4. On the Select Partition Type window (Figure 5.19), select Logical drive. 5. Click Next to continue.You will now be prompted to specify the partition size as shown in Figure 5.20. 6. Specify the Partition size in MB and click Next to continue. 126 Chapter 5 • Managing Physical and Logical Disks Figure 5.18 Using the New Partition Wizard to Create a Logical Partition Figure 5.19 Choosing to Create an Extended Partition Figure 5.20 Specifying a Partition Size 301_BD_W2k3_05.qxd 5/12/04 12:32 PM Page 126 7. Now you need to identify your new partition. Select a drive letter or choose to mount the new volume to an NTFS folder. For this example, we are assigning our partition the drive letter G, as shown in Figure 5.21. 8. Click Next to continue. 9. You must now format your new partition.You can format partitions as FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. For this example, choose NTFS, as shown in Figure 5.22, and then click Next to continue. 10. You will now see the Completing the New Partition Wizard window, as shown in Figure 5.23. Read over the summary to verify that you made the correct selections and click Finish to complete the process. Managing Physical and Logical Disks • Chapter 5 127 Figure 5.21 Assigning a Drive Letter or Path Figure 5.22 Formatting the New Partition 301_BD_W2k3_05.qxd 5/12/04 12:32 PM Page 127 Assign a New Drive Letter You are given the option to assign a drive letter when you create a primary partition or a logical drive. If you chose not to assign one then or you wish to change the letter, you can use Disk Management or diskpart.exe to assign a new drive letter. 1. Open Computer Management by right-clicking My Computer and choosing Manage. 2. Expand Storage and click Disk Management.This will give you the window shown in Figure 5.24. 3. Right-click the partition you want to assign a drive letter. 4. Select Change Drive Letter and Paths from the pop-up menu as shown in Figure 5.24.You will now see the window displayed in Figure 5.25. 128 Chapter 5 • Managing Physical and Logical Disks Figure 5.23 Finishing the New Partition Wizard Figure 5.24 Changing Drive Letter and Paths 301_BD_W2k3_05.qxd 5/12/04 12:32 PM Page 128 5. Click the Add button to add a drive letter.This will give you the window shown in Figure 5.26. 6. Use the drop-down arrow to select the drive letter you want to assign. For this example we are going to use E. 7. After you select the drive letter, click OK to accept your choice.This will apply your changes. Figure 5.27 shows that our partition now has the drive letter E. Managing Physical and Logical Disks • Chapter 5 129 Figure 5.25 Adding a Drive Letter Figure 5.26 Selecting the Letter to Assign Figure 5.27 Seeing the New Drive Letter 301_BD_W2k3_05.qxd 5/12/04 12:32 PM Page 129 Formatting a Basic Volume Like assigning a drive letter, you are given the option to format a drive when you create a primary partition or a logical drive. If you do not format the volume during creation, you can use Disk Management or format.exe to format the volume afterwards. Format a volume Use the following steps to format the first primary partition on Disk 2. Look at Figure 5.28 and you can see that this partition, unlike the C: and E: drives, has not been formatted. Here are the steps to format it with NTFS: 1. Open Computer Management by right-clicking My Computer and choosing Manage. 2. Expand Storage and click Disk Management.This will give you the window shown in Figure 5.28. 3. Right-click the partition you want to format. 4. Select Format from the pop-up menu, as shown in Figure 5.28.You will now see the window displayed in Figure 5.29. 130 Chapter 5 • Managing Physical and Logical Disks Figure 5.28 Formatting a Volume Figure 5.29 Choosing a Volume Label, File System, and Cluster Size 301_BD_W2k3_05.qxd 5/12/04 12:32 PM Page 130 5. Enter the Volume label for the volume. For this example we are using New Volume. 6. Select the File system to use. In this example we are using NTFS. 7. Select the Allocation unit size (file system cluster). For this example we are using Default, which is 4 KB. 8. Optionally, you can choose to perform a quick format and to enable file and folder com- pression.After you make your choices, click OK to continue.You will now be warned that you are going to lose all data, as shown in Figure 5.30. 9. Click OK to start the format process. Figure 5.31 shows the volume being formatted and Figure 5.32 shows the volume after the format has completed. Managing Physical and Logical Disks • Chapter 5 131 Figure 5.30 Acknowledging Formatting Warning Figure 5.31 Watching the Drive Format Figure 5.32 Seeing the Formatted Drive 301_BD_W2k3_05.qxd 5/12/04 12:32 PM Page 131 Extending a Basic Volume Extending a basic volume enables you to add more space to an existing volume without losing data. This is a new feature that was not available in Windows 2000.You can extend a basic volume only onto the same disk and only if it is followed by contiguous unallocated space.You cannot use Disk Management to extend a basic volume.The only way to do it is to use diskpart.exe from the com- mand prompt. Extending a basic volume Even though you cannot use Disk Management to extend a basic volume, let’s open it anyway so that we can see our volume as it gets extended. We will use diskpart.exe to actually do the extending of the primary partition (F:) on Disk 2. 1. Open Computer Management by right-clicking My Computer and choosing Manage. 2. Expand Storage and click Disk Management.This will give you the window shown in Figure 5.33. Use this window to see the before and after of extending your volume. 3. Open the command prompt by selecting Start | Run | CMD | OK. 4. From within the command prompt, launch diskpart by typing diskpart and pressing Enter.This will put you into diskpart interactive mode, as shown in Figure 5.34. 5. Type list volume and press Enter to display all the available volumes on your system. 6. Focus diskpart onto the volume you wish to extend by typing select volume 3. For this example we choose to extended volume 3. 7. To extend the volume, type extend size=1024. For this example we extended the volume by 1 MB.To exit disk part, type exit when finished or just close the command prompt. Figure 5.35 shows the volume after it has been extended. 132 Chapter 5 • Managing Physical and Logical Disks Figure 5.33 Extending a Basic Volume 301_BD_W2k3_05.qxd 5/12/04 12:32 PM Page 132 Managing Dynamic Disks Dynamic disks are the required disk structure in Windows Server 2003 if you want to create fault- tolerant volumes or increase read and write performance by spanning disks. Dynamic disks, like basic disks, can be managed via the Disk Management MMC or with the diskpart.exe utility. Managing dynamic disks is a little more complicated than managing basic disks, as you have more options from which to choose.This section discusses converting your disks from basic to dynamic and creating the various types of volumes supported in Windows Server 2003. Converting to Dynamic Disk Status By default, all disks are configured as basic disks. It is up to you to convert them to dynamic if you choose to do so. Remember to carefully assess your situation and determine whether you need the features of dynamic disks (and make sure your system is one of those that can use dynamic disks) before performing the conversion. If you convert a disk that is currently being accessed (such as the boot or system disks) then you must reboot in order to convert. Otherwise, you can convert without rebooting. Converting to dynamic does not erase any data. Managing Physical and Logical Disks • Chapter 5 133 Figure 5.34 Using Diskpart Figure 5.35 Seeing the Extended Volume 301_BD_W2k3_05.qxd 5/12/04 12:32 PM Page 133 Converting your system disk to a dynamic disk 1. Right-click the disk that you want to upgrade to dynamic. 2. Select Convert to Dynamic Disk from the pop-up menu, as shown in Figure 5.36.This will give you the Convert to Dynamic Disk selection window, as shown in Figure 5.37. 3. The disk you want to upgrade should be checked by default. If not, check its check box and click OK to continue. 4. You are next shown a summary screen (Figure 5.38) that indicates which disk(s) will be converted. Click Convert to continue. 134 Chapter 5 • Managing Physical and Logical Disks Figure 5.36 Converting to Dynamic Disk Figure 5.37 Selecting the Disk to Convert Figure 5.38 Reviewing Disks to be Converted 301_BD_W2k3_05.qxd 5/12/04 12:32 PM Page 134 5. Windows will warn you that you are about to convert to dynamic. Click Ye s on the warning screen (shown in Figure 5.39) to continue. 6. You are next warned that file systems currently in use on the disk will be dismounted during the upgrade (Figure 5.40).This is your last chance to cancel the conversion opera- tion. If you are sure that you want to convert to dynamic, click Ye s to dismount the file system. 7. Click OK on the confirmation window (shown in Figure 5.41) to reboot your PC.The disk(s) you selected will be upgraded when the computer is rebooted. After you have converted your disk to dynamic, you can create volumes. Creating volumes is similar to creating partitions, except that there are some additional steps because, unlike partitions, volumes can span multiple disks.The type of volume you create depends on a variety of factors, such as the following: ■ How many disks do you have in your machine? ■ Do you want fault tolerance? ■ Do you want to increase read or write performance? ■ What is being stored (or will be stored) on the volume (e.g., database, system partition, print spooler, etc.)? Managing Physical and Logical Disks • Chapter 5 135 Figure 5.39 Confirming the Conversion Figure 5.40 Dismounting Disk to be Converted Figure 5.41 Completing the ConversionCreating and Using Dynamic Volumes 301_BD_W2k3_05.qxd 5/12/04 12:32 PM Page 135 . Figure 5.22, and then click Next to continue. 10. You will now see the Completing the New Partition Wizard window, as shown in Figure 5.23. Read over the summary to verify that you made the correct. creating the various types of volumes supported in Windows Server 2003. Converting to Dynamic Disk Status By default, all disks are configured as basic disks. It is up to you to convert them to. If you do not format the volume during creation, you can use Disk Management or format.exe to format the volume afterwards. Format a volume Use the following steps to format the first primary partition