Embed Doc
Copy Link
Readcast
Collections

CommentGo Back

Download

Sunday, June 15, 2008

3) Using the Disk Managementtool in Windows XP Professional

This article will cover using the Disk Management tool inWindows XP Professional. The emphasis of this first part will be on the different disk types in a Windows XP Professional system.

Using Disk Management tools in Windows XP Professional

In Microsoft Windows XP Professional, you can perform most disk administrative tasks, both local and remote, by using the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in toolcalled Disk Management, which can be used to convert disks, as well as format current partitions and unallocated space. You can also check on the status of fixed and removabledisks and their associated properties.

Using the Disk Management tool

Just as a quick review from last week, you would normally need to be a localadministrator to perform most system configuration functions (even just taking a look atthe current configuration settings) on a Windows XP Professional system, and in somecases, there may be a local policy set by some other administrator or if your system is in aDomain, a Domain policy setting which may prevent you from performing some actions.To open the Disk Management MMC, you can select Start, right-click My Computer, andthen click Manage, which will open the Computer Management MMC. Under the Storageicon, click Disk Management to open the Disk Management MMC.You can also type compmgmt.msc in the RUN box or from a command line to launch theComputer Management MMC.

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD]

What your Start Menu options look like all depend onhow you have the menu set. If you are using the Classic Start Menu, you would not seeMy Computer as a selection to right click on. Your options would be to click Start, select Administrative Tools and then select Computer Management. Not a whole lot different,but perhaps just enough to confuse you. I seem to continually repeat this from article to article, but it is important to stress, theWindows XP Professional exam rarely tests you on Classic anything. You need to knowhow to get from Windows XP Professional settings to Classic and back, but in 90% of thecases you're going to find instructions laid out in the Windows XP Professional vein. I will do my best to point out alternatives in the

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD]

section as I have done here.

If you want to directly open the Disk Management MMC you can type diskmgmt.mscfrom the RUN box or from a command line. This will run the tool independently from theComputer Management MMC.Disk Management, which was introduced in the Windows 2000 line of NT-basedWindows operating systems, replaces the Disk Administrator utility found in Windows NT 4.0.There are two different types of disk storage in Windows 2000 and Windows XPProfessional: basic disks and dynamic disks.

Basic Disks

The number of partitions you can create on a basic disk depends on the disk's partitionstyle.On master boot record (MBR) disks, you can create up to four primary partitions, or youcan create up to three primary partitions and one extended partition. Within the extended partition, you can create an unlimited number of logical drives.

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD]

You used to be limited to the number of logical drivesthat could be created on a system by the number of remaining drive letters that wereavailable to assign to the formatted partitions. With volume mount points this is nolonger the case.

On GUID partition table (GPT) disks, you can create up to 128 primary partitions.Because GPT disks do not limit you to four partitions, you do not need to create extended partitions or logical drives.

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD]

The GUID partition table (GPT) disk-partitioning scheme is a format that is used by the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) in Itanium-based computers. GUID partition table offers more advantages than master boot record (MBR) partitioning because it allows up to 128 partitions per disk, provides support for volumes up to 18 exabytes in size, allows primary and backup partition tables for redundancy, and supports unique disk and partition IDs.

A primary partition of a basic disk is a portion of the physical disk that functions asthough it were a physically separate disk. On most Intel based systems this partition is theone that is marked as active which allows the computer to start up. You can create up tofour primary partitions (sometimes called volumes) on a single disk or three primary partitions and an extended partition with multiple logical drives.Extended partitions allow you to create more than four individual volumes on a basicdisk. Unlike primary partitions, you do not format an extended partition with a filesystem and then assign a drive letter to it. Instead, you create one or more logical driveswithin the extended partition. It's the logical drive of the extended partition that youformat and assign a drive letter to. You can create an unlimited number of logical drives per disk.

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD]

Volume mount points allow a volume to be mounted onan existing folder rather than at the root of a new drive letter. Establishing a volumemount point for an empty NTFS directory allows an administrator to create new volumeswithout requiring additional drive letters.

Some of the properties and characteristics of basic disks are outlined below.

•

Create and delete primary and extended partitions.

•

Create and delete logical drives within an extended partition.

•

Format a partition and mark it as active.

•

Establish drive letter assignments for volumes or partitions, optical storagedevices and removable drives.

•

Establish disk sharing and security arrangements for volumes and partitionsformatted with NTFS.

•