the list. • Selection of active partitions. If even one hard disk other then the first one has multiple primary partitions that are available to the operating system, toggling the Active flag affects the letter assignment order.
Chapter 11. Installing/Updating Windows NT/2000/XP 11.1 Installing A New Windows NT/2000/XP Prior to installing a new Windows NT/2000/XP it is necessary to decide where on the hard disk it will reside. If it has to be installed on a new partition (most probably NTFS), it is better to create it in advance with help of Acronis OS Selector Disk Administrator. 11.1.1 Starting the Installation Now you can proceed to the installation.
Next you can edit the name of the folder to which the operating system will be installed (WINNT by default); it is also useful to permit installation partition selection there: Next the wizard creates an installation configuration and prompts you to reboot the computer to start the installation. 1. Run the setup program (WINNT.EXE) from DOS operating system. It is recommended that you load some disk caching driver, for example SMARTDRV.EXE with 32768 parameter (buffer size), prior to installation.
For the 1st and 2nd methods of installation, after the computer is rebooted control is passed to Acronis OS Selector Setup. This detects the installation configuration and if any Windows operating system is already installed on your computer, and prompts you to enter additional information: Select «Install a new one» item, and Setup will add the installation configuration to the Boot Menu. 11.1.
Here the Setup might need information about the hard disk where you have placed the system folders of the operating system. This is done to provide for cases when Windows NT/2000/XP hard disk cannot be accessed via BIOS functions, and is therefore invisible to Acronis OS Selector. 11.1.3 2nd Installation Stage If on the 1st stage you have chosen to convert the partition to NTFS, this conversion is done before the 2nd stage and requires an additional reboot.
There is only one way to start the upgrade: by running the WINNT32.EXE setup program from the operating system you wish to upgrade. Select the «Upgrade» option on the very first page of the setup wizard: Next, when considering upgrading the disk (partition) to NTFS, you must realize that if you choose to upgrade, all other operating systems on this partition will become unbootable. Moreover, you should not upgrade to NTFS the partition that Acronis OS Selector is installed.
Next the wizard checks if the upgrade is possible, detects if additional drivers have to be installed, creates a special installation configuration, and reboots the computer. Control passes to Acronis OS Selector Setup, and it requests additional information: Choose the «Upgrade» item here.
11.3 Installing Windows 2000/XP by Upgrading Another Windows NT/2000/XP This operation system upgrade can also be initiated only by running the WINNT32.EXE setup program from the operating system you want to upgrade. As previously described, the wizard appears after running the setup program, and you have to choose «Upgrade» on its first page: Next, after going through several standard pages, the wizard creates a special installation configuration and reboots the computer.
Next you have to boot the configuration that has been created by Setup so that the installation program can continue its work. Unlike installation, upgrade does not require any intervention from the user. At this stage primary copying is done, and the computer is rebooted. After this reboot Acronis OS Selector considers the upgrade to be over, and a new Boot Menu item with the name corresponding to this operating system appears. Choose this item to continue the upgrade.
1. WINNT32.EXE setup program is run from Windows 95/98/ME or Windows NT/2000/XP. In this case you answer all the questions from the wizard as if you are going to install a new operating system. When control gets to the Setup for the first time, choose «Upgrade/Repair» and select the configuration you are going to restore. Next you will only boot the created installation configuration. 2. WINNT.EXE setup program is run from DOS.
Appendix A. A.1 Text Editor General Information Acronis OS Selector package includes a Text Editor. Its purpose is to edit operating system configuration files before booting any operating system. The Text Editor can be run from Acronis OS Selector Boot Menu with the «Edit files» item of the «Configuration» menu or from the toolbar or with the Ctrl+E hotkey. One window is opened for each configuration file of the selected configuration.
• Mark stream of text begins or ends marking a block (a block is an uninterrupted character sequence). Marking is done with arrow keys. Marked block is shown in reverse colors. Hotkey is Ctrl+F8. • Mark lines of text begin or end marking a block which consists of whole lines. Marking is done with arrow keys. Marked block is shown in reverse colors. Hotkey is F8. • Cut copies the selected block to the clipboard and deletes it from the text. Hotkey is Ctrl+X.
Appendix B. Disk Editor This appendix describes the Disk Editor, which is built into Disk Administrator, and its following functions: Running Disk Editor Navigating Disk Editor View Modes Simple Editing and Undoing Changes Editing in the Partition Table Mode Using Blocks and Clipboard Search You should remember that the Disk Editor is to be used in emergency situations only – for example to recover lost information.
B.2 Navigating Disk Editor The Disk Editor is multi-window – you can switch to the desired window either by clicking it with the mouse or by moving through the window sequence with Ctrl+Tab keys. B.3 View Modes The information in the Disk Editor window can be presented for viewing and editing in several different modes. Choose the desired view mode from the «View» menu.
B.3.1 Hexadecimal Mode In this mode all the edited area is presented as a single dump (hexadecimal byte values are shown to the left, and corresponding characters are shown to the right). Current editing position is shown by the cursor either in the left or in the right part of the window. You can switch between these two panes either by clicking the desired position with the mouse or by pressing Tab.
B.3.3 FAT16/FAT32/NTFS Boot Sector Mode or FAT32 FS Info Sector Mode This mode assumes that the current sector is the corresponding sector of the file system. In this case the editor window contains info fields of the sector. Arrow keys or mouse clicks allow you to move inside one sector. You can go to the previous or the next sector by pressing PageUp or PageDown. B.4 Simple Editing and Undoing Changes In any mode the information that is shown in the window may be edited.
If any changes remain unsaved by the time you quit the editor or switch to another sector, the confirmation dialog box appears. All the changes that were saved are immediately shown in the main Disk Administrator window. B.5 Editing in the Partition Table Mode Additional editing features are available in the partition table mode. The partition type can be changed by left-clicking the partition type field or pressing Space while there.
Status flag can also be toggled with left click or Space bar. You can also calculate the value of the unknown fields of the partition table entry from the known ones. You may need this when constructing the partition table manually. To do this make all the unknown fields equal to zero and select «Recalculate partition» item in the «Edit» menu. 118 Appendix B.
B.6 Using Blocks and Clipboard Any browsing mode allows you to select blocks either with the mouse, by clicking and holding the left button when moving the mouse, or with the keyboard by moving around the window with the arrow keys while the Shift key is pressed. You can also move the cursor to the beginning of the block, press Ctrl+B, then move the cursor to the end of the block and press Ctrl+B again.
B.7 Search Disk Editor allows you to search for specific information in the edit area. You can start the search by choosing the «Search for object» submenu of the «Search» menu, or by manually specifying what you want to find. Select «Search…» item in the «Search» menu or press Ctrl+S. This opens the search parameters dialog box. Search string(s) can be specified both in symbolic and numerical formats. Search can ignore case and search for the given sub-string only at given offset inside the sector.
Appendix C. Acronis OS Selector On-Line Help C.1 Controls On-Line Help window is divided into three parts. In the upper part there is a graphical or text toolbar with Contents, Back, Forward and Help buttons. In the left part, the table of contents is found. It may be absent if the current document has no table of contents. You can toggle table of contents display by clicking the Contents button.
After following a link you can return to your previous position by clicking the Back button on the toolbar. Reverse is done with the Forward button. On-Line Help itself is opened when you click the Help button. Click the close window button in the upper right corner to quit the On-Line Help. C.3 Using the Keyboard On-Line Help may be controlled without using the mouse. Text of the document may be scrolled with arrow keys and PgUp and PgDn keys.
Appendix D. Compatibility with Other Software This appendix describes the fine points of using the Disk Administrator together with the following software: DOS FDISK Norton Utilities Disk Compression Software Other Boot Managers Anti-virus Software Disk Overlay Software D.1 DOS FDISK Many operating systems like MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR-DOS, Windows 95/98/ME, OS/2 and many UNIX versions have in their packages programs that are usually called FDISK. They are provided for partitioning the hard disk.
D.3 Disk Compression Software You can safely use the Disk Administrator together with disk compression software such as Staker or DriveSpace (DoubleSpace). Should you need to reduce the size of a partition where a compressed disk is located, first reduce the size of the compressed space by means of the compression software and then reduce the size of the partition with the Disk Administrator.
Acronis OS Selector is fully compatible with such software. If you are going to install it on your computer or are running Disk Administrator from the installation diskette, the diskette should be loaded by means of these programs after their loading and not by means of BIOS. Usually pressing Space or Ctrl when the computer is booted does this. Failure to do so will cause the Disk Administrator to report incorrect hard disk information.
Appendix E. Questions) • FAQ (Frequently Asked I have installed Linux on my computer, and now I am unable to get into the Acronis OS Selector Boot Menu (after reboot I get directly into Linux). How can this problem be solved? Obviously, you have installed LILO on MBR, so the Acronis OS Selector MBR was erased. You must boot from the Acronis OS Selector installation media and select the «Activate» option. Then run Setup to add Linux to Boot Menu configuration list.
Installation Wizard that is built into Acronis OS Selector to install Windows 95/98/ME. • Are there any ways to change Acronis OS Selector configuration from DOS or Windows? No, and there are several reasons to that. First, Acronis OS Selector may be installed on a separate partition that is not available to other operating systems, and second, Setup uses special Acronis OS Selector Loader features that are unavailable in any operating system.
• Several people use my computer. Can I somehow limit their access to software? Yes, a quite flexible password system is built into Acronis OS Selector. You can set separate passwords in the Boot Menu (this password is required every time the computer is booted) to each boot configuration. You can also set a special administration password (this one is required to start Setup or Disk Administrator).
Appendix F. Glossary Absolute sector. All the sectors of a hard disk can be numbered sequentially, starting with zero. Thus numbered sectors are called absolute. Acronis OS Selector system folder. Acronis OS Selector keeps its own files and system and configuration files of detected operating systems in the BOOTWIZ folder on the partition that is chosen when Acronis OS Selector is first installed on the computer.
is either a bootable Acronis OS Selector CD-ROM or a diskette that can be created by running Acronis OS Selector from any operating system that is DOS-compatible on the direct drive access level. 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 what partitions are active. For details about active partitions see 8.
Boot manager is a special program that is booted before any operating system and allows the user to have multiple operating systems installed on his computer and to choose the necessary one when the computer is booted. For details on boot managers see 1.1 «Acronis OS Selector as a Boot Manager». Boot Menu. Acronis OS Selector Boot Menu is a program that is stored in the BOOTWIZ\BOOTMENU.EXE file.
Cluster. Information storage unit in such file systems as FAT and NTFS. Every file occupies a certain number of whole clusters, so the more the cluster size the higher the losses are that are due to file size adjustment, but the smaller the cluster the more place do the cluster distribution tables occupy. Configuration file. Configuration. Most operating systems have configuration files.
Drive. A general word that can mean both a device for accessing information on a disk (floppy disk drive) and a partition that can be accessed from an operating system (logical drive). Folder. A table in the file system that contains description of files and other folders. Such structure allows creating folder tree that begins with the root folder. File. A file is named information storage in the file system.
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. Letters A: and B: are usually reserved for floppy drives.
Partition structure. All the partitions on a hard disk make a tree with the root in the MBR partition table. Many operating systems and programs assume that any partition table but MBR may contain not more than one partition entry and one table entry, and it 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.
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 of this operating system. 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. Track. Disks are divided into concentric circles called tracks. Information from one track can be accessed without moving the head.
