Step 4. The New Simple Volume Wizard starts. Click Next.
Step 5. On the Specify Volume Size page, type the size of the partition in megabytes and then click Next.
Step 6. On the Assign Drive Letter or Path page shown in Figure 9-2, accept the drive letter provided or use the drop-down list to select a different letter.
Then click Next.
Figure 9-2. Assigning a Drive Letter to Your Partition or Mount It in an Empty NTFS Folder
Step 7. On the Format Partition page shown in Figure 9-3, choose the file system (FAT, FAT32, or NTFS) to format the partition. Provide a volume label name or accept the default of New Volume (this name will appear in the Computer window). If formatting with NTFS, you can modify the allocation unit size and/or enable file and folder compression. When done, click Next.
Figure 9-3. Choices for Formatting a New Partition
Step 8. Review the information provided on the completion page and then click Finish. Windows creates and formats the partition and displays its information in the Disk Management snap-in.
On a basic disk, Disk Management also enables you to perform several other management activities. You can extend, shrink, or delete volumes as
necessary. Extending a volume enables you to add unallocated space to the volume. Right-click the volume and choose Extend Volume. The Extend Volume Wizard informs you what space is available and enables you to add additional space or select a smaller amount of space, as shown in Figure 9-4.
Modify the amounts in MB as required, click Next, and then click Finish to extend the volume.
Figure 9-4. Extend Volume Wizard Helping Extend a Volume on a Basic or Dynamic Disk
Note
If you add additional space on another disk from the Available column in the Extend Volume Wizard, you will be creating a spanned volume. The wizard will ask you to convert the disks to dynamic storage. You learn more about this later in this chapter.
Shrinking a partition enables you to free up space to be used on a different partition. To do so, right-click the desired partition and choose Shrink Volume. In the Shrink Volume dialog box shown in Figure 9-5, type the amount of space you want to shrink the volume by. (Note the size after shrink to avoid overshrinking the volume.) Then click Shrink.
Figure 9-5. Shrink Volume Dialog Box for Shrinking a Partition or Volume
To view how a partition is configured, you can look at its properties in the Disk Management utility. Right-click the partition and select Properties from the shortcut menu. The Properties dialog box that appears has the following tabs (not all tabs will appear if the disk is not formatted with the NTFS file system):
• General: As shown in Figure 9-6, this tab provides an immediate view of the space allocation on the disk in a pie chart. The General tab also allows you to type a volume name and to click a button that executes the Disk Cleanup graphical utility. This utility enables you to remove unnecessary files from your disk, such as the Temporary Internet Files folder, downloaded program install files, and the Recycle Bin.
Figure 9-6. Volume’s Properties Displaying Its Space Allocation
• Tools: This tab has the following two buttons:
• Check: Displays an Error Checking dialog box that enables you to click Scan Drive, which executes the GUI version of Chkdsk.
• Optimize: Executes the GUI version of Defrag.
• Hardware: Displays the storage device hardware for the computer. You can obtain properties for any device, similar to that obtained from Device Manager, by selecting it and clicking Properties.
• Sharing: Enables you to share the disk so that others can access
information on it. Doing this for the entire drive is not considered a good practice. It is generally unnecessary because the computer automatically generates an administrative share for each partition when Windows starts.
• Security: Enables you to assign access permissions to files and folders on the disk, similar to those discussed in Chapter 8, “Windows 10 Data
Security.”
• Quota: Enables you to assign disk quotas to users on the disk. This lets you limit the amount of space used on the disk by an individual user, who will receive a Disk Full message if he attempts to use more space than assigned to his quota.
• Customize: Enables you to optimize folders on the disk for purposes such as general items, documents, pictures, music, or videos. You can also choose to display a different icon that will appear in the Computer window or restore default settings.
You can delete a logical drive or partition easily from within the Disk Management utility. Simply right-click the logical drive and select Delete Volume from the shortcut menu, as depicted in Figure 9-7. A prompt appears to verify that you want to delete the logical drive or partition. When you click Yes, Windows deletes the drive or partition. Windows prevents you from deleting the system partition, the boot partition, or any partition that contains an active paging file. Extended partitions can be deleted only if they are empty of data and logical drives.
Figure 9-7. Disk Management Utility Enabling You to Delete a Partition or Logical Drive
Converting Basic Disks to Dynamic
The process to convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk requires that you have a minimum of 1 MB of available space on the disk. Best practices state that when you make changes to a disk configuration, you should back up the data before starting, just in case you need to restore it after you are finished. Even so, converting a basic disk to a dynamic disk should not have any effect on
your data.
You can convert a basic disk to dynamic at any time. Any partitions that are on the disk are converted to simple volumes in this process. To perform a conversion, you must be logged on as an administrator of the computer.
Step 1. In Disk Management, right-click the disk to be converted to dynamic and choose Convert to Dynamic Disk.
Step 2. If more than one hard disk is present, you receive the dialog box shown in Figure 9-8. Select any additional disks that you want to convert to dynamic, and then click OK.
Figure 9-8. Converting Any of Your Disks to Dynamic Storage at the Same Time
Step 3. The Disks to Convert dialog box shows you the disks that will be converted. Click Convert to proceed.
Step 4. Disk Management warns you (see Figure 9-9) that you will be unable to start installed operating systems except the current boot volume. Click Yes to proceed.
Figure 9-9. Warning That You Will Be Unable to Start Other Operating Systems if You Convert to Dynamic Storage
Step 5. The disk is converted to dynamic, and the display in Disk Management is updated accordingly.
To convert a dynamic disk back to basic, you must first back up all data on the disk and delete all volumes. Then right-click the disk in Disk
Management and choose Convert to MBR Disk. The conversion proceeds, and the display in Disk Management is updated within a few seconds.
Working with Dynamic Disks
When you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, the existing partitions are converted to simple volumes, and fault-tolerant volumes are converted into dynamic volumes. Dynamic volumes can be changed on the fly, as the name
“dynamic” implies. A dynamic volume is a unit of storage initially created from the free space on one or more disks. Table 9-2 lists the volume types available on a dynamic disk.
Table 9-2. Dynamic Volume Types
Volume Type
Number
of Disks Configuration Fault Tolerance
Simple 1
A single region or multiple concatenated regions of free space on a single disk.
None
Spanned 2 to 32
Two or more regions of free space on 2 to 32 disks linked into a single volume. Can be extended. Cannot be
mirrored.
None
Striped 2 to 32
Multiple regions of free space from two or more disks. Data is evenly interleaved across the disks, in stripes. Known as RAID Level 0.
None
Mirrored 2
Data on one disk is replicated on the second disk. Cannot be extended. Known as RAID Level 1.
Yes, with maximum capacity of the smallest disk
RAID-5 3 to 32
Data is interleaved equally across all disks, with a parity stripe of data also interleaved across the disks. Also known as striping with parity.
Yes, with maximum capacity of the number of disks minus one (if you have 5 200 GB disks, your volume would be 800 GB)
Creating a simple volume on a dynamic disk proceeds exactly as already described for creating a partition on a basic disk. As with basic disks, you can also extend, shrink, or delete a volume. We look at the methods of creating and working with striped, mirrored, and RAID-5 volumes later in this chapter.
Dynamic volumes allow you to change their properties on an as-needed basis.
If you have a computer, for example, that is running short of space, you can install an extra hard drive and extend an existing simple or spanned volume
so that the new space is immediately available without directing the user to use drive J for this data, drive C for that data, drive Y for the network, and so on. Users find multiple drive letters confusing, so being able to keep it all under one letter is highly preferable. Unfortunately, you cannot extend a system volume or a boot volume. Because most computers are installed with a single volume, C:, which includes boot and system files, any volumes
created on a new disk added to the computer must have a separate drive letter from the C: drive.
To increase the size of a simple volume, in Disk Management, right-click the existing volume and select Extend Volume from the shortcut menu. The Extend Volume Wizard starts, and you are prompted to select the disk or disks that contain the free space you will be adding. After you specify the size of free space to add, you need to confirm your options and click Finish.
The volume is extended and appears in the Disk Management window with new space allocated to it.
The Disk Management utility is fairly comprehensive, but it is not the only tool available in Windows 10 to configure or manage disks. Some of these tools hearken back to the days of DOS and Windows 3.x, yet they are still very useful, especially if there is a problem accessing the graphical user interface (GUI):
• Chkdsk.exe: A command-line utility that verifies and repairs FAT- or NTFS-formatted volumes. (For NTFS drives, use the CHKDSK C: /R command to automatically check and repair disk problems.)
• Cleanmgr.exe: Also known as Disk Cleanup, a GUI utility that deletes unused files.
• Defrag.exe: Also known as Disk Defragmenter, a command-line utility that rearranges files contiguously, recapturing and reorganizing free space in the volume. Optimizes performance.
• DiskPart.exe: A command-line utility that can run a script to perform disk- related functions. DiskPart’s nearest GUI counterpart is the Disk
Management utility.
• Fsutil.exe: A command-line utility that displays information about the file system and can perform disk-related functions.
RAID Volumes
The acronym "RAID" refers to Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks—it is a series of separate disks configured to work together as a single drive with a single drive letter. You have already seen three of the most common types of RAID arrays in Table 9-2: RAID-0 (disk striping), RAID-1 (mirroring), and RAID-5 (disk striping with parity). Other versions of RAID also exist but are generally unused; you are unlikely to see these referenced on the 70-698 exam.
When you use fault-tolerant volumes, a disk can fail and the operating system will continue to function. The failure can be repaired with no loss of data.
Most Windows 10 computers do not have fault-tolerant volumes. An
administrator should understand how to handle the errors that can plague a hard disk. Refer to Table 9-2 for common problems that can also plague fault-tolerant volumes.
Caution
Don’t confuse the RAID-5 or mirrored volumes that you can create within the Windows 10 operating system with RAID-5 or mirrored drives that are configured in a hardware storage array. A disk array produces a highly performing, fault-tolerant volume that appears in Windows 10 Disk Management as a simple volume. When you create mirrored or RAID-5 volumes in Windows 10, you achieve fault tolerance but lose some performance to disk management processes, especially if a disk fails.
Creating a RAID-0 Volume
A RAID-0 (striped) volume contains space on 2 to 32 separate hard disks.
Data is written in 64-KB blocks (stripes) to each disk in the volume, in turn.
A striped volume offers considerable improvement in read/write efficiency
because the read/write heads on each disk are working together during each I/O operation. A striped volume offers a maximum amount of space equal to the size of the smallest disk multiplied by the number of disks in the volume.
However, the striped volume does not offer fault tolerance; if any one disk is lost, the entire volume is lost. Note that the system or boot volume cannot be housed on a striped volume.
You can create a striped volume by using 2 to 32 separate hard disks in Disk Management. Use the following procedure:
Step 1. In Disk Management, right-click any one disk to be made part of the striped volume, and choose New Striped Volume.
Step 2. The New Striped Volume Wizard starts and displays the Select Disks page shown in Figure 9-10. The disk you initially selected appears under Selected. Select the disks you want to use from the Available column and then click Add.
Figure 9-10. Select at Least Two Disks to Create a Striped Volume
Step 3. Disks you add appear in the Selected column. If you want to change the amount of space to be allocated, modify the value under Select the
Amount of Space in MB. When done, click Next.
Step 4. From the Assign Drive Letter or Path page shown in Figure 9-11, accept the default or choose another drive letter or select the option to mount the volume in an empty NTFS folder, if desired. Then click Next.
Figure 9-11. Assigning a Drive Letter or Mount Path for a Striped Volume
Step 5. Choose the desired options in the Format Volume page shown in Figure 9-12 and then click Next.
Figure 9-12. Options for Formatting Your Volume
Step 6. Review the information on the completion page and then click Finish.
Step 7. If any of the disks to be used in the volume are configured as basic disks, you receive the same message previously shown in Figure 9-9, warning you that you will be unable to boot other operating systems. To create your volume, you must click Yes and convert these disks to dynamic storage, as discussed earlier in this chapter.
Step 8. The volume is created and formatted, and appears in the Disk Management snap-in display.
Caution
Remember that RAID-0 is not fault-tolerant, as mentioned in Table 9-2.
RAID-0 writes data in 64 KB blocks to each disk in the array sequentially, thereby improving read/write performance. However, if you lose any one of the disks in the array, all data is lost, and you must restore the data from backup after replacing the lost disk and re-creating the array.
Creating a Spanned Volume
You can extend storage space on an existing volume to a new disk by creating a spanned volume. This is essentially a volume that spans two or more disks and enables you to add space without the need to specify a new drive letter. Note that the spanned volume is even less fault-tolerant than a simple volume; if any one disk fails, all data is lost from all disks and must be restored from backup.
To create a spanned volume, right-click the desired volume and choose Extend Volume. From the Extend Volume Wizard, select the available disk(s) and complete the steps in this wizard, as previously described and shown in Figure 9-4. If you have multiple unallocated disks, you can
alternatively select New Spanned Volume, and create your spanned volume using the New Spanned Volume Wizard. The process is the same.
Creating a Mirrored Volume
A mirrored volume contains two disks, each of which is an identical copy of the other, thereby providing fault tolerance at the expense of requiring twice the amount of disk space. You can use a mirrored volume to provide fault tolerance for the system and boot volumes, as well as any data volumes.
Creating a mirrored volume is similar to that of creating a striped volume.
Use the following procedure:
Step 1. In Disk Management, right-click any one disk to be made part of the striped volume and choose New Mirrored Volume.
Step 2. Steps displayed by the New Mirrored Volume Wizard are similar to those of the New Striped Volume Wizard and outlined in the previous
procedure. When you have completed the procedure, the mirrored volume appears in the Disk Management display.
Creating a RAID-5 Volume
A RAID-5 volume is similar to a striped volume in that data is written in 64- KB stripes across all disks in the volume; however, this volume adds a parity stripe to one of the disks in the array, thereby providing fault tolerance. The parity stripe rotates from one disk to the next as each set of stripes is written.
The RAID-5 volume offers improved read performance because data is read from each disk at the same time; however, write performance is lower
because processor time is required to calculate the parity stripes. You cannot house the system or boot volumes on a RAID-5 volume.
Creating a RAID-5 volume is also similar; remember that you must have at least three disks to create this type of volume. Select New RAID-5 Volume from the right-click options and follow the steps presented by the New RAID-5 Volume Wizard.
Note
For more information on how RAID-5 volumes function, refer to "RAID-5 Volumes" at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938485.aspx.
Using DiskPart to Create Striped, Mirrored, and RAID-5 Volumes
You can use the DiskPart command-line utility to create striped, mirrored, and RAID-5 volumes. To perform any of these tasks, first execute the following commands from an administrative command prompt:
Diskpart List disk Select disk=n Convert dynamic
The List disk command returns the disk numbers on your computer that you
use when entering the commands to create the desired volume. The Select disk command selects a disk you want to work with and the Convert dynamic command converts the disk to a dynamic disk; repeat these two commands for each disk that needs to be converted to dynamic storage before beginning to create your volumes.
To create a mirror, you actually add a mirror to an existing simple volume.
Use the Select volume command to select the volume to be mirrored, and then use the following command:
Add disk=n [noerr]
In this command, n is the disk number of the disk to be added to the current simple volume and noerr enables a script containing this command to
continue processing even if an error has occurred. To obtain disk numbers used in this command, use the List disk command.
Use the following command to create a striped volume:
Create volume stripe [size=size] disk=n[,n[,…]] [noerr]
In this command, size is the number of MB used in each disk for the striped volume and n is the disk number (repeat from 2 to 32 times for each disk in the striped volume). If you do not specify a size, the size is assumed to be that of the smallest disk in the array. For example, if you specify three disks with unallocated space of 300, 400, and 500 GB and do not specify a size, DiskPart uses 300 GB per disk for a total striped volume size of 900 GB.
Creating a RAID-5 volume is similar to that of creating a striped volume. Use the following command:
Create volume raid [size=size] disk=n[,n[,…]] [noerr]
The parameters have the same meaning; in this case, repeat the disk number from 3 to 32 times. For the same example with three disks with unallocated space of 300, 400, and 500 GB, and which do not specify the size parameter, then DiskPart uses 300 GB per disk for a total RAID-5 volume size of 600 GB.