complete Acronis beginner needs help

I have just installed TI and would appreciate some guidance in terms suitable for an absolute beginner. I have several questions:

1. This is not a new computer, the hard disk is not partitioned and already contains a mixture of stuff. I’d like to keep the os and installed apps in one partition and data in another, but will I be able to move it around if I create a partition?
2. Although I have not partitioned the drive, Acronis shows a second drive, which has no letter assigned. It is shown as follows:

FAT 16 Flags: Pri Capacity: 39.19MB Used space: 6.73MB Type: PS:FAT16 Partition: Oxdde (EISA configuration).

What is this for and can I use/access it? NB the C drive is listed as PriAct

3. Lastly – for now! – I’d be very grateful if someone could talk me through how to create a partition. The MS instructions offer too many confusing choices for a novice.


Specs: Dell Dimension 8300, XP SP1 (upgrading to SP2 made the cpu run constantly at 100%, but I’ll have another try before October). The C drive file system is NTFS, capacity is 111GB of which 75.7GB is unused.

 

You should use acronis disk director suite for partitioning. You can create, delete, edit partitions without losing the data. Its easy to use.

Cant answer the TI question though.

Cheers

Dina

 

3. Lastly – for now! – I’d be very grateful if someone could talk me through how to create a partition. The MS instructions offer too many confusing choices for a novice.


Check this link (illustrated instructions)

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=29880

 

Hello armstrong,

That second partition is probably a special, hidden, Dell OEM recovery partition, which is usually accessed by pressing Ctrl + F11 during system boot.

If you don't have a partition management utility to create a new partition without destroying the data on the hard drive then use the following trick:

1. Use TI's Manage Acronis Secure Zone Wizard to use some of the unused space on your C: partition to create a Secure Zone equal in size to the new partition you wish to create. DO NOT ACCEPT THE DEFAULT OPTION TO ALSO ACTIVATE THE ACRONIS STARTUP RECOVERY MANAGER.
2. After the system has finally booted back into Windows, right click on "My Computer" and select "Manage". Under "Computer Management (Local)", select "Disk Management". Right click the Acronis Secure Zone that's been created on Disk 0 and select "Delete". Accept the warning message and delete the Secure Zone.
3. You will now have an amount of unallocated Free Space equal in size to the Secure Zone that you deleted. Right click on this Free Space, select "New Logical Drive..." and follow the "New Partition Wizard" to create your required new partition using the whole of the unallocated free space.

Regards

 

Thank you everyone for speedy responses.

Hola Menorcaman,

Thanks a lot for that. Sorry to come back with more questions.

Just to make sure, in case your instructions were for Acronis 9: I have Acronis 8 – will it work in the same way?

I have just looked up the section on ‘Deleting Acronis Secure Zone’ in Help, and after selecting Remove Acronis Secure Zone it instructs:

"Select partitions to which you want to add the space freed from Acronis Secure Zone"

Since the intention is to creat a new partition, how do I respond to that, please? It doesn’t look as if there’s an option to use the space other than to put it back where it came from.

 

Hi again armstrong,

Yes it will.

That's the whole point. You don't use TI's Manage Acronis Secure Zone Wizard to remove (delete) the Secure Zone, only to create it as per my instruction #1. You need to delete it via Windows Disk Management as detailed in my instruction #2 in order to end up with the necessary unallocated free space.

Regards

 

Got it! Thanks a lot.

 

Hello armstrong,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

I would agree with Menorcaman that the second FAT 16 hidden 39.19MB partition is Dell Restore partition. If you do not need it you can use any partition utility such as Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 to delete it.

Please note that we would recommend that you use Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 for this purposes. Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 has easy-to-use partition manager that allows you to resize, move, copy, split, and merge partitions without losing your data. Using Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 you will be able to split your system partition into two and leave your data intact.

You can find more information on how to use Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 in the respective User's Guide.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Many thanks for the advice Aleksandr.