Acronis Disk Director Suite is a shareware application that has three major functions, partition management, disk recovery and the ability to install and run multiple operating systems in your computer.
Installation & Requirements
When you execute the installer you will notice there are several options available. The first thing you want to do is check for an updated version. If none exists you can either proceed with the installation or choose one of the other options. The setup might take a while due to the size of the program. The supported operating systems are Windows XP, Vista and 7.
Interface
It is obvious from the start that a lot of care has been given into designing the interface. It fits perfectly within Windows yet has its own personal notes everywhere. Although there are tons of options, the clean helps keep everything simple and easy to find. The center window has all the partitions and information while the left hand panel is a list of actions depending on what you are currently doing. The help menu provides in-depth information about all the aspects of the application, including the trial version limitations.
Clicking on a partition will give you a huge list of choices on the left side window or in the context menu if you right click on a volume. There are tons of features for each volume and each one has its own wizard that will guide you throughout the process. You can resize, merge, split, copy and rename partitions on the spot. While some of these features are available in the Windows Disk Management, the application offers a lot more advanced settings, more options and a faster process. You can also use the brilliant defragment tool to speed up your disk.
The two other utilities of the application can be found in the Tools menu. The Recovery Expert will help you find deleted volumes in your computer and recover them immediately. There are two modes for it, automatic and manual. While the automatic mode is very fast and should be fine for most cases, it will sometimes be unable to find your volumes. Then you will have to use the manual mode to customize the search and broaden its detection area.
The other feature is the Bootable Media Builder. You can install the application and its various features on a removable media disk and you can also set up multiple operating systems with a built-in OS selector for when you start Windows. The creation process is very simple and the application offers help along the way. You can simply leave the default settings on and proceed with the installation.
Pros
-Clean, user friendly interface
-Very easy to use
-A ton of options for each tool
-A lot of different utilities
-Extremely helpful user manual
Cons
-Some limitations in the trial version
Conclusion
Acronis Disk Director Suite is a brilliant program with a fantastic interface and a ton of features. Anyone who wants to manage their partitions, recover their deleted volumes or manage their operating systems should definitely try the program out.
