Acronis Disk Director 10 - Resizing partition gotcha

Acronis Disk Director

This story may not be unique in that anyone who has ever needed to resize a partition on a server surely finds out the options are not many.

Not only are the options to resize server NTFS partitions small but the software chosen must nearly always be of commercial grade and very reliable. Sure, backups of the partitions to be resized could be backed up but no one wants to resort to that as the project will take longer (hours longer - usually into the late night) which might mean more downtime and once you've restored you are still in the same position you were when the project started, the size of the partitions has to be changed.

I found one interesting thing that caught me by surprise but made absolute sense when I first used Acronis Disk Director to resize a partition. The partition that needs to be resized has to have unallocated space right next to it on the hard drive. What this means is that if you have a c drive partition that needs to be resized and you have a d drive too. there needs to be unallocated space in between the c and d drives or else it isn't going to re-size no matter what you try to do and I believe I exhausted all possible work around.

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VMWare - How to boot from ISO image to install a guest OS.

Last post regarding VMWare:

http://pctechnow.blogspot.com/2007/04/vista-running-as-guest-operating-system.html

In this post I wanted to post a quick blurb about how easy it is to start an OS installation if there is only an ISO image available. This is particularly useful if the computer you want to run an installation on has only a cd-rom drive and the OS you would like to install in on DVD.

With VMWare running on a host operating system, you could install a guest operating system from an ISO image. The trick is to click on the CD-ROM icon on the bottom right of the WMware window. From the small CD-ROM device window that opens, click on the browse button. Locate the ISO image on your hard-drive or a network drive then click OK. The virtual system then starts up. If it's an installation image then the guest operating system will begin the installation process.


The installation then just begins. That's all there is to it.




Virtual machines can be remote controlled for support as easily and of curse for the same reasons on physical desktop computers or server. Regardless of the installation being physical or virtual, the applications on the guest VM and also the operating system will still experience the same user affects as their physical counterparts. Installing or troubleshooting vmware  workstation or guest vm running within can be accomplished with remote control programs. Web based remote control software for online remote desktop support of installations or fixing of problems as post installation support.

Enhance the Support Services you provide remotely with Online Desktop Support Software.  Remote access to desktops and remote control screen-sharing in seconds.  Your end-users or clients just need a browser to start the remote desktop connection and get help from you. Small download, preinstalled software like plugins, extensions, or other add-on software isn't required.