Current drive is not partitioned...
Unfortunate.
The reason I asked is because Acronis will need to make an image of your C drive. The image (if you use no compression) will be almost the same size as whatever C drive is. So if your C drive is nearly full, then your image will be close to 120gb. You will need to be able to either store the image on media (approx 25 DVDs), or on another HDD, so that later you can use it to reimage the new drive. Even if you compress the image, because you C drive is unpartitioned, the image will still be very large. Do you have a spare HDD large enough for an image?
You may want to use the clone function of Acronis, rather than attempting to create an image. The clone function is found under tools and you just need to follow the instructions given by Acronis.
However... my opinion of unpartitioned drives is that they're inefficient and cannot take advantage of software like Acronis. Not only that, but system management, stabiltiy, data storage, drive access times, etc, are heavily affected when you don't partition your drive. Unpartitioned drives not only slow down over time, they can become downright unstable due to fragmentation. Most users don't partition their drive, or they buy a computer/laptop with the OS/Programs installed, and use it as is. Later, they find out that things get more difficult becasue their drive is not partitioned. Of course, depending on the user, a purchased computer can run without trouble for a long time. Its only when they're faced with a situation like yours that questions arise.
Most laptops come with either a recovery partition on the drive, or Manufacture software that can be used to bring the laptop back to "factory fresh" condition. Of course, you would need to reinstall all your programs again, but if you have the manufactures software, you could partition your new drive first then install from the factory discs. This way, when you use Acronis later, your image will be small enough to fit on one of your other partitions and you could use it later for recovery, or for imaging another drive should you decide to replace the new drive later.
I really think you should partition your new drive, reinstall from the factory cds, reinstall your programs and go from there. I've helped many people learn about partitioning, and while it takes a little effort, in the long run, you learn something you can apply to all your computers in the future. I'll help you with whatever you decide.
By the way, what kind of laptop do you have?
Edited by makai, 04 April 2009 - 11:32 PM.
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