Windows 2000 Disk Management
Windows 2000 supports both basic and dynamic disks. If you have experience
managing primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives, then
you're already familiar with the components associated with basic disks. On the
other hand, when you work with dynamic disks, the focus of your attention is on
volumes rather than partitions. In this article, we'll provide details on the
difference between managing basic disks versus managing dynamic disks. In
discussing basic disks, we'll show you how to create partitions using the Create
Partition Wizard. In discussing dynamic disks, we'll show you how to upgrade a
basic disk to a dynamic disk, how to create simple volumes and extend them, and
how to create spanned and striped volumes.
Basic disks vs. dynamic disks
A basic disk is a physical disk that contains primary partitions,
extended partitions, or logical drives. Basic disks may also contain spanned
volumes (volume sets), mirrored volumes (mirror sets), striped volumes (stripe
sets), and RAID-5 volumes (stripe sets with parity) created using Windows NT 4.0
or earlier. You should use basic disks if the computer also runs MS-DOS, Windows
98 or earlier, or Windows NT 4.0 or earlier because these operating systems
can't access dynamic volumes. A dynamic disk is a physical disk that
contains dynamic volumes created using Disk Management. Dynamic disks can
contain an unlimited number of volumes, so you aren't restricted to four volumes
per disk. However, dynamic disks can't contain partitions or logical drives, and
dynamic disks aren't supported on portable computers. You should use dynamic
disks if your computer runs only Windows 2000 and if you want to use more than
four volumes per disk, create fault-tolerant volumes such as RAID-5 and mirrored
volumes, or extend volumes onto one or more disks.
Working with basic disks
If you're used to doing disk management on a Windows NT system, then you already
know much of what you need to know about basic disks. However, you'll need to
learn your way around the new disk management tool and get familiar with some of
the new features and new terminology that Microsoft has introduced for dealing
with basic disks. A basic disk is the same kind of disk that you've been working
with in Windows NT. When you first install Windows 2000, whether it's an upgrade
from Windows NT or a fresh install, all the disks on the system are configured
as basic disks. You can create primary partitions and extended partitions that
contain logical drives on basic disks just as you could in Windows NT.
You use the Disk Management utility, which is a Microsoft Management
Console (MMC) snap-in, to manage all kinds of disks and partitions. You
can snap this in to a custom MMC console, or open the Computer
Management console, expand Storage, and select Disk Management, as shown
in Figure A. If you decide to use a custom MMC console, you can snap in
a Disk Management utility for each computer on your network and manage
all the hard disks from a single location.
Figure A: You use the Disk Management snap-in to manage disks and
partitions.
Creating a partition on a basic disk
To create a partition, first right-click in the unallocated area of a basic
disk, and then choose Create Partition. This starts the Create Partition Wizard.
After reading the introductory information on the Wizard's first page, click
Next to continue. You'll then see the Select Partition Type page. You can create
up to four primary partitions, or three primary partitions and one extended
partition. In our example, we'll select Primary partition, as shown in Figure B,
then click Next to continue.
Figure B: Select the type of partition you want to create.
The Create Partition Wizard then displays the Specify Partition Size page, as
shown in Figure C. Here you can specify the amount of disk space you want to use
for the partition you're creating. In our example, we'll use 4096 MB out of the
available 9782 MB. Then, click Next to continue.
Figure C: Specify the amount of disk space you want to allocate to the
partition you're creating.
You'll now see the Assign Drive Letter Or Path page shown in Figure D. On
this page, you can change the default drive letter assignment, mount the new
partition into an existing folder structure on another partition, or choose not
to assign a drive letter altogether. On our system, the next available drive
letter is H:, but we could select any other unassigned drive letter from the
dropdown list next to Assign a drive letter.
Figure D:Assign a drive letter to the partition you're creating.
Before we continue with the partition creation process, let's take a closer
look at the second option--Mount This Volume At An Empty Folder That Supports
Drive Paths. This is a new feature in Windows 2000 called drive mounting.
Mounting a drive lets you integrate that drive with your existing file system
instead of, or in addition to, assigning the partition its own drive letter.
When you mount a drive under an empty folder on an NTFS partition, you create a
junction point between the empty folder and the partition. You should consider
mounting a drive when you want to accomplish any of the following:
- Conserve a drive letter.
- Add space to an existing disk hierarchy.
- Give a partition a descriptive name.
- Integrate all your storage into a single logical tree.
Proceeding with the Create Partition Wizard, you'll next see the Format
Partition page shown in Figure E. Notice that you can choose not to format the
partition altogether. However, if you do choose to format the partition, you can
specify the file system to use, the allocation unit size, and a volume label.
You can also perform a quick format and enable file and folder compression in
this dialog box. Once you've made your selections, click Next to continue.
Figure E: Specify whether you want to format the partition.
The Create Partition Wizard then displays a dialog box that summarizes the
selections you made including partition type, disk number, drive letter or path,
file system, allocation unit size, and volume label. Now, you can click Finish
to complete the process for creating a partition. The Disk Management utility
now displays the new partition you just created.
Other disk management tasks
The Disk Management utility lets you perform many additional tasks. Table A
describes these tasks and how to perform them.
Table A: The Disk Management utility lets you perform these
tasks.
| Task |
Procedure |
| View disk properties |
Right-click on the disk and choose Properties. This shows you the
disk number, storage type, disk status, total capacity, free space,
device type, hardware vendor, disk controller type, and a list of disk
volumes. |
| View partition properties |
Right-click on the partition and choose Properties. This shows you
the capacity, volume label, and file system on the partition; sharing,
security, and quota information; a list of hardware for all disk drives;
and gives you access to disk tools such as Disk Defragmenter. |
| Update displayed information |
On the Action menu, choose Refresh to update drive letter, file
system, and removable media information. Choose Rescan Disks to update
hardware information for all attached disks. |
| Reformat partitions, change drive letter assignment, and delete
partitions |
Right-click on the partition and choose the corresponding item from
the shortcut menu. |
Adding new disks
You can add new disks to a computer or move one or more disks from one computer
to another to increase that computer's storage capacity. There are two methods
to add a disk to a computer. However, before you determine which procedure to
use, you must establish that the computer to which you want to add a disk
supports hot swapping. Consult your system documentation to determine if your
computer supports hot swapping.
Note: Hot swapping is a feature that allows you to add or
remove a device from a computer while it's running. If a computer
supports hot swapping, the operating system will recognize any change
you make without having to restart the system.
If your computer supports hot swapping, first install or attach the new disk.
Next, open Computer Management and select Disk Management. Finally, right-click
on Disk Management and choose Rescan Disks. When you do so, Disk Management
inspects all attached disks for changes in their configuration. It then updates
file system information, drive letters, and information on removable devices. If
your computer doesn't support hot swapping, shut down the computer, add the
disk, and then restart. The new disks should then appear in Disk Management.
Before you move a disk from one computer to another, make sure the disk's
status is marked Healthy in its current location. When you add a disk from
another computer, the disk is usually imported automatically. However, if the
computer doesn't recognize the new disk, it will mark the disk as Foreign. To
import the disk, right-click on the new disk, and then choose Import Foreign
Disk. You can then follow the steps in the wizard to complete the import and
installation of the disk.
Working with dynamic disks
Dynamic disks are volume oriented, not partition oriented, and they
remove a lot of the limitations that exist with basic storage. They have the
following primary benefits:
- Removes the four-partition limit that you normally have on basic
disks.
- Enables you to extend volumes by adding free space to them.
- On multiple-disk systems, enables you to combine space from more
than one disk into special volume configurations. If you want to
implement RAID fault-tolerance features, such as mirroring (RAID 1) or
striping with parity (RAID 5), you must use multiple dynamic disks.
A disk must be either basic or dynamic--you can't combine basic partitions
with dynamic volumes on a single disk. However, you can have both basic and
dynamic disks on the same system. Only Windows 2000 can read dynamic disks
directly, but any system with appropriate rights can access shared folders on
dynamic disks from across the network. Table B shows you the types of volumes
that can exist on dynamic disks along with their equivalent Windows NT storage
types.
Table B: Comparison of Windows 2000 and Windows NT volume types
| Volume type |
Windows 2000 definition |
Windows NT equivalent |
| Simple volume |
A single disk. |
Primary partition or logical drive |
| Spanned volume |
Up to 32 separate disks. Data fills the space on the first disk,
then on the next, and so on. Enables you to combine multiple small areas
of free space into a usable-sized volume. |
Volume set |
| Mirrored volume |
Two disks, each containing an identical copy of a volume for
fault-tolerance purposes. |
Mirror set |
| Striped volume |
Up to 32 separate disks. Data is spread evenly among
all the disks. Improves disk-access efficiency. |
Stripe set |
| RAID-5 volume |
Three or more separate disk. Data and parity information, for
fault-tolerance purposes, are spread among all disks. |
Stripe set with parity |
Upgrading to dynamic storage
You can convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk at any time without losing data.
However, it's always a good idea to do a back up before you make a system
configuration change of this magnitude. To convert a basic disk to a dynamic
disk, right-click on the disk in Disk Management and choose Upgrade To Dynamic
Disk. In the Upgrade To Dynamic Disk dialog box, shown in Figure F, confirm the
selection for the disk you want to upgrade, and then click OK.
Figure F: Confirm the selection for the disk you want to
upgrade.
In the Disks To Upgrade dialog box, shown in Figure G, you'll see the disks
that will be upgrades. You can click Details to see the volume information
associated with the disk. When you're ready to perform the upgrade, click
Upgrade.
Figure G: You can view detailed information about the disks that will
be upgraded.
Next, you'll see an information dialog box followed by a warning dialog box.
The information dialog box reminds you that you won't be able to boot any
previous operating systems once the disk has been upgraded. The warning dialog
box tells you that the file system on the disk you're upgrading will be
dismounted. To continue with the upgrade, click Yes to indicate that you want to
proceed. Once the upgrade is complete, Disk Management displays the results. In
our example, shown in Figure H, we've upgraded the partition we created earlier
from a basic disk to a dynamic disk. Also note that Disk Management shows the
dynamic Disk 0 as a Simple Volume.
Figure H: In Disk Management, you can tell which disks are dynamic and
which are basic.
You can revert your dynamic disks to basic disks, but only after you remove
all volumes first (you'll lose any data on those volumes). Once you've removed
the volumes, right-click on the disk and choose Revert To Basic Disk. You can
also revert the disk by deleting the partition. Be sure that you need to use
dynamic storage before you upgrade--it won't be necessary on most single-disk
systems.
Creating and extending a simple volume
You should be able to do all the same things with volumes on dynamic disks that
you could with partitions on basic disks--change drive letters, reformat,
delete, and create new ones from free space. There's one fundamental thing that
you can do with NTFS-formatted simple volumes on dynamic disks that you can't do
with primary partitions or logical drives on basic disks--you can add available
free space to them to dynamically increase their size. There's one caveat: You
can't extend simple volumes if they were originally created as primary
partitions or logical drives on basic disks. You can only extend them if they
were originally created as simple volumes on dynamic disks. In addition, you
can't extend volumes that have no file system or that have been formatted FAT or
FAT32. To create a simple volume, right-click in the unallocated space of a
disk. This launches the Create Volume Wizard. After reading the introductory
information on the first page, click Next to display the Select Volume Type
page, as shown in Figure I.
Figure I: Select the type of volume you want to create.
Notice that you can't create primary or extended partitions--those only exist
on basic disks. Notice also that you can only create a simple volume--all other
volume types require multiple dynamic disks. Click Next to continue.
The Create Volume Wizard then displays the Select Disks dialog box. Here you
can select the dynamic disks you want to use and the volume size. In our
example, shown in Figure J, we're creating a 2048 MB volume from the remaining
5687 MB on our Disk 0. Click Next to continue.
Figure J: Select the dynamic disks you want to use and specify the
size of the volume you want to create.
The Create Volume Wizard then displays the Assign Drive Letter or Path page.
This is the same page, shown in Figure D, that you saw earlier when you created
the primary partition. Once you've specified the drive letter to be assigned to
the volume you're creating, click Next.
The wizard now displays the Format Volume page. This is essentially the same
page, shown in Figure E, that you saw when you created the primary partition.
The only difference is that we're now working with volumes rather than
partitions.
To extend the simple volume you just created, right-click on it and choose
Extend Volume. When you do so, the Extend Volume Wizard starts. After reading
the introductory information in the first dialog box, click Next to continue.
The wizard then displays the Select Disks page shown in Figure K. As before
when you were creating a simple volume, you'll select the dynamic disk that you
want to use. The number in For All Selected Disks is the total amount of
unallocated space left on Disk 0. Click Next to continue.
Figure K: Select the dynamic disk you want to use and specify the
amount of space by which you want to extend the volume.
You'll see the final page summarizing your selections. Click Finish. Now you
can use Disk Management to look at the simple volume you've created and
subsequently extended. As you can see in Figure L, Disk 0 contains the 4 GB
volume (New Volume) that we upgraded from a primary partition, the 2 GB simple
volume (I) we created from scratch, and the 3.55 GB extension (I) to the 2 GB
simple volume.
Figure L: Disk Management displays the volumes available on dynamic
Disk 0
Creating a spanned volume
A spanned volume in Windows 2000 is the same thing as a volume set in Windows
NT. A spanned volume combines free space from more than one drive into a single
logical volume. Spanned volumes are strictly disk management features. You can
use them to conserve drive letters or to turn multiple small areas of free space
into a usable volume. All the member disks in the volume have to be dynamic. To
create a spanned volume, first open Disk Management. Next, right-click on the
first disk you want to include in the spanned volume and choose Create Volume to
launch the Create Volume Wizard. Follow the wizard's prompts to create a spanned
volume including all the areas of free space on all the dynamic disks you want
to include. The total size of the volume will be the total size of all the areas
you include. When you finish the wizard, it will create and format the new
volume.
Creating a striped volume
A striped volume is the same as RAID Level 0. It's basically a disk performance
enhancement feature because it enables simultaneous read and writes across
multiple drives. Creating a striped volume in Windows 2000 is very similar to
creating a stripe set in Windows NT except that in Windows 2000 all the disks in
the volume must be configured as dynamic. To create a striped volume, open Disk
Management. Next, right-click on an area of unallocated space on the first
dynamic disk that will be part of the striped volume, and then choose Create
Volume to launch the Create Volume Wizard. Follow the wizard's prompts to create
a striped volume that contains all the dynamic disks you want to include. The
volume size number you enter will be the amount of space you'll use on each
disk. The total size of the volume will be the volume size times the number of
disks. When you finish, the wizard will create and format the new volume.
Conclusion
Windows 2000 allows you to manage both basic and dynamic disks. When you work
with a basic disk, your focus is on partitions and logical drives. On the other
hand, when you work with a dynamic disk, your focus is on volumes. In this
article, we explored the disk management features included in Windows 2000. We
showed you how to create and manage partitions on basic disks, how to upgrade a
basic disk to a dynamic disk, and how to create and manage volumes on dynamic
disks.
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