joysness Posted January 13, 2007 Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 Hi all,Just need some advice re: Acronis Disk Director Suite.I finally was able to afford an external hard drive to backup my computer and I also want to put my Linux on it so it needs to be partitioned.I was wondering if any of you have used the Acronis Disk Director as I can get it for a very good price through newegg.The reviews are all very good but I trust you folks so thought I would ask here to see what you thought.If there is something better I'd like to know that too.Thanks for any help you can offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted January 13, 2007 Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 I have Disk Director somewhere but never used it.If I want to partition a new disk, I use the facilities in Windows itself to do it at the same time as formatting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joysness Posted January 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 Thanks pops,I have Windows XP home. Do I have that capability too? If so what/where might it be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trackrat Posted January 13, 2007 Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 When you plug your external drive in it will show up in my computer.If you click start / right click my computer / click manage / click disk management/ right click the new drive and you have the options you want.go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joysness Posted January 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 Thanks trackratI'll give it a try. Can I also do that to partition my current hard drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted January 14, 2007 Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 Can I also do that to partition my current hard drive?Be very careful making alterations to your "C" drive (the one with Windows on it). It can easily get messed up - even with partitioning programs, there is a danger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rong Posted January 14, 2007 Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 I've used Partition Magic for years to partition my hard drives, also to change the sizes of them, the usual one to need to expand is the one with the OS on it , with no problems so far. Touch wood and anything else that may help.You have to buy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted January 14, 2007 Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 Thanks trackratI'll give it a try. Can I also do that to partition my current hard drive?No you cannot use the windows disk management to partition the drive XP is on you need seperate software.Also if you are installing Ubuntu to the external drive make sure the external drive is bootable and GRUB is written to hd0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joysness Posted January 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 Thanks all for the advice.pops... I had a feeling messing with the C drive might not be a good idea.rong... I was looking at Partition Magic but I can get the Acronis for less so that's why I asked about it specifically.andAlan2273... I had a look at the windows disk management but it really has a lousy help section.It's written as if you already know what you are doing so for someone like me who has never done this before it didn't make a lot of sense.I'll check to make sure the external drive is bootable before I attempt to install Ubuntu. I'm still studying some tutorials I found for Linux so it will be awhile before I'm ready to attempt that.The external drive is a Maxtor OneTouch III mini so I bet it's not bootable. Didn't know that was important when I bought it. Oh well at least I'll be able to back up my C drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 Thanks all for the advice.It's written as if you already know what you are doing so for someone like me who has never done this before it didn't make a lot of sense.I'll check to make sure the external drive is bootable before I attempt to install Ubuntu. I'm still studying some tutorials I found for Linux so it will be awhile before I'm ready to attempt that.The external drive is a Maxtor OneTouch III mini so I bet it's not bootable. Didn't know that was important when I bought it. Oh well at least I'll be able to back up my C drive. A couple of nice reviews on your external portable harddrive: http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/maxtor...ii_mini_editionhttp://reviews.cnet.com/Maxtor_OneTouch_II...7-31846213.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 Thanks all for the advice.The external drive is a Maxtor OneTouch III mini so I bet it's not bootable. Didn't know that was important when I bought it. Oh well at least I'll be able to back up my C drive. By bootable does not mean the hard drive itself, it is a setting in the BIOS which allows any bootable OS on an external drive to be detected at start up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joysness Posted January 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 Thanks again...Can you tell I'm not exactly computer literate :lol: I'll check the manual that came with the computer, I think I remember reading something in there about the BIOS and I remember checking it once to make it bootable from a CD. (which it is)Looks like I've still got a lot to learn eh? DW.. I'll check out those links when I get a minute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 I'll check to make sure the external drive is bootable before I attempt to install Ubuntu. I'm still studying some tutorials I found for Linux so it will be awhile before I'm ready to attempt that.Booting from an external drive is part of your motherboard. Best to check that manual if you still have it, or just contact the manufacturer directly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trackrat Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 Looks like I've still got a lot to learn eh? Joyness there are people a lot more knowledgeable on computers than me, I have learnt a lot from reading forums such as this.And if I come across a problem that stumps me I simply ask the question on a forum and usually get an answer.When I first started using Linux I posted more question on various Linux forums, than some had members, but I always got an answer, even though I did not always understand them.There are still a lot of areas of computing that I know little or nothing about but with forums like these you can usually get an answer to your question, so never be afraid to ask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casey Posted January 16, 2007 Report Share Posted January 16, 2007 If you can get a copy of Computer Shopper Feb 2007 (out now) it has a free copy of Paragon Partition Manger 8.0 on it. Can create a CD to run from boot & create/alter partitions. Great value for £3.50casey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted January 16, 2007 Report Share Posted January 16, 2007 GParted for all your partitioning needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joysness Posted January 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2007 casey..Thanks for the info but I'm in the U.S. and I don't think we have that mag over here. I'll check though.Scarecrow man.. Thanks for the link. I'm on dial-up so I'll check the library and see if they have high speed internet and see if I can download to a cd. I've been meaning to check that out for some other things I would like to get but can't 'cause of my super sloooowwww download speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted January 16, 2007 Report Share Posted January 16, 2007 I use FreeDownloadManager (1641 Kb), and just start it up whenever I get a second. The GParted ISO (~30MB) took 3 hours total on dial-up. I also tend to leave downloads over night if they are quite large. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joysness Posted January 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2007 Thanks Scarecrow man, that's a really helpful app. Should save me some time. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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