An incremental image created after a disk is defragmented might be considerably larger than usual. This is because the defragmentation program changes file locations on disk and incremental images reflect these changes.
Using incremental stages instead of complete images gives you more flexibility in what you restore. It takes much less time and as little as one tenth the disk space.
Acronis True Image stores only those hard disk parts that contain data (for supported partition types). This reduces image size and speeds up image creation and restoration from. A partition image includes all files and folders independent of their attributes (including hidden and system files), boot record, FAT (file allocation table) and root. A disk image includes images of all disk partitions as well as the zero track with master boot record (MBR).
Software usage terms and conditions
The conditions for Acronis True Image software usage are described in the License Agreement included with this package. The supplied registration card is the confirmation of your legal purchase and usage of Acronis True Image on your system. Each registration card has a unique registration number. Under current legislation, the License Agreement is considered a contract between you and Acronis Inc. The contract is a legal document and its violation may result in legal action. Illegal use and/or distribution of this software will be prosecuted.
Installation and operation
Chapter 2. Installation and operation

2.1 Bundle contents

The Acronis True Image system package includes: an installation disk user manual License Agreement registration card advertising materials

System requirements

Acronis True Image requires the following hardware: Pentium or compatible PC 32 MB RAM floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive VGA monitor mouse (recommended) free hard disk space for image files A CD-ROM drive is required to install Acronis True Image
Acronis True Image installation
To install Acronis True Image: 1. Insert the installation CD into your drive. 2. Follow the instructions on the screen. 3. After making your installation choices and copying Acronis True Image files onto your hard disk, you will be prompted to create a bootable diskette or CD-R/W. (You can omit this step if you have purchased the boxed product that contains a bootable CD). While Acronis True Image creates disk images in Windows, it might be necessary to restore the image from a bootable disk. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you create one. However, you can do that after the installation as well. After installation of Acronis True Image is completed, you should restart your computer.

Program menu

The program menu line contains the Operations, Tools, View and Help items. The Operations menu changes when either an operation icon or scheduled task is selected. In the first case, the menu contains only Start Now to execute the selected operation. For information on managing scheduled tasks, see Chapter 9. Delete deletes selected operation. Appears only when a scheduled task is selected The Tools menu contains the following items: Manage Acronis Secure Zone creates a special hidden system partition on a disk for storing disk (partition) images Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager activates the boot restoration manager Check Image runs disk (partition) integrity checking procedure Create Bootable Rescue Media runs the bootable media creation procedure Show Log opens a window with logs The View menu contains items for managing the program window look: Toolbars contains commands that control toolbar icons Common Task Bar enables/disables common task panel in the left area Status Bar enables/disables the status bar Tiles Icons List controls how operation icons look Refresh refreshes the main program window The Help menu allows you to invoke help and get information about Acronis True Image.

Status bar

In the bottom of the main window, there is a status bar divided into two parts. The left part briefly describes the selected operation; the right one indicates image operation progress and results. A double-click on the operation progress line opens the operation progress window. If you double-click on the operation results, you will see the logs window (see "Viewing logs").
Taskbar notification area icon
During image creation operations, a special indicator icon appears in the notification area (the right portion of the status bar with the clock). If you place the cursor over the icon, you will see a tool tip indicating the operations progress. This icon doesnt depend on the main program window being open. It is present for background execution of scheduled tasks as well.
Disk and partition information
You can change disk schemes and data representation in all schemes you see in various wizards. To the right are three icons: Arrange Icons by, Choose Details and Display the properties of the selected item (also duplicated in the context menu invoked by double-clicking objects). To sort messages by a particular column, click the header (another click will switch the messages to the opposite order) or Arrange Icons by button and select the column. To select columns to view, right-click the headers line or left-click the Choose Details button. Then flag the columns you want to display. If you click the Display the properties of the selected item button, you will see the selected partition or disk properties window. This window contains two panels. The left panel contains the properties tree and the right describes the selected property in detail. The disk information includes its physical parameters (connection type, device type, size, etc.); partition information includes both physical (sectors, location, etc.), and logical (file system, free space, assigned letter, etc.) parameters. You can change the width of columns by dragging their borders with the mouse.

Providing comments

On the Image Archive Comments wizard page, youll be able to provide an archive file with comments about the PC and its user, the hard disk, partition data, image creation time, and any peculiarities and conditions.

An image comment 24

The more details you provide in the comments, the better. If you dont provide comments, you might mistake images and restore the wrong system partition, for example.

Image creation script

In the next window, you will see a disk or partition image creation script containing a list of operations to be performed.
All operations of a partition (disk) image creation in an archive file are delayed in Acronis True Image. A partition (disk) image creation script is created first; then it is executed. After you click Proceed, Acronis True Image will start creating an image, indicating the progress in the special window. You can stop this procedure by clicking Cancel. You can also close the progress window by clicking Close. Image creation will continue, but you will be able to start another operation or close the main program window. In the latter case, the program will continue working in the background and will automatically close once the image is ready. If you prepare some more image creation operations, they'll be queued after the current one. Icons of the current and queued operations will be shown in the bottom of the main program window.
If you are to burn an image to several removable media, be sure to number them, since you will have to insert them in order during the restoration.
Selecting image creation priority
After image creation is started, an icon appears in the System Tray (see section 3.1 of this Guide). Clicking this indicator you invoke the menu of image creation priority selection: Low, Normal or High. Normal is selected by default.
Restoring a disk (partition) from an image
Chapter 5. Restoring a disk (partition) from an image
As mentioned above (see "Running Acronis True Image"), Acronis True Image can be run in several ways. However, disk restoration is always performed just one way. We recommend that you restore disks using Windows, only using other methods if Windows doesnt load. The boot disk (e.g. a CD) from which you loaded the program does not keep you from using other CDs with images. Acronis True Image is loaded entirely into RAM, so you can remove the bootable CD to insert an image disk. To restore a partition from an image, Acronis True Image must obtain exclusive access to this partition. This means no other applications can access it at that time. If you receive a message stating that the partition can not be blocked, close applications that use this disk and start over. If you can not determine which applications use the disk, close them all.

Selecting an image to restore from
Find and select a file containing an image of the required partition. The File Name field will reflect its name and the Next will become available. If this image is located in Acronis Secure Zone, select it to choose the image on the next step.
Image selection for restoration
If you are to restore an image from removable media, e.g. CD, first insert the last CD first and then insert them in order starting from the one created first.
If you provided a comment to the image, it will help you know if you selected the right image to restore. The comment is displayed in the right part of the window. Note that the comment can be seen without entering a password for a protected image. However, the contents of such an image will still require a password. If an image was protected with a password, Acronis True Image will ask for it. The Next button will be disabled until you enter the correct password.
If you are to restore a disk (partition) from an incremental image, you must have the current image as well as at least one, or preferably all, previous incremental images and the initial complete image. The exact number of images depends on how disk contents changed between image creation procedures.
Checking image integrity before restoration
Before an image is restored, Acronis True Image can check its integrity. To do this, flag Yes, I want to verify the image archive on the Verify Archive Before the Restoring page of the image restoration wizard.
This is disabled by default in Acronis True Image.
Selecting a partition to restore
A single file might contain images of several partitions or even disks, as shown in the figure below.
Select a partition to restore
During a single session, you can restore several partitions or disks, one by one, by selecting one disk and setting its parameters first and then repeating these actions for every partition or disk to be restored. Select the necessary partition and click Next.
Selecting a location to restore to
As a rule, you should restore an image to the same partition from which that the image was created. It is possible to restore an image to another partition. A partition should be at least the same size as the uncompressed image data.
Select partition to restore image to All the data stored on the restored partition will be replaced by the image data, so be careful and watch for non-backed-up data that you might need.

Selecting partition type

When restoring a partition, you can change its type, though its not required in most cases. To explain why you might need to do this, lets imagine that both OS and data were stored on the same primary partition on the damaged disk. You are forced to restore the partition from a backup to another hard disk with its own partitions and OS.

Select partition type 30

If you need only the data, you do not have to create another primary partition. In this case, you can restore the partition as a logical partition to access the data only. But if you are to restore a system partition, you should select the Primary type for it. Finally, if you want to load an operating system from it, select Active as well.
Selecting Active for a partition without an installed operating system could prevent your PC from booting.

Selecting a file system

Though it is seldom required to change a partition file system, you can change it during its restoration.

Select a file system

Lets imagine you are to restore a partition from an old, low-capacity FAT16 disk to a newer disk. FAT16 would not be effective and might even be impossible to set on the high-capacity hard disk. That's because FAT16 supports files up to 4 GB, so you wont be able to restore a 4 GB FAT16 partition to a disk that exceeds that threshold without changing the file system. It would make sense here to change the file system from FAT16 to FAT32 by setting the appropriate software switch. But you must also keep in mind that not all operating systems support FAT32. MSDOS, Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.x, 4.x do not support FAT32 and will not be
operable after you restore a partition and change its file system. These can be normally restored on a FAT16 partition only. However, you can easily convert a FAT16 partition with newer OS into FAT32.
The operating systems summary is provided in Appendix A.
Selecting restored partition size
In some cases, you might need to change the partition configuration and size during restoration. Acronis True Image is flexible enough to do this. You can resize and relocate a partition by dragging it or its borders with a mouse or by entering corresponding values into the appropriate fields.
Select partition size and location You might need to resize and relocate a partition in order to redistribute the disk space between existing partitions. In this case, you will have to restore the partition to be reduced first. These changes might be useful if you are to clone a hard disk by creating its image and restoring it to a new disk with larger partitions. Such cloning is used if it is impossible to connect the second hard disk to the PC.
Assigning a letter to a partition
Windows utilizes letters to identify disks and partitions, automatically assigning them at loading. Under Windows NT/2000/XP, Acronis True Image enables you to assign any unused letter to a restored partition (logical disk). To do this, select Yes, I want to assign a logical drive letter to restored partition. If you dont set this switch, no letters will be assigned to the restored partition, hiding it from OS. Under Windows 9x/Me, this step is bypassed since letters are assigned automatically.

Selecting transfer mode
You will see the Select transfer mode window just after the welcome window.

Transfer mode selection

We recommend using automatic mode in most cases. The manual mode can be useful if you need to change the disk partition layout. If the program finds two disks, one partitioned and another unpartitioned, it will automatically recognize the source disk as the partitioned disk and the destination disk as the unpartitioned disk, so the next two steps will be bypassed.

Selecting source disk

If the program finds several partitioned disks, it will ask you which is the source (i.e. the older data disk).
You can determine the source and destination using the information provided in this window (disk number, capacity, label, partition and file system information).
Selecting destination disk
After you select the source disk, you have to select the destination where the disk information will be copied.
The previously selected source becomes grayed-out and disabled for selection.
If either disk is unpartitioned, the program will automatically recognize it as destination and bypass this step.
Partitioned destination disk
At this point, the program checks to see if the destination disk is free. If not, you will be prompted by the Partitioned destination disk window stating that the destination disk contains partitions, perhaps with data.
You can continue once existing partitions are deleted
You will have to select between: Delete partitions on the destination hard disk all existing partitions will be deleted during cloning and all their data will be lost. No, I do not want to delete partitions no existing partition will be deleted, discontinuing the cloning operation. You will only be able to cancel this operation and return to select another disk. To continue, select the first choice and click Next.
Note that no real changes or data destruction will be performed at this moment! For now, the program will just create a cloning script. All changes will be implemented only when you click Proceed, after the script is formed.
Old and new disk partition layout
If you selected the automatic mode before, the program will ask you for nothing further. You will see the window graphically illustrating information (as rectangles) about the source disk (partitions and unallocated space) and the destination disk layout. Along with the disk number, some additional information is provided: Partition number, volume label (e.g. SYSTEM), file system (e.g. FAT16 or FAT32), partition size in megabytes (MB). Partition types primary, logical and unallocated space are marked with different colors. Next you will see the cloning script.

Having completed the required steps, you will add a new partition. To create another one, simply repeat those steps. If you make a mistake, click Back to redo. After you create the necessary partitions, uncheck the Create new partition in unallocated space box and click Next.
Old and new disk partition layouts
In the next window, you will see rectangles indicating the source hard disk, including its partitions and unallocated space, as well as the new disk layout.
Along with the hard disk number, you will also see partition number, volume label (e.g. SYSTEM), file system (e.g. FAT16 or FAT32), partition size in megabytes (MB). Different partition types, including primary, logical and unallocated space are marked with different colors.
If you have selected manual partition creation before, the partition layout will look different. This partitioning method is described below.

Cloning script

In the next window, you will see the disk cloning script containing a list of briefly described operations to be performed on the partitions.

Disk partitioning script

After you click Proceed, Acronis True Image will start cloning the old disk to the new disk, indicating the progress in the special window. You can stop this procedure by clicking Cancel. In that case, you will have to repartition and format the new disk or repeat the cloning procedure. After the operation is complete, you will see the results message.
Cloning with manual partitioning
The manual transfer method enables you to resize partitions on the new disk. By default, the program resizes them proportionally. In the next window, you will see rectangles indicating the source hard disk, including its partitions and unallocated space, as well as the new disk layout. Along with the hard disk number, you will see partition number, volume label (e.g. SYSTEM), file system (e.g. FAT16 or FAT32) and partition size in megabytes (Mb). Different partition types, including primary, logical and unallocated space are marked with different colors.
To resize either partition, check the Proceed Relayout box. If you are satisfied with the partition layout shown, uncheck this box (if checked). Clicking Next, you will proceed to the cloning script window.
Be careful! Clicking Back in this window will reset all size and location changes that you've selected, so you will have to specify them again.
First, select a partition to resize. It will be underlined in red. Resize and relocate it on the next step. You can do this by both entering values to Unallocated space before, Partition size, Unallocated space after fields, by dragging partition borders or the partition itself. If the cursor turns to two vertical lines with left and right arrows, it is pointed at the partition border and you can drag it to enlarge or reduce the partitions size. If the cursor turns to four arrows, it is pointed at the partition, so you can move it to the left or right (if there's unallocated space near it). Having provided the new location and size, click Next. You will be taken two steps back to the partition layout. You might have to perform some more resizing and relocation before you get the layout you need.

Some variants might be disabled depending on the operating system.
Setting up daily execution
If you select the daily execution, you will have to specify some additional parameters. First, set the Start time (hours and minutes). In the Perform this task group, select days on which you want to execute tasks: Every day Weekdays Every days once in several days (specify the interval)
You can execute the task even if your PC is turned off at the specified time. To do this, select Perform this task when the computer restarts, only if the computer was turned off at the selected time. In this case, the task will be executed at the next startup.
Setting up weekly execution
If you select the weekly execution, you will have to specify some additional parameters. The first is the Start time (hours and minutes).
Specify periodicity in the Every x weeks (each week, in a week, etc.) Check weekdays on which to execute the task. You can execute the task even if your PC is turned off at the specified time. To do this, select Perform this task when the computer restarts, only if the computer was turned off at the selected time. In this case, the task will be executed at the next startup.
Setting up monthly execution
If you select the weekly execution, you will have to specify some additional parameters. The first is the Start time (hours and minutes). In the Perform this task group, select time to execute tasks on: Day on the specified date The <specifiy a day> on the specified weekday (e.g. second Tuesday or fourth Friday); selected from drop-down lists
Setting up one-time execution
If you select the weekly execution, you will have to specify some additional parameters. The first is the Start time (hours and minutes), followed by the Start date.

Entering user name

Under Windows NT/2000/XP, you will have to specify the name of the user who owns the executed task; otherwise no scheduled execution will be available.
In the upper field, enter a user name. Enter a password twice in two fields below. Under Windows 98/Me, this window looks different. These operating systems require a user name and password to access networked drives only. You have finished scheduling a task. The wizard will again remind you of the details of the task provided. To close the wizard and return to the main window, click Finish. The task created will be named New task. You can rename it appropriately.

Managing scheduled tasks

If you select a task in the main window, you will see its details in the left part. And the Operations menu and toolbar will be extended with Edit, Schedule, Delete and Rename icons. Rename allows you to give your task a more appropriate name. Delete allows to delete a selected task with confirmation.
Edit allows to change any task parameters. This is performed in the same way as creation with two exceptions. First, there will be specified parameters instead of the default, so you won't have to enter them again. Second, after you make changes, you will be asked about execution order. That is, you will be able to change image creation parameters like location without touching its execution periodicity and time (though you can change that as well.) If you want to change only periodicity and time, select Schedule. Then, you will have to perform only scheduling steps, leaving image settings the same.

Other operations

Chapter 10. Other operations

10.1 Checking images

To be assured that your images are not damaged, you can check their integrity. To do this, select Check Image in the Tools group (expand it if it's not) or click Check Image on the toolbar. You will see the first wizard window. Click Next to continue.
Selecting image for checking
In this window, you will see the complete list of connected storage devices, including hard disks and other drives. Using Windows Explorer, locate the image file to be checked and select it. Its name will appear in the File Name field and the Next button will be enabled.
Click Proceed to continue. Progress will be indicated in the new window. You can cancel checking by clicking Cancel. After checking is complete, you will see the results window.

Creating bootable media

In some cases, Acronis True Image can be run only from a special bootable diskette or CD. Such a case might be if your PC doesnt boot up normally. If youve purchased the program on a CD, it will already be bootable. You can also create bootable media during or after the installation. For this, you will need a CD-R/RW blank, five formatted diskettes (or two for the safe variant), or any other media your PC can boot from, such as a Zip drive. Click Create Rescue Media on the toolbar or in the left part of the main window, or select Create Rescue Media from the Tools menu. You can also create bootable media without loading Acronis True Image itself by selecting Programs Acronis True Image Bootable Rescue Media Builder from the Start menu. You will see the bootable media wizard that will ask you to select either complete or safe loader version. The latter doesn't have USB, PC card (formerly called PCMCIA) or SCSI drivers and is useful only in case the complete version doesnt work. After you create a boot disk, identify it and keep it in a safe place.

Usually the larger the cluster size, the more disk space is wasted. A single byte of data could use up one cluster, whether the cluster size is 32Kb or 64Kb.
Like many other file systems, the FAT16 file system has a root folder. Unlike others, however, its root folder is stored in a special place and is limited in size (standard formatting produces a 512-item root folder). Initially, FAT16 had limitations on file names. They could only be eight characters long, plus a dot, plus three characters of name extension. However, long-name support in Windows 95 and Windows NT bypasses this limitation. The OS/2 operating system also supports long names, but does so in a different way. A.2.2 FAT32 The FAT32 file system was introduced in Windows 95 OSR2. It is also supported by Windows 98/Me/2000/XP. FAT32 is an evolved version of FAT16. Its main differences from FAT16 are 28-bit cluster numbers and a more flexible root, whose size is unlimited. The reasons FAT32 appeared are the support of large hard disks (over 8GB in capacity) and the impossibility to implement any more complex file system into MS-DOS, which is still the base for Windows 98/Me. The maximum FAT32 disk size is 2 terabytes (1 terabyte, or TB, is equal to 1024 gigabytes, or GB). A.2.3 NTFS NTFS is the main file system for Windows NT/2000/XP. Its structure is closed, so no other operating system is fully supported. The main structure of NTFS is the MFT (master file table). NTFS stores a copy of the critical part of the MFT to reduce the possibility of data damage and loss. All other NTFS data structures are special files. NTFS stands for NT File System.
Like FAT, NTFS uses clusters to store files, but cluster size does not depend on partition size. NTFS is a 64-bit file system. It uses unicode to store file names. It is also a journaling (failure-protected) file system, and supports compression and encryption. Files in folders are indexed to speed up file search. A.2.4 Linux Ext2 Ext2 is one of the main file systems for the Linux operating system. Ext2 is a 32-bit system. Its maximum size is 16TB. The main data structure that describes a file is an inode. A place to store the table of all i-nodes has to be allocated in advance (during formatting). A.2.5 Linux Ext3 Officially introduced with its version 7.2 of the Linux operating system, Ext3 is the Red Hat Linux journaling file system. It is forward and backward compatible with Linux ext2. It has multiple journaling modes and broad cross-platform compatibility in both 32- and 64-bit architectures. A.2.6 Linux ReiserFS ReiserFS was officially introduced to Linux in 2001. ReiserFS overcomes many Ext2 disadvantages. It is a 64-bit journaling file system that dynamically allocates space for data substructures.

Appendix B Hard disks and BIOS setup
Appendix B. Hard disks and BIOS setup
The appendices below provide you with extra information on the hard disk organization, how information is stored on disks, how disks should be installed in the computer and plugged into the motherboard, configuring disks with BIOS, partitions and file systems, and how operating systems interact with disks.
Installing hard disks in computers
Installing a hard disk, general scheme To install a new IDE hard disk, you should do the following (we will assume you have powered OFF your PC before you start!): 1. Configure the new hard disk as slave by properly installing jumpers on the board of its controller. Disk drives generally have a picture on the drive that shows the correct jumper settings. 2. Open your computer and insert the new hard disk into a 3.5 or 5.25 slot with special holders. Fasten down the disk with screws. 3. Plug the power cable into the hard disk (four-threaded: two black, yellow and red; there is only one way you can plug in this cable). 4. Plug the 40- or 80-thread flat data cable into sockets on the hard disk and on the motherboard (plugging rules are described below). The disk drive will have a designation on the connector or next to it that identifies Pin 1. The cable will have one red wire on an end that is designated for Pin 1. Make sure that you place the cable in the connector correctly. Many cables also are keyed so that they can only go in one way. 5. Turn your computer on and enter BIOS setup by pressing the keys that are displayed on the screen while the computer is booting. 6. Configure the installed hard disk by setting the parameters type, cylinder, heads, sectors and mode (or translation mode; these parameters are written on the hard disk case) or by using the IDE autodetection BIOS utility to configure the disk automatically. 7. Set the boot sequence to A:, C:, CD-ROM or some other, depending on where your copy of Acronis True Image is located. If you have a boot diskette, set the diskette to be first; if it is on a CD, make the boot sequence start with CD-ROM. 8. Quit BIOS setup and save changes. Acronis True Image will automatically start after reboot. 9. Use Acronis True Image to configure hard disks by answering the wizards questions.
10. After finishing the work, turn off the computer, set the jumper on the disk to the master position if you want to make the disk bootable (or leave it in slave position if the disk is installed as additional data storage). B.1.2 Motherboard sockets, IDE cable, power cable There are two slots on the motherboard to which the hard disks can be connected: primary IDE and secondary IDE. Hard disks with an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface are connected to the motherboard via a 40- or 80-thread flat marked cable: one of the threads of the cable is red. Two IDE hard disks can be connected to each of the sockets, i.e. there can be up to 4 hard disks of this type installed in the PC. (There are three plugs on each IDE cable: 2 for hard disks and 1 for the motherboard socket.) As noted, IDE cable plugs are usually designed so that there is only one way to connect them to the sockets. Usually, one of the pinholes is filled on the cable plug, and one of the pins facing the filled hole is removed from the motherboard socket, so it becomes impossible to plug the cable in the wrong way. In other cases, there is a jut on the plug on the cable, and an indentation in the socket of the hard disk and of the motherboard. This also ensures that there only one way to connect the hard disk and the motherboard. In the past, this design of plug did not exist, so there was an empirical rule: the IDE

cable is connected to the hard disk socket so that the marked thread is the closest to the power cable, i.e. the marked thread connected to pin #1 of the socket. A
similar rule was used for connecting cables with the motherboard.
Incorrect connection of the cable with either the hard disk or the motherboard does not necessarily damage the electronics of the disk or the motherboard. The hard disk is simply not detected or initialized by BIOS.
There are some models of hard disks, especially the older ones, for which incorrect connection damaged the electronics of the drive. We will not describe all the types of hard disks. Currently the most widespread are those with IDE or SCSI interfaces. Unlike IDE hard disks, there can be from six to 14 SCSI hard disks installed in your PC. However, you need a special SCSI controller (called a host adapter) to connect them. SCSI hard disks are not usually used in personal computers (workstations), but are found mostly in servers.
Aside from an IDE cable, a 4-thread power cable must be connected to the hard disks. There is only one way to plug in this cable.
Installation modes, jumpers 1. A hard disk can be installed in a computer as master or as slave. The mode of hard disk installation is defined by the position of special connectors (called jumpers) on the hard disk. The jumpers are either located on the electronic board of the hard disk or a special socket that provides for the connection of the hard disk and the motherboard. There is usually a sticker on the drive that explains the markings. Typical markings are DS, SP, CS and PK. Each jumper position corresponds to one hard disk(s) installation mode: DS master/factory default SP slave (or no jumper required) CS cable select for master/slave: the purpose of the hard disk is determined by its physical position with respect to the motherboard PK jumper parking position: the position where one can put the jumper if it is not necessary in the existing configuration
The hard disk with the jumper in master position is treated by the basic input/output system (BIOS) as bootable. The jumpers on hard disks that are connected to the same cable can be in the cable select for master/slave position. In this case, BIOS will deem as master the disk that is connected to the IDE cable closer to the motherboard than the other one.
Unfortunately, hard disk markings were never standardized. You might well find that markings on your hard disk differ from the ones described above. Moreover, for the old types of hard disks, their purpose could be defined by two jumpers instead of one. You should study the markings carefully before installing your hard disk in the computer.

PU/PD/+/- : Modify

The Type parameter can have Auto, Not Installed or User Defined values. In the latter case, you have to specify the values of other parameters manually (except MODE) according to the information on the case of the hard disk.
The purpose of the MODE and LANDZ parameters is described in the note above. The PRECOMP parameter is the so-called precompensation parameter and is important only for the older hard disks (MFM and RLL). IDE disks ignore this parameter.
In earlier BIOS versions, the boot sequence was set in the BIOS FEATURES setup section in the Boot Sequence line where you could select the most typical boot sequences, for example C:; A:;CD-ROM: or CD-ROM:; C:; A:, and other. B.2.5 Hard disk initialization errors Devices are usually initialized successfully, but sometimes errors can happen. Typical errors related to hard disks are reported by the following messages: PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT This error message is not directly related to errors during hard disk initialization. However, it appears, for example, when the boot program finds no operating system on the hard disk, or when the primary partition of the hard disk is not set as active. DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER This message appears when the boot program finds no available boot device, be that a floppy or a hard disk, or a CD-ROM. C: DRIVE ERROR C: DRIVE FAILURE
ERROR ENCOUNTERED INITIALIZATION HARD DRIVE This message appears when it is impossible to access the C: disk. If the disk is known to be functional, the reason for this error message is probably incorrect settings/connections of: hard disk parameters in BIOS setup jumpers on the controller (master/slave) interface cables It is also possible that the device is out of order, or the hard disk is not formatted.
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