While you may not consider your computer activity as being mission-critical, the loss of data, through whatever means, could cause you a great deal of heartache and extra work.  One way to cut down on the problems, or even avoid this type of scenario, would be to use appropriate tools such as those provided in Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.  This product consists of four integrated applications designed to provide a complete hard disk management package.

Depending upon your level of experience, Disk Director Suite gives you the option of operating in either Automatic or Manual mode.  With Automatic mode you have a wizard-led approach to dealing with the suite's functionality - especially useful if you regard yourself as a beginner or somebody who likes the comfort of being guided through the various stages of each operation.  However if you want to have full operational control over each and every task then you can use Manual mode.  It is a simple matter to switch between these two modes with only minor changes being visible in the interfaces used.

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Whichever mode you opt for, you will be presented with access to the main activities covered by this product.  Heading the list is Acronis Partition Expert which allows you to resize, move, copy, split and merge any partitions that might exist on a hard disk.  Any of these actions are carried out without any loss of data which has to be a major plus when manipulating the layout of a hard disk's partition arrangement.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of partitioning, this is the method by which you can divide a large hard disk into smaller distinct areas which are regarded as disks in their own right.  In this way you can use different partitions to separate your operating system from applications and related data so reducing the risk of a complete wipe-out in the event of corruption affecting your operating system.  

In fact many could discover that there is already a hidden partition in existence on their hard disk.  This will have been created by the manufacturer to hold vital restore files that are required by the bundled operating system and save them the trouble of providing the same files on optical media.  Another use of partitioning would be to create an area for storing any backups you create.  The data would then be online ready for restoring if and when required.

Not only does Acronis pride itself on its support of operating systems (and file systems) but it includes its own OS Selector software with this product.  This is a multi-boot software utility.  It can detect available bootable devices and allow them to be used when necessary as problems arise with the hard disk or when you need to switch operating systems for carrying out specific tasks.

For more advanced users there is Acronis Disk Editor.  This is a repair enabling tool that allows you to get down and dirty with your hard disk as you carry out actions such as hexadecimal editing plus restoring and backing up your MBR data (Master Boot Record).  While not for everybody, this facility could help to bring your system back from the dead.

The final element of this package is the Acronis Recovery Expert.  As its name implies, this module provides the means to recover an accidentally lost or deleted partition with the minimum of effort.

Acronis Disk Director Suite 10 packs a lot of power into a single product.  It requires a Pentium processor with 128MB of RAM running Windows 98SE or later.  Expect to pay around £30 when ordering online.

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/diskdirectorsuite/