Lesson 2: Common Disk Management Tasks

The Disk Management tool provides a central location for disk information and management tasks, such as creating and deleting partitions and volumes. Common disk management tasks include the following:

• Converting storage types
• Creating and extending simple volumes
• Creating and extending spanned volumes
• Creating striped volumes
• Adding disks
• Changing storage type
• Viewing and updating information
• Managing disks on a remote computer

You can convert a disk from basic storage to dynamic storage at any time with no loss of data. To upgrade (convert) a basic disk to a dynamic disk, open the Disk Management tool, right-click the basic disk that you want to upgrade, and then click Upgrade To Dynamic Disk. A wizard provides on-screen instructions. If the disk you are upgrading contains either the boot or system partition, or both, you need to restart the computer to complete the upgrade process.

When you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, any existing partitions on the basic disk become volumes. Table 11.3 describes the results of converting a disk from basic storage to dynamic storage.

Table 11.3 Basic Disk and Dynamic Disk Organization

You must delete all volumes from the dynamic disk before you can revert the storage type of the disk to basic. After deleting all volumes on the disk, to revert a dynamic disk to a basic disk, open Disk Management, right-click the dynamic disk that you want to change back to a basic disk, and then click Revert To Basic Disk. If you want to revert the dynamic disk on which Windows 2000 is installed, you will have to reinstall Windows 2000.

A simple volume contains disk space on a single dynamic disk. A partition and a simple volume may seem like similar uses of disk space; however, a simple volume does not have the size limits that a partition has, nor is there a restriction on the number of volumes you can create on a single disk. You can create a simple volume and format it with NTFS, FAT, or FAT32.

To create a simple volume, open the Disk Management tool, right-click unallocated space on the dynamic disk where you want to create the simple volume, and then click Create Volume. A wizard provides on-screen instructions.

In addition, you can extend a simple volume to include unallocated space on the same disk; however, you can extend a simple volume only if it is formatted with NTFS. You can extend a simple volume to include either contiguous or noncontiguous unallocated space on the same disk. However, you cannot extend a system or boot volume. (A system or boot volume is created when you convert a system or boot partition to dynamic storage.) To extend an NTFS simple volume, right-click the simple volume that you want to extend, click Extend Volume, and then follow the instructions on your screen. When you extend a simple volume to another disk, it becomes a spanned volume.

A spanned volume consists of disk space from multiple disks (from 2 to 32) combined into one large volume, as shown in Figure 11.3. Spanned volumes enable you to use the total available free space on multiple disks more effectively. You can create spanned volumes only on dynamic disks, but the areas of free space that you combine to create a spanned volume can be different sizes. Spanned volumes cannot be part of a mirror volume or striped volume and are not fault tolerant.

Figure 11.3 Creating and extending spanned volumes

Windows 2000 writes data to the first disk in a spanned volume, completely filling the space, and continues in this manner through each disk that you include in the spanned volume. When any disk in a spanned volume fails, all data in the entire volume is lost. You can create spanned volumes on disks formatted with FAT, FAT32, or NTFS.

By deleting smaller volumes and combining them into one spanned volume, you can free drive letters for other uses and create a large volume for file system use. Another benefit of spanned volumes is the ability to add space to an existing volume when it is full. For example, when a database on a volume is about to grow beyond the size of the volume, you could add another disk to the system and then add that space to the existing volume.

To create a spanned volume, open the Disk Management tool, right-click unallocated space on one of the dynamic disks where you want to create the spanned volume, and then click Create Volume. In the Create Volume wizard, click Next, click Spanned Volume, and then follow the instructions on your screen.

You can extend an existing spanned volume that is formatted with NTFS by adding free space. The Disk Management tool formats the new area without affecting any existing files on the original volume. You cannot extend volumes formatted with FAT or FAT32. You can extend spanned volumes on dynamic disks onto a maximum of 32 dynamic disks.

You create striped volumes, similar to spanned volumes, by combining areas of free space from 2 to 32 disks into one volume. Among the Windows 2000 Server disk management strategies, striped volumes provide the best performance. In a striped volume, data is written evenly across all physical disks in 64-kilobyte (KB) units (see Figure 11.4). Because the striped volume performs as a single hard disk, Windows 2000 can issue and process concurrent input/output (I/O) commands on all hard disks that are in the striped volume simultaneously. In this way, striped volumes can increase the speed of system I/O.

With a striped volume, Windows 2000 writes data to multiple disks, similar to spanned volumes, except that on a striped volume Windows 2000 writes files across all disks so that data is added to all disks at the same rate. Like spanned volumes, striped volumes do not provide fault tolerance. If a disk in a striped volume fails, the data in the entire volume is lost. You cannot extend or mirror striped volumes.

To create a striped volume, open the Disk Management tool, right-click unallocated space on one of the dynamic disks where you want to create the striped volume, and then click Create Volume. In the Create Volume wizard, click Next, click Striped Volume, and then follow the instructions on your screen.

Figure 11.4 Benefits of working with striped volumes

To increase your disk storage, you can add new disks to a computer or move a disk or group of disks from one computer to another. If the computer to which you are adding disks does not support hot swapping (the ability to add or remove disks without shutting down the computer), shut down the computer, add the disks, and then restart the computer. The new disks will now appear in the Disk Management console.

To add a new disk to a computer that supports hot swapping, install or attach the new hard disk (or disks), and then in the Disk Management tool, click Rescan Disks on the Action menu. You must use the Rescan Disks command every time that you remove or add disks to a computer that supports hot swapping. It should not be necessary to restart the computer when you add a new disk to your computer. However, you might need to restart the computer if Disk Management does not detect the new disk after you run Rescan Disks.

There may be times you want to uninstall or remove a disk from one computer and then install the hard disk in a different computer. In most cases, disks from another computer are imported automatically. However, if the status of the disk appears as Foreign, you must right-click the new disk, and then click Import Foreign Disk. A wizard provides on-screen instructions.

The disks are grouped according to the computer name they were moved from. To specify the disks from the group that you want to add, click Select Disk. However, if you do not have any dynamic disks installed, all of the disks are added regardless of the disks that you select.

When you move a dynamic disk to your computer from another computer running Windows 2000, you can see and use any existing volumes on that disk.

If an imported volume's status appears as Failed: Incomplete Volume, you have imported a disk that contains a spanned or a striped volume but have failed to import one or more disks that contain the remaining portions of the spanned or striped volume. This also applies to RAID-5 volumes if two or more disks were not imported. You must import the remaining disks to complete the volume.

If the imported volume's status appears as Failed Redundancy, you have imported a mirror volume or a RAID-5 volume but have failed to import one or more volumes that contain the remaining portions of the mirror or RAID-5 volume. You will still be able to access data on the volume, but redundancy is lost. You must import the remaining disks to complete the volume.

Windows 2000 allows the static assignment of drive letters to partitions, volumes, and CD-ROM drives. This means that you permanently assign a drive letter to a specific partition, volume, or CD-ROM drive. It is often convenient to assign drive letters to removable devices that cause the devices to appear after the permanent partitions and volumes on the computer.

You can use the Disk Management tool to mount a local drive to any empty folder on a local NTFS partition or volume. Mounting a drive at an empty folder assigns a drive path rather than a drive letter to the drive. This allows you to use mounted drives to access more than 26 drives on your computer because mounted drives are not subject to the 26-drive limit imposed by drive letters. Mounting at a folder allows you to use an intuitive name for the folder, such as Project Data. Users would then save their documents to the Project Data folder rather than to a drive letter. In Windows 2000, you can add or rearrange storage devices without the drive path failing because drive paths retain their association to the drive.

You can use up to 24 drive letters, from C through Z. Drive letters A and B are reserved for floppy disk drives. However, if you only have one floppy disk drive, you can use the letter B for a network drive. When you add a new hard disk to an existing computer system, it will not affect previously assigned drive letters.

To assign, change, or remove a drive letter, open the Disk Management tool, right-click a partition, logical drive, or volume, and then click Change Drive Letter And Path. In the Drive Letter And Paths dialog box, you can do one of the following:

• To assign a drive letter, click Add, click a drive letter, and then click OK.
• To remove a drive letter, click the drive letter and then click Remove.
• To modify a drive letter, click the drive letter that you want to modify and then click Modify. Click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK.

Windows 2000 assigns a drive path and not a drive letter to a drive when you mount a local drive at an empty folder on a local partition or volume formatted with NTFS. You can create drive paths for partitions and volumes, and you can format a mounted drive with any Windows 2000-supported file system.

To assign or remove a drive path, open Disk Management, right-click the partition or volume, and then click Change Drive Letter And Path. In the Drive Letter And Paths dialog box, do one of the following:

• To create a new drive path, click Add and then type the path to the empty folder or click Browse to locate it. When the correct path is entered, click OK.
• If you are administering a local computer, you can browse folders on that computer to locate the folder to which you want to mount the drive. If you are administering a remote computer, browsing is disabled and you must type the path to an existing folder.
• To remove a drive path, click the drive path and then click Remove.

Mirror sets that you created with Windows NT 4.0 are retained when you upgrade the computer to Windows 2000. The disks that make up the mirror set are initialized as basic. The Disk Management tool offers limited support for mirror sets on basic disks. You can repair, resynchronize, break, and delete existing mirror sets, but you cannot create new mirror sets on basic disks in Windows 2000.

If a basic disk that contains part of a mirror set is disconnected or fails, the status of the mirror set becomes Failed Redundancy and the status of the disk remains Online. If this happens, you can try to repair the volume.

Repairing a Mirror Set

You must have an additional basic disk with enough space for a new mirror to repair a mirror set on a basic disk. You cannot use a dynamic disk to repair a mirror set. If an additional basic disk is not available, the Repair Volume option is unavailable and you cannot repair the mirror set.

When you repair a mirror set, the Disk Management tool creates a new mirror on a separate basic disk and then resynchronizes the new mirror set. During the repair volume process, the status of the mirror set changes to Regenerating and then Healthy. If the status does not return to Healthy, right-click the mirror set and then click Resynchronize Mirror.

To repair a mirror set on a basic disk, open the Disk Management tool, right-click the mirror set that you want to repair, click Repair Volume, and then follow the instructions on your screen.

Resynchronizing Mirror Sets

Resynchronize a mirror set when data on one of the disks is incomplete or outdated. If one disk in a mirror set is removed, for example, data will be written to the remaining disk. The mirror set is then no longer fault tolerant. When you replace the missing disk, you must resynchronize the mirror set to update the information on the replaced disk. Resynchronize Mirror is an option on the shortcut (right-click) menu for a mirror set.

Breaking Mirror Sets

Breaking a mirror set creates two independent partitions or logical drives. The data is no longer redundant and no data is deleted. For example, if you determine that the data you store in the mirror set is not vital enough to require fault tolerance and you need more disk storage space, you can break the mirror set to use both partitions for storage. To break a mirror set, open the Disk Management tool, right-click the mirror set that you want to break, and then click Break Mirror.

When you want to recover the use of both partitions that comprise a mirror set and do not want to save the data stored in the mirror set, you can delete the mirror set rather than breaking it. Deleting a mirror set deletes all of the data that the set contains, in addition to the partitions that make up the set. You can delete only the entire mirror set. To delete a mirror set, open the Disk Management tool, right-click the mirror set that you want to delete, and then click Delete Volume.

When you no longer want a volume set or a stripe set, or you have a problem with a faulty disk drive, you can delete the set. When you have a problem with a faulty disk drive that is part of a stripe set with parity, you can attempt to repair the stripe set with parity or delete it.

Volume sets and stripe sets that you created with Windows NT 4.0 are retained when you upgrade the computer to Windows 2000. The disks that make up the volume set or stripe set are initialized as basic. Disk Management offers limited support for volume sets and stripe sets on basic disks. You can delete volume sets and stripe sets, but you cannot create new ones on basic disks in Windows 2000.

Deleting a volume set or stripe set deletes all of the data that the set contains, in addition to the partitions that make up the set. You can delete only entire volume sets and stripe sets. To delete a volume set or a stripe set, right-click the volume set or stripe set that you want to delete, and then click Delete Volume.

Stripe sets with parity that you created with Windows NT 4.0 are retained when you upgrade the computer to Windows 2000. The disks that make up the stripe set with parity are initialized as basic. Disk Management provides limited support for stripe sets with parity on basic disks. You can repair, regenerate the parity of, and delete stripe sets with parity, but you cannot create new stripe sets with parity on basic disks in Windows 2000.

If a basic disk that contains part of a stripe set with parity is disconnected or fails, the status of the stripe set with parity becomes Failed Redundancy and the status of the disk remains Online. If this happens, you can try to repair the set. Repairing a stripe set with parity on a basic disk requires an additional basic disk with sufficient free space for part of the stripe set with parity. You cannot use a dynamic disk to repair a stripe set with parity. If an additional basic disk is not available, the Repair Volume option is unavailable and you cannot repair the set.

Disk Management relocates part of the stripe set with parity to a separate basic disk, regenerates the parity, and then returns the status of the set to Healthy when you repair a stripe set with parity on a basic disk.

To repair a stripe set with parity on a basic disk, open the Disk Management tool, right-click the stripe set with parity that you want to repair, and then click Repair Volume.

During the Repair Volume process, the status of the stripe set with parity changes to Regenerating and then Healthy. If the status of the set does not return to Healthy, right-click the stripe set with parity, and then click Regenerate Parity.

Deleting a stripe set with parity deletes all of the data that the set contains, in addition to the partitions that make up the set. You can delete only entire stripe sets with parity. To delete a stripe set with parity on a basic disk, right-click the stripe set with parity that you want to delete, and then click Delete Volume.

In this practice, you will upgrade a basic disk to a dynamic disk. You will create a folder for mounting a volume and then create and mount a simple volume.

In this exercise, you will use the Disk Management tool to upgrade a basic disk to a dynamic disk.

1. Ensure that you are logged on as Administrator.
2. Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.

The Computer Management console window appears.

3. In the console tree, if necessary, expand Storage, and then click Disk Management.

Notice that Disk 0 is a Basic disk.

4. In the lower-right pane of Computer Management, right-click Disk 0, and then click Upgrade To Dynamic Disk.

The Upgrade To Dynamic Disk dialog box appears.

5. Ensure that Disk 0 is the only disk selected for upgrade, and then click OK.

The Disks To Upgrade dialog box appears.

6. Click Upgrade.

A Disk Management message box appears, warning you that you will not be able to boot previous versions of Windows from any volumes on this disk.

7. Click Yes.

The Upgrade Disks message box appears, indicating that file systems on any of the disks to be upgraded will be force dismounted.

8. Click Yes to continue.

A Confirm dialog box appears, informing you that a reboot will take place to complete the upgrade process.

9. Click OK and your computer will restart.

1. Log on as Administrator.

A System Settings Change dialog box appears, prompting you to restart your computer. This is not required and is a limitation of this prerelease version of Windows 2000.

2. Click No.
3. Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
4. In the Computer Management console tree, double-click Storage, and then click Disk Management.

Notice that Disk 0 is now a dynamic disk and that drive C is a simple volume.

5. Minimize Computer Management.

In this exercise, you will use the Disk Management tool to create a new simple volume and mount the new volume onto an existing folder on another volume.

1. Right-click My Computer, click Explore, and then click Local Disk (C:).

2. On the File menu, click New, and then click Folder.
3. Type Mount and then press Enter.

1. Restore Computer Management.
2. Right-click the remaining unallocated space on Disk 0 in the lower-right pane, and then click Create Volume.

The Create Volume wizard appears.

3. Click Next.

The Select Volume Type page appears. Notice that Simple Volume is the only available option.

4. Click Next.

The Select Disks page appears.

5. Type 50 in the For Selected Disk box, and then click Next.
6. Click Next.

The Assign Drive Letter Or Path page appears.

7. Click Mount This Volume At An Empty Folder That Supports Drive Paths, and then type c:\mount
8. Click Next.

The Format Volume page appears. Notice that the File System To Use option defaults to NTFS.

9. Type Mounted Vol in the Volume Label box.
10. Click Perform A Quick Format, and then click Next.
11. Click Finish.

The new volume is created, formatted, and mounted on the C:\Mount folder; or, if C is not formatted with NTFS, it is mounted where you created the Mount folder.

12. Minimize the Computer Management window.

1. In Microsoft Windows Explorer, click Local Disk (C:) to display its contents.

Notice that the icon representing Mount is a disk drive and not a folder.

2. Right-click Mount, and then click Properties.

The Mount Properties dialog box appears.

Notice that the Type for Mount is Mounted Volume.

3. Click OK.
4. Close Windows Explorer.

1. Restore the Computer Management snap-in.
2. In the lower-right pane of Computer Management right-click Mounted Vol, and then click Extend Volume.
3. In the Extend Volume wizard, click Next.
4. On the Select Disks page, under Size, type 50 in the For All Selected Disks box, and click Next.
5. Click Finish.

Drive C is extended to include an additional 50 MB of disk space.

6. Close Computer Management.

The Disk Management tool provides a central location for disk information and management tasks, such as creating and deleting partitions and volumes. With the proper permissions, you can manage disks locally and on remote computers. In addition to monitoring disk information, some of the other disk management tasks that you might need to perform include adding and removing hard disks and changing the disk storage type.

Common disk management tasks include upgrading from a basic disk to a dynamic disk, creating and extending simple volumes, creating and extending spanned volumes, creating striped volumes, adding disks, changing storage type, viewing and updating information, and managing disks on a remote computer. In the practice portion of this lesson, you used the Disk Management tool to upgrade a basic disk to a dynamic disk, to create a new simple volume and mount the new volume onto an existing folder on another volume, and to extend a volume.