Acronis disk director 12 dynamic to basic free download

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Acronis Disk Director 12 has a free trial download. your requirements change, you can quickly convert between basic and dynamic disks in just moments. Download Acronis Disk Director – A full-featured partition management application that you can use to resize, copy, move, split.
 
 

 

Acronis disk director 12 dynamic to basic free download. Acronis® Disk Director® 12 User’s Guide

 

Acronis Disk Director is a complete toolkit for performing hard disk operations, with an emphasis on partition management and recovery. Aside from volume manipulation tasks, it enables you to view the structure of your hard disk in a detailed manner.

The targeted audience is home users, although this has been argued by experts pointing out that the much too simple and permissive dialogs could lead inexperienced users to render disks unbootable. In short, it provides easy access to dangerous functions that may harm the computer irreversibly. Leaving its exaggerated accessibility aside, Acronis Disk Director sports an array of features that are rarely found in similar software.

The first one provides the possibility to perform a number of operations on disk volumes, such as merging, resizing, splitting, copying, formatting and moving partitions with the utmost ease. The Recovery Expert, on the other hand, is able to get back lost or deleted partitions, as well as to repair and troubleshoot disk failures or errors resulting from situations such as virus attacks or software issues.

Last, but not least, the Bootable Media Builder enables you to create Windows or Linux bootable drives just by following a few simple steps of the dedicated wizard.

To sum it all up, Acronis Disk Director is a top disk management acronis disk director 12 dynamic to basic free download. Its only downside is that it allows for acronis disk director 12 dynamic to basic free download operations without explaining them first or without triggering a warning, which could result in serious trouble for inexperienced users.

Acronis Disk Director is part of these download collections: Recover Partition. Перейти на источник Disk Director. A full-featured partition management application that you can use to resize, copy, move, split, join partitions, run volume defragmentation and fix errors. Acronis Disk Director was reviewed by Andreea Matei.

Operations on volumes whose size is larger than MB cannot be committed. The following disk operations can be committed only if each volume on the disk is not larger than MB: MBR to GPT and vice versa disk conversion; Basic to dynamic and vice versa disk conversion; Clone basic disk; you can proportionally increase the volumes on the target disk, but none of them will exceed MB.

New in Acronis Disk Director 12 Build The Server license is required for server operating systems, the Workstation license for other operating systems. Support for Windows Server Support for native 4K disks disks that report a 4 KB logical sector size. Previously, only byte emulation disks e were supported. Read the full changelog. Load comments. Acronis Disk Director 12 Build All rights reserved.

 
 

Installing Acronis Disk Director 12 Steps – XpertsTec

 
 

To access data on foreign disks, you have to add these disks to your machine’s system configuration—see Importing foreign disks p. After you install a new disk, the disk must be registered in the operating system—see Disk initialization. Only then, you can create volumes on that disk. To find out more information about disk statuses, please refer to the Disk status descriptions article on the Microsoft website.

For instructions explaining how to repair disks with an Online Errors , Offline, or Missing status, please refer to the Troubleshooting Disk Management article on the Microsoft website. Volume statuses appear both in the table and graphical panel. This is the normal volume status. The Healthy status often has a number of substatuses that are displayed in the table view in parentheses and in the graphical view below the volume size and separated by a semicolon.

The System, Boot and Active substatuses are the most common and described in the Active, system, and boot volumes p. You can access the volume until the remaining dynamic disk is online. To avoid data loss, we recommend you to repair the volume as soon as possible. To find out more information about disk statuses, please refer to the Volume status descriptions article on the Microsoft website. For instructions explaining how to repair volumes with erroneous statuses, please refer to the Troubleshooting Disk Management article on the Microsoft website.

A volume may have a different letter in different Windows operating systems. For example, volume E: might appear as D: or L: when you boot another Windows operating system installed on the same machine. It is also possible that this volume will have the same letter E: under any Windows operating system installed on the machine. Moreover, a dynamic disk created in one Windows operating system is considered as a Foreign Disk in another Windows operating system or might even be unsupported by this operating system.

When you need to perform a disk management operation on such machine, it is necessary to specify for which operating system the disk management operation will be performed, i. Click the operating system name to select another operating system in the Operating System Selection window.

Under bootable media, this window appears immediately after Acronis Disk Director is launched. The disk layout will be displayed according to the operating system you select. To perform any operation 1. Note: the list of available actions in the Actions menu, the context menu and the Actions pane depends on the selected volume or disk type.

The same also applies to unallocated space. You will be forwarded to the operation specific window, or the wizard page, where you have to specify the operation’s settings. Click OK. The operation will not be performed immediately, but will be considered pending p. You can prepare a sequence of operations to be performed on disks and volumes.

All pending operations will be performed only after you commit them. Nevertheless, the results of any pending disk or volume operation are immediately displayed in the product main window. For example, if you create a volume, it will be immediately shown in the table view at the top, as well as in the graphical view at the bottom. Any volume changes, including changing the volume letter or label, are also immediately displayed. While an operation is pending it can be easily undone and redone—see Undoing pending operations p.

Until then, Acronis Disk Director will only demonstrate the new volume structure that will result from the operations, planned to be performed on disks and volumes. This approach enables you to control all planned operations, double-check the intended changes, and, if necessary, undo operations before they are executed.

All pending operations are added to the pending operations list that can be viewed in the Pending operations window. To view and commit pending operations 1. On the toolbar, click Commit pending operations. In the Pending operations window, view and examine the list of pending operations. Click Proceed to execute the operations.

You will not be able to undo any operations after you choose to proceed the operation. To quit the Pending operations window without committing, click Cancel. If you try to exit Acronis Disk Director while there are pending operations that are not yet committed, you will be asked whether you want to commit them. Quitting the program without committing the pending operations effectively cancels them. While the list is populated, this action is available. For instance, when you create a new volume, the respective entry is added to the log.

With the log, you can examine information about disk and volume operations, including reasons any for failures. Physically, a log is a collection of XML files stored on the machine.

Rebooting eliminates the log, but you can save the log to a file while the machine is booted with the media. You can also hide the unneeded columns and show the hidden ones. See the Filtering and sorting log entries p. The panel is collapsed by default. To expand the panel, click the chevron. The content of the panel is also duplicated in the Log entry details window. All the operations described below are performed by clicking the corresponding items on the log toolbar. To Do Select a single log entry Click on it.

All the entries between the first and last selections will be selected too. Select a log entry. The log entry’s details will be displayed in a separate window. Save the selected log 1. Select a single log entry or multiple log entries. Click Save Selected to File. In the opened window, specify a path and a name for the file. Save all the log entries 1.

Make sure, that the filters p. Click Save All to File. Save all the filtered log 1. Set filters p. As a result, the log entries of that list will be saved. Delete all the log entries Click Clear Log. All the log entries will be deleted from the log, and a new log entry will be created. It will contain information about who deleted the entries and when. To Do Display log entries for a 1. In the From field, select the date starting from which to display the log given time period entries.

In the To field, select the date up to which to display the log entries. As a result you will see that the list of log entries fully or just partly coincide with the entered value. Filter log entries by type Press or release the following toolbar buttons: to filter error messages to filter warning messages to filter information messages Sort log entries by date Click the column’s header to sort the log entries in ascending order.

Click it and time; type; message once again to sort the log entries in descending order. Configuring the log table By default, the table has three columns that are displayed, the others are hidden. You may want to provide this file when contacting Acronis technical support.

To collect system information 1. Specify where to save the file with system information. Create a dynamic volume spanned or striped by using the Create volume p. How to increase a volume size at the expense of other volumes’ unallocated space? Resize p.

How to merge two volumes without losing your data? Use the Merge operation. How to make the existing volume fault-tolerant? How to recover an accidentally deleted basic volume that has important data? Use the Recovery Expert p. How to replace a hard disk without reinstalling the operating system and applications? Use the Clone p. How to move dynamic disks from one system to another?

Use the Import foreign disks p. How to get quick access to the data stored on a Linux volume under Windows? Use the Browse files p. How to place files from a Linux volume into a folder on a Windows volume? Use the Merge operation, selecting the Windows volume as the main volume. How to erase all information on the volume? Use the Format p. How to increase the system performance?

Use the Defragmentation p. How to verify the logical integrity of a file system on a volume and repair any errors found? Use the Check p. How to explore data stored on a volume before performing any operation?

How to work with hard disk drives that use 4-KB sector size? Follow the guidelines described in the Volume alignment in disks having a 4-KB sector size section. How to save, copy and restore the MBR? Read the Usage examples p. How to change the volume’s cluster size? Use the Change cluster size p. How clean up the disk? Use the Clean up disk p. In this section Creating a volume To create a new volume 1.

Run the Create Volume Wizard by right-clicking any unallocated space, and then click Create volume. Specify the type that the new volume will have. Every volume type is provided with a brief description to let you better understand the advantages and limitations of each possible volume type. To learn more about volume types—see Types of basic volumes p.

The list of volume types contains only the types that are supported by the current operating system. Note: You cannot create a basic volume on a disk that already has four primary volumes; you first need to convert one of those volumes to logical—see Converting a primary volume to logical p.

This restriction does not apply to GPT disks. Note for striped and mirrored volumes: Because these volumes occupy space on their disks in equal parts, the maximum size of such volume will depend on the selected disk with the least amount of unallocated space. When creating a dynamic volume and selecting one or several basic disks as its destination, the selected disks will be converted to dynamic automatically. Specify the size of the new volume.

By default, the volume size is set to maximum. To specify a different size, move the slider or enter the required value into the Volume size field. If the disk still has unallocated space after you have set the size of the volume, you can set the amount of unallocated space before and after the basic volume. To do this, drag the volume within the unallocated space, or type the required amount of space before and after the volume in the respective fields. In the volume layout diagram at the bottom of the window, you can specify the space that the volume will occupy on each of the selected disks, by typing the amounts or by dragging the sliders.

Some of the supported file systems will be disabled depending on the chosen volume type and size—for example, FAT32 will be disabled if the volume size has been set at more than 2 TB. Select the cluster size—the smallest amount of disk space which will be allocated to store a file. We recommend leaving the default size, which is marked in the list as default.

The default cluster size depends on the volume size and the type of the file system—for example, the default cluster size for up to 2-TB NTFS volumes is 4 KB. A short name that you can assign to a volume to better differentiate it from other volumes. Assign a drive letter to the volume to be able to locate files and folders on it. Set the volume as Primary, if you plan to install an operating system on it. Mark the primary volume as Active, if you need the machine to start from this volume.

Set the volume as Logical, if it is intended for data storage. Click Finish to add the pending volume creation operation. The results of the pending operation are immediately displayed as if the operation had been performed.

To perform the pending operation you will have to commit it p. Exiting the program without committing the pending operations will effectively cancel them. Extending a basic volume. A basic volume occupies a single region on a single basic disk.

When you extend a basic volume, you can choose to leave the disk as basic and use only the unallocated space that is adjacent to the volume. Alternatively, you can choose to convert the disk to dynamic and use unallocated space from all dynamic disks on your machine. In the second case, the volume will become a simple or spanned volume. Resizing a volume from which the machine or an operating system starts.

You can resize the system volume, a boot volume, or the active volume only when it is a basic volume. To resize a volume 1. Select the volume that you want to resize, and then click Resize volume. Specify the new size of the volume, by typing it or by moving the slider.

The volume will remain a basic volume. The volume will be converted to a simple or spanned volume, and the corresponding disk will become dynamic. Note: This option is not available if the volume is the system volume, a boot volume, or the active volume.

This may involve relocating other volumes within the disk. As a result you will be able to extend the volume by using all unallocated space, including the unallocated space that is not currently adjacent to the volume, while keeping the disk as a basic disk.

As a result you will get additional unallocated space, which will be adjacent to the volume that you are resizing. To include these volumes, select the Use free space on boot volumes check box. Examine how the resized volume will be located on the disk or disks, by using the preview area at the bottom of the window. Click OK to add the pending volume resizing operation. Unlike copying all files from the volume, copying the volume itself ensures that the entire content of the new volume is the same.

The original and new volumes can have different types and sizes. For example, you can copy a striped volume as a larger simple volume. Important: When you copy the system volume, the active volume, or a boot volume, you might not be able to boot the machine from the new volume.

Bootability will be preserved when you move such volume p. To copy a volume 1. Select the volume that you want to copy, and then click Copy volume. Select the type that the new volume will have. The default type is that of the original volume. This size cannot be less than the size of data on the original volume.

For a basic volume, you can increase its size only by taking unallocated space that is adjacent to it. In the volume layout diagram at the bottom of the window, you can specify the space that the volume will occupy on each of the selected disks, by typing the sizes or by dragging the sliders.

Click Finish to add the pending volume copying operation. Unlike moving all files from the volume, moving the volume itself ensures that the entire content of the new volume is the same.

This is important if you are moving a volume from which Windows starts. The original and new volumes can have different types. For example, you can move a striped volume as a larger simple volume. Tip: If you want to relocate a basic volume within the same disk, you can use the resizing a volume p. Namely, you can leave the size of the volume unchanged, but change the amount of unallocated space before and after the volume. Caution: Avoid moving a volume from which an operating system other than Windows, such as Linux, starts.

Otherwise, that operating system may become unbootable. To move a volume 1. Select the volume that you want to move, and then click Move volume. Click Finish to add the pending volume moving operation. If you want to transfer your system to a new hard disk, consider disk cloning instead—see Basic disk cloning p.

The machine or its operating system will not always remain bootable after you move such volume. A reboot is required when you move the boot volume of the currently running Windows operating system, the system volume, or the active volume.

All data will remain intact and reside on the resultant volume. The resultant volume will have the same label, letter and file system as the main volume—that is, the volume to which data from the other volume will be added.

Free space requirements. The combined amount of free space on the main volume and on the other volume must be at least 5 percent of the size of data on the other volume. For example, if files and folders on the other volume occupy GB, you need a combined total of 5 GB of free space, for example 2 GB on one volume and 3 GB on another. Caution: Volumes that contain encrypted files cannot be merged.

To merge basic volumes 1. Right-click the volume that you need to be merged, and then click Merge volume. Select another volume you need to merge. In Main volumes, specify which one of the selected volumes will be considered as a main.

Data from the other volume will be added to a separate folder on the main volume. This folder will be named according to the volume label and volume letter if present ; for example: Merged Volume ‘System’ C 3. Click OK to add the pending volumes merging operation. At the bottom of the window, you can estimate how the resultant volume will look like after the merging. Merging an NTFS volume to a volume with a file system that does not support security options for example, FAT32 volume , will result in the loss of security settings volume ownership data and access permissions.

With the opposite action merging a non-secured volume to a secured one , the main volume security settings will be assigned to the resultant volume. Caution: Formatting destroys all data that is currently stored on the volume. In this case, the formatting window is part of the Create Volume Wizard. To format a volume 1. Right-click the volume that you want to format, and then click Format.

In File system, select the file system that you want to create on the volume. For the list of supported file systems, see Supported file systems. In Cluster size, specify the cluster size—also known as allocation unit size—for the file system. Optionally, in Volume label, type the volume label that you want to assign to the volume to better differentiate it from other volumes.

The maximum number of characters in the volume label depends on the file system that you selected—see Changing a volume label p.

Click OK to add the pending volume formatting operation. More about cluster sizes Using the default cluster size is normally the best option. Smaller cluster sizes allow for more efficient storage if the volume is to contain a vast number of very small files. Bigger cluster sizes make it possible for the volume to have a size beyond normal limits. For example, these programs may incorrectly calculate the total and available space on such volumes.

The space that was occupied by the volume becomes unallocated space on the corresponding disk or disks. Caution: After you delete the volume, all data that is stored on it will be lost. Tip: Deleting a mirrored volume means deleting both of its mirrors. For information on how to delete only one mirror, see Removing a mirror p. To delete a volume 1. Right-click the volume that you want to delete, and then click Delete volume.

Click OK to add the pending volume deletion operation. When splitting a basic volume, you can move some files and folders from it to the new volume. The original basic volume will retain its type primary or logical , volume letter, and volume label. The original volume needs to have at least 16 MB of free space. The required space will be available again as soon as splitting is finished. Caution: Volumes that contain encrypted files cannot be split.

Also, dynamic volumes cannot be split. To split a basic volume 1. Right-click the basic volume that you need to split, and then click Split volume. To move some files and folders from the original volume to the new volume, select the Move selected files to created volume check box, then click Select, and then select the files and folders that you want to move. Caution: When splitting a boot volume, avoid moving system folders, such as Windows or Program Files.

Otherwise, the corresponding Windows operating system will likely fail to start. Specify the size of the new volume, by typing it or by dragging the slider. Click OK to add the pending volume splitting operation. To change a volume label 1. Right-click the volume whose label you want to change, and then click Change label.

In New label, type the new volume label. The OK button will remain disabled as long as the label you typed contains such characters. Click OK to add the pending volume label changing operation. Volumes whose labels cannot be changed You cannot assign a volume label to a volume whose file system is shown as Unsupported, Not formatted, or Linux swap. The volume label of this volume cannot be changed.

For information on how to select the disk layout, see Disk layout p. Caution: Avoid changing the drive letter of a boot volume. Otherwise, the corresponding Windows operating system or some of the installed programs might fail to work normally. To change a drive letter 1. Right-click the volume whose drive letter you want to change, and then click Change letter. Select a new drive letter from the list of available ones. To leave the volume without a drive letter, click Do not assign a letter.

Click OK to add the pending drive letter changing operation. It converts a primary volume on such disk to a logical volume. Each basic MBR disk can have either up to four primary volumes, or up to three primary volumes plus an unlimited number of logical volumes.

You need to convert a primary volume to logical if you want to later create a fifth volume on a disk that currently has four primary volumes. The size of the converted volume might differ slightly from that of the original primary volume, because some space might be required to store supplementary information. Caution: Avoid converting the active volume or the system volume to logical. Otherwise, the machine will likely become unbootable.

You can later convert the volume back to primary—see Convert to primary p. To convert a primary volume to logical 1.

Right-click the primary volume that you want to convert to logical, and then click Convert to logical. Click OK to add the pending primary volume to logical conversion operation. It converts a logical volume on such disk to a primary volume.

You need to convert a logical volume to primary if you want to restore the bootability of a machine whose system volume was accidentally converted to logical. If the disk contains more than one logical volume, you can convert a logical volume to primary only when there are two or less primary volumes on the disk. You can later convert the volume back to logical—see Convert to logical p. To convert a logical volume to primary 1. Right-click the logical volume that you want to convert to primary, and then click Convert to primary.

Click OK to add the pending logical volume to primary conversion operation. For example, NTFS volumes have a partition type of 07h. To change a partition type 1. Right-click the volume whose partition type you need to change, and then click Change partition type. Click OK to add the pending partition type changing operation. To specify the volume from which the machine will start, you need to set a volume to become active.

A disk can have only one active volume, so if you set a volume as active, the volume, which was previously active, will be automatically unset. To set a volume active 1. Right-click the primary volume you want to set as active, and then click Mark as active. If there is no other active volume in the system, the pending volume setting active operation volume will be added.

If another active volume is present in the system, you will receive a warning that the previous active volume will no longer be active. Click OK in the Warning window to add the pending volume setting active operation.

Even if you have the operating system on the new active volume, in some cases the machine will not be able to boot from it. You will have to confirm your decision to set the new volume active. Adding a mirror to a basic or simple volume means converting that volume to a mirrored volume, which involves copying the volume’s data to another disk. To add a mirror to a volume 1. Right-click the basic or simple volume to which you want to add a mirror, and then click Add mirror.

Select the disk on which you want to place the mirror. The disks that do not have enough unallocated space to create the mirror are not available for selection. If you are adding a mirror to a basic volume or are placing the mirror on a basic disk, you will receive a warning that the corresponding disk or disks will be converted to dynamic.

Click OK to add the pending addition of a mirror to the volume operation. Removing a mirror from a mirrored volume means converting that volume to a simple volume, thus losing fault tolerance. The space that was occupied by the removed mirror becomes unallocated space on the corresponding disk provided that that disk is not missing. You cannot remove a mirror when both disks containing the mirrored volume are missing. To remove a mirror from a mirrored volume 1.

Right-click the mirrored volume from which you want to remove a mirror, and then click Remove mirror. Select the mirror that you want to remove. Note: If one of the mirrors is located on a missing disk, you can remove only that mirror. Click OK to add the pending mirror removal operation. Breaking a mirrored volume means converting its two mirrors into two independent simple volumes with initially identical content.

One of the two volumes will retain the drive letter and volume label of the mirrored volume. This operation differs from removing a mirror—see Remove mirror p. You can break a mirrored volume only when the disks containing both of its mirrors are online. To break a mirrored volume 1. Right-click the mirrored volume that you want to break, and then click Break mirror. To not assign a drive letter to the volume, click Do not assign the letter. The other mirror will be assigned the drive letter and volume label of the original mirrored volume.

Click OK to add the pending mirrored volume breaking operation. It can be especially useful in cases when a volume cannot be seen by Windows Explorer—for example, a volume with Linux file systems, or when running Acronis Disk Director from bootable media where there are no tools to view what is exactly stored on a volume. To browse a volume’s content 1. Right-click the volume whose contents you need to browse, and then click Browse files.

In the Browse window, expand the folder tree to explore files and folders on the selected volume. When you are finished with browsing, click OK. Note: The Browse window shows the real volume contents, read from the disk. If there are some operations pending, such as splitting a volume, you will not be able to explore the locked volumes until the operations are committed or canceled.

However, operations on folders in the Browse window are executed immediately. Hard disk volumes should be checked before configuring any operation on them—see Precautions p. Acronis Disk Director does not perform the checking itself, rather it launches the Check Disk tool Chkdsk.

To check a volume 1. Right-click the volume whose file system you need to check, and then click Check. To find and fix errors if any , select the Fix found errors check box.

To locate bad sectors and recover readable information, select the Try to fix found bad sectors check box. Click OK to run the volume check. If the volume contains a very large number of files—for example, millions—the check can take a long time to complete. The results of the operation will be displayed in a separate window. Note: If the volume is in use, the tool can only check it for errors, but cannot repair them.

The checking and fixing of errors on this volume will be performed the next time you restart the system. Defragmentation increases the system performance by consolidating fragmented files on a volume. Fragmentation occurs when the operating system cannot allocate enough contiguous space to store a complete file as a unit and thus, writes different pieces of a file in gaps between other files.

The defragmentation rearranges pieces of each file as close together and contiguously as possible, minimizing the time required to access it. To defragment a volume 1. Right click the volume you need to defragment, and then click Defragment. In the Defragmentation window, click OK to start defragmenting the volume. Depending on the amount of fragmented files, the defragmentation may take a long time to complete. The results will be displayed in a separate window.

Smaller cluster sizes allow for more efficient storage of smaller files by reducing the amount of wasted disk space. Furthermore, larger files may become more fragmented across the volume, increasing the amount of time that is needed to access them. Bigger cluster sizes improve performance by decreasing the time to access to larger files.

However, having a bigger cluster size wastes disk space if the typical size of the files stored on the volume is smaller than the cluster size. To change cluster size 1. Right-click the volume whose cluster size you need to change, and then click Change cluster size. Select the required cluster size from the list. The default cluster size is marked in the list as default. The default cluster size depends on the volume size and the type of the file system. Important: The program does not allow you to select a particular cluster size if, the free volume space will decrease to the point where the data will not fit on the volume.

Acronis Disk Director displays warning messages, when you select such cluster sizes. Click OK to add the pending cluster size changing operation. Right-click the volume whose file system you need to convert, and then click Change file system. Select the required file system. Click OK to add the pending file system changing operation. Hiding a volume means changing the volume type so that the operating system cannot “see” this volume. You may want to hide a volume in order to protect information from unauthorized or casual access.

Hiding a volume does not affect letters assigned to other volumes, but the hidden volume loses its letter and this letter becomes free for assignment. Important: Hiding a volume that contains a swap file will prevent your machine from booting. Hiding a system volume or a boot volume with a currently running operating system is disabled in order to retain your machine bootability. To hide a volume 1. Right-click the volume you need to hide, and then click Hide volume. If the volume has mount points, they will be removed automatically.

Click OK to add the pending volume hiding operation. To unhide a volume 1. Right-click the hidden volume you need to unhide, and then click Unhide volume. The program automatically assigns the first vacant drive letter to this volume.

Click OK to add the pending volume unhiding operation. All of a files information, with the exception of its actual name and data, is stored in the i-node.

Each file has its own i-node. Each i-node contains a file description, including number, file type, size, data block pointers, etc. Space for i-nodes is allocated when you install the operating system or when a new file system is created. The maximum number of i-nodes, and hence the maximum number of files, is set at file system creation. Running out of i-nodes prohibits the creation of additional files and directories on the volume even if there is sufficient disk space.

I-nodes themselves consume disk space, so specifying the i-node density lets you organize disk space in the optimal way. I-node density is determined by specifying the number of bytes per i-node. Usually, the default value is bytes per i-node. Important: If you change the i-node density of a boot volume the operating system will become unbootable.

To restore the system bootability use a boot loader. To specify i-node density 1. In Bytes per i-node, specify the required value. This will allocate more space for files and less for i-nodes. This will allocate more space for i-nodes and less for data. The more i-nodes there are in the file system, the less likely you will not run of i-nodes.

Click OK to add the pending i-node density changing operation. In this section Disk initialization The newly detected disks appear in the disks and volumes list as Not initialized. To initialize a disk or disks 1. Right-click the newly added disk or any of newly added disks , and then click Initialize. In the Disk Initialization window, select the other not initialized disks if there are several , and set the disk partitioning scheme MBR or GPT and the disk type basic or dynamic for every selected disk.

Click OK to add the pending disk initialization operation. After the initialization, all the disk space remains unallocated and so still impossible to be used for program installation or file storage. To be able to use it, you need to either create a new volume—see Creating a volume p. If you decide to change the disk settings it can be done later using Acronis Disk Director The cloning operation transfers all the source disk data to a target disk.

Otherwise, the machine might not be able to boot from the target disk. To clone a basic disk 1. The program displays a list of partitioned disks and asks you to select the source disk, from which data will be transferred to another disk. In the Select a disk as target for the cloning operation window, select a basic disk as target for the cloning operation. The program enables you to select a target disk if its size is sufficient to hold all the data from the source disk without any loss.

If there is some data on the target disk, you will receive a warning stating that this data will be lost after the cloning. So, if the target disk is the same size and even larger, it is possible to transfer all the information there exactly as it is stored at the source. When cloning to a larger target disk, the remaining space becomes unallocated. The program will automatically increase or decrease if possible the size of the volumes with respect to the target disk size.

Thus, no unallocated space appears on the target disk. Note for smaller target disks: the program analyzes the target disk to establish whether its size will be sufficient to hold all the data from the source disk without any loss. If such transfer with proportional resizing of the source disk volumes is possible, then you will be allowed to proceed. If due to the size limitations safe transfer of all the source disk data to the target disk is impossible even with the proportional resizing of the volumes, then the Clone basic disk operation will be impossible and you will not be able to continue.

If you are about to clone a disk containing the system volume, pay attention to the Advanced options, described later in this section. Click Finish to add the pending disk cloning operation The results of the pending operation are immediately displayed as if the operation had been performed. Using advanced options When cloning a disk containing the system volume, you need to retain operating system bootability on the target disk volume, by copying the original disk’s NT signature.

For the operating system to remain bootable, the target disk must have the same NT signature as the source disk. Important: Two disks with the same NT signature cannot work properly under one operating system. After cloning the disk and copying the NT signature, you should remove one of the disks from the machine. If you need to copy the NT signature: 1. Select the Copy NT signature check box.

You receive the warning stating that you will have to remove one of the two hard disk drives from the machine. The Turn off the machine after the cloning operation check box is selected and disabled automatically.

Click Finish to add the pending operation. Click Commit on the toolbar and then click Proceed in the Pending Operations window. Wait until the task is finished. Wait until the machine is turned off. Disconnect either the source or the target hard disk drive from the machine. Start up the machine. If you need to leave an NT signature: 1. Click to clear the Copy NT signature check box, if necessary. Important: If you have a primary volume, belonging to an MBR disk, and convert the disk first to GPT and then back to MBR, the volume will be logical and will not be able to be used as a boot volume.

You can convert this volume to primary, as described in Converting a logical volume to primary p. Note: A GPT-partitioned disk reserves the space at the end of the partitioned area necessary for the backup area, which stores copies of the GPT header and the partition table. If the disk is full and the volume size cannot be automatically decreased, the conversion of the MBR disk to GPT will fail. If you plan to install an operating system that does not support GPT disks, the reverse conversion of the disk to MBR is also possible through the same menu items.

The name of the operation will be listed as Convert to MBR. However, you can perform the following conversions to reach the goal using the program: 1. MBR disk conversion: dynamic to basic using the Convert to basic operation. GPT disk conversion: basic to dynamic using the Convert to dynamic operation. For example, if such conversion will stop the disk from being accessed by the system, the operating system will stop loading after such conversion or some volumes on the selected GPT disk will not be accessible with MBR e.

To convert a basic disk to dynamic 1. Right-click the basic disk you want to convert, and then click Convert to dynamic. You will receive a final warning about the basic disk being converted to dynamic. Click OK to add the pending basic to dynamic disk conversion operation. Note: A dynamic disk uses the last megabyte of the physical disk to store the database, including the four-level description Volume-Component-Partition-Disk for each dynamic volume.

If during the conversion to dynamic it turns out that the basic disk is full and the size of its volumes cannot be decreased automatically, the basic disk to dynamic conversion operation will fail.

Should you decide to revert your dynamic disks back to basic ones—for example, if you want to start using an operating system on your machine that does not support dynamic disks—you can convert your disks using the same menu items, though the operation now will be named Convert to basic. System disk conversion The program does not require an operating system reboot after conversion of a basic disk that contains one or more boot volumes to dynamic if: 1.

The machine runs this operating system. Caution: The conversion of a disk containing boot volumes takes a certain amount of time. Any power loss, unintentional turning off of the machine or accidental pressing of the Reset button during the procedure could result in bootability loss. For machines where more than one operating system is installed, the program ensures bootability of each of the operating systems.

This operation is available only for a dynamic disk that is empty or contains only one or more simple volumes, with each simple volume occupying a single region on the disk. These volumes will become basic volumes. To convert a dynamic disk to basic 1. Right-click the dynamic disk you need to convert, and then click Convert to basic. You will receive a final warning about the dynamic disk being converted to basic. You will be advised about the changes that will happen to the system if the chosen disk is converted from dynamic to basic.

Click OK to add the pending dynamic to basic disk conversion operation. After the conversion the last 8 MB of disk space is reserved for the future conversion of the disk from basic to dynamic.

In some cases the possible unallocated space and the proposed maximum volume size might differ for example, when the size of one mirror establishes the size of the other mirror, or the last 8 MB of disk space is reserved for the future conversion of the disk from basic to dynamic. Boot disk conversion The program does not require an operating system reboot after dynamic to basic conversion of the disk, if: 1.

The online status means that a basic or dynamic disk is accessible in the read-write mode. You may need to change an online disk to offline in order to protect it from unintentional use, for example a disk is corrupted or has bad sectors.

To make a disk offline 1. Right click the online disk, and then click Change status to offline. In the appearing window, click OK to confirm the operation. The disk you took offline also becomes Missing. To recover Mirrored volumes, you need to take the offline disk online, and then reactivate it.

The offline status means that a dynamic disk is accessible in the read-only mode. You may need to change an offline disk to online to make the disk that you switched to offline previously fully accessed. To make a disk online 1. Right click the offline disk, and then click Change status to online. If the dynamic disk has the offline status and the disk’s name is Missing, this means that the disk cannot be located or identified by the operating system.

It may be corrupted, disconnected, or powered off. Normally, all dynamic disks created within the same machine and operating system are members of the same disk group. When moved to another machine, or added to another operating system on the same machine, a disk group is considered as foreign. Foreign group disks cannot be used until they are imported into the existing disk group.

A foreign group is imported as is will have the original name if no disk group exists on the machine. To access data on foreign disks, you have to add these disks to your machine’s system configuration using the Import foreign disks operation.

All dynamic disks of the foreign disk group are imported at the same time, you cannot import just one dynamic disk. To import foreign disks 1. Right-click one of the foreign disks, and then click Import foreign disks.

The appearing window lists all foreign dynamic disks that were added to the machine, and displays information about volumes that will be imported. Volume statuses lets you detect whether you are importing all the required disks of the disk group. When importing all the required disks, all their volumes have the Healthy status. Statuses other than Healthy indicate that not all of the disks were imported. Click OK to add the pending foreign disks importing operation.

The Logical Disk Manager LDM database keeps information about the missing disk because such disk might contain parts of dynamic volumes, such as mirrored volumes, that can be repaired. If the disk can be reconnected or turned on, all you need to recover its functionality is to reactivate the disk.

If the missing disk cannot be reactivated, or you would like to completely delete this disk from disk group, you can remove the disk from the LDM database. Before removing a missing disk you have to delete p. However, if the disk contains any mirrored volumes, you can save them using the Remove mirror p.

To remove a missing dynamic disk 1. Right-click the disk with the Missing status, and then click Remove missing disk. Click OK to add the pending disk removal operation. All volumes, even those spanning across other disks, are erased from the disks and the space that was occupied by these volumes becomes unallocated space. To be able to use the cleared up disk, you need to initialize it once again. To clean up a disk 1.

Right-click the disk you need to clean up, and then click Clean up disk. Click OK to add the pending disk clean up operation.

Note: If you accidentally cleared an MBR disk with important data, it is still possible to recover the volumes on this disk by using Acronis Recovery Expert p.

But do not forget to initialize the disk and set MBR partitioning scheme first. After reading this section, you will have learned how to create bootable media in order to use Acronis Disk Director on bare metal or outside of an operating system, and how to recover deleted or lost volumes. In this section Acronis Bootable Media Builder You can create bootable media using Acronis Bootable Media Builder. There are situations in which you might prefer to run Acronis Disk Director from bootable media.

If you have other Acronis products, such as Acronis True Image Home, installed on your machine, you can also include bootable versions of these programs on the same bootable media. Linux-based bootable media Linux-based media contains bootable version of Acronis Disk Director based on Linux kernel. Acronis Disk Editor allows direct byte accessing and editing capabilities on your disk. Acronis Backup for VMware Download.

Acronis True Image Download. Acronis True Image for Mac Download. Search this site. Acronis Disk Director 12 Download. Acronis Disk Director 12 is a disk and partition management tool.

Acronis Disk Director 12 has a free trial download. Acronis Disk Director 12 Upgrade is available to users that wish to upgrade to Acronis Disk Director 12 from a previous version of the product. Upgrade to Acronis Disk Director 12 today. Acronis Disk Director 12 is a set of powerful tools that work together to optimize your disk usage, and protect your data. Create and manage disk partitions to store different file systems or operating systems on one disk.

Easily recover lost or deleted data, reduce time of image backups and diagnostic tools, and improve overall PC performance.

Span volume across multiple physical disks – Supports up to 32 disks. Acronis Disk Director 12 Download Sitemap. Acronis Disk Director 12 A powerful and easy-to-use tool for managing disks and volumes.

With a comprehensive set of operations, you can organize your hard disk and volume configuration for optimal performance, while keeping your data safe. Volume Recovery Quickly recover lost or deleted data partitions, even if your operating system fails to boot.

Disk Cloning Instantly move your old disk’s operating system and applications to a replacement disk. Partition Mapping hard drives and creating partitions are made easy, allowing you to do more in less time.