Micron
30-01-2006, 12:41 PM
Before you can store data on a physical disk, you have to prepare it for use with Windows. Just as in previous Windows versions, the process of preparing a disk is twofold: First you carve out a space on the disk by creating a partition (or volume, if you’re using dynamic disks) and, if necessary, one or more logical drives; then you choose a file system and format the drive. After you assign a drive letter to each newly formatted partition, volume, or logical drive, you’re ready to go.
Creating Partitions from Free Disk Space
When you add a new drive to an existing system or delete partitions from an existing drive, you have a wide range of options for using the new disk space. How you choose to carve up the space is up to you. If you stick with basic disks, your options are similar to those that are familiar from earlier Windows versions. On the other hand, if you’re willing to learn the ins and outs of dynamic disks, you can combine disk space in creative ways. In either case, wizards do most of the work.
Creating Partitions on a Basic Disk
To create a new partition on a basic disk, you need free space on your hard disk. (In the default Disk Management view, free space is identified by a black bar with the Unallocated label.) When you add a new hard disk to your system, the entire disk is available for use. You can choose all or part of the available space for use as a primaryor an extended partition. If no unallocated space is available, you can make room by deleting an existing partition (and its data).
To create a new partition, follow these steps:
In the bottom half of the Disk Management window, right-click an unallocated portion of a disk and choose New Partition from the shortcut menu.
Click Next to advance past the Welcome screen of the New Partition Wizard.
On the Select Partition Type page, select Primary Partition or Extended Partition and click Next.
If you create an extended partition, the wizard ends here. Before you can store data on the newly created partition, you must define one or more logical drives within it, as explained in the following section. A primary partition, on the other hand, consists of a single volume, and the remaining steps of the wizard allow you to format that volume. If you select Primary Partition and click Next, the Specify Partition Size page appears.
On the Specify Partition Size page, specify how much of the unallocated space you want to use for the new partition. The default value is the entire unallocated space. Click Next to continue. The Assign Drive Letter Or Path page appears.
On the Assign Drive Letter Or Path page, these three options appear:
Assign The Following Drive Letter. By default, Windows assigns the lowest available drive letter to the partition. The list includes only drive letters that are not currently being used for local disks or for mapped network drives.
Mount In The Following Empty NTFS Folder. You can create a mounted drive, which appears as a subfolder of another drive.
Do Not Assign A Drive Letter Or Drive Path. Choose this option if you want to create the partition but you do not want to make it available for storage yet. Before you can use the partition to store and retrieve data, you must return to the Disk Management utility and assign a drive letter or create a mounted drive.
Select one of the above options and click Next to continue. The Format Partition page appears.
choose from these options:
File System. Choose NTFS or FAT32 from the list. NTFS is selected by default. If the size of the volume is 4 GB (4096 MB) or less, you can also choose FAT.
Allocation Unit Size. The allocation unit size (also known as the cluster size) is the smallest space that can be allocated to a file. The Default selection, in which Windows XP selects the appropriate cluster size based on volume size, is best.
Volume Label. The volume label identifies the drive in the My Computer window. The default label text is New Volume. (You can change this text at any time).
Select Perform A Quick Format if you want Disk Management to skip the sometimes lengthy disk-checking process. Select Enable File And Folder Compression if you want all data on the new volume to use NTFS compression. (This option is unavailable if you choose the FAT or FAT32 file system.)
Click Next, confirm your settings, and click Finish.
Creating a Simple Volume on a Dynamic Disk
On dynamic disks, simple volumes are the equivalent of primary partitions on basic disks. To create a simple volume, log on using an account in the Administrators group and follow these steps:
Open the Disk Management window, right-click an unallocated portion of a dynamic disk, and then choose New Volume. In the New Volume Wizard, click Next to move past the Welcome screen. The Select Volume Type page appears.
On the Select Volume Type page, select Simple. (If you have only one dynamic disk, this is your only choice. If you have multiple dynamic disks and you want to create a spanned or striped volume, see the instructions in the following section.)
Note: Don’t be confused by the explanatory text in this dialog box. Although dynamic disks support five different types of volumes, only the three choices shown here are available with Windows XP Professional. The remaining two options—mirrored volumes and RAID-5 volumes—are available only on Windows .NET Server installations.
Click Next. The Select Disks page appears.
On the Select Disks page, select the disk on which you want to create the volume. By default, the disk you right-clicked in step 1 is shown in the Selected box. (To choose a different disk, click Remove, and then select a different disk and click Add.) By default, the wizard offers to create a new volume using all available unallocated space; if you want to make a smaller volume, change the value in the bottom of this dialog box. Click Next to continue.
On the remaining wizard pages, specify the drive letter or path and format the disk. These options are identical to those used in the New Partition Wizard.
If you have additional unallocated space on a dynamic disk—either the same disk or another disk—you can extend an existing volume to increase its size. If you have unallocated space on two or more dynamic disks, you can combine that space to create a volume. These combinations are subject to the following limitations:
You can extend only simple volumes and spanned volumes on dynamic disks; you can’t extend striped volumes or partitions on basic disks.
You can extend a volume only if it’s formatted with NTFS or it’s unformatted; you can’t extend FAT or FAT32 volumes. You can’t extend a system volume or boot volume.
Caution: Weigh the risks carefully before creating a volume that contains space from two or more dynamic disks. If a catastrophic failure occurs on either physical disk, the entire spanned or striped volume and all its data will be lost. Also, you cannot reverse your decision and remove one chunk of space from the extended, spanned, or striped volume. Deleting one part of the volume deletes the entire volume.
Learn to read the numbers
When working with extended, spanned, and striped volumes, the numbers can be confusing. In dialog boxes, values are typically listed in megabytes (MB). In the graphical view at the bottom of the Disk Management window, values are typically listed in gigabytes (GB). Because 1 GB is equal to 1024 MB, the numbers aren’t always comparable. For instance, 35080 MB appears in the graphical view as 34.26 GB. As long as you’re aware that the value in the graphical view will always appear a bit smaller than the one shown in dialog boxes, you should have no trouble.
To create a spanned or striped volume from unallocated space on two or more dynamic disks, use the New Volume Wizard, as described in the previous section, with the following changes:
On the Select Volume Type page, select Spanned or Striped.
On the Select Disks page, use the Add button to select two or more disks and specify the amount of space you want to use from each one. On a spanned volume, the portions of unallocated space on each drive can be of different sizes; in the case of a striped drive (as shown here), the two chunks of disk space must be of equal size, and the wizard will adjust the space on both disks if you change the amount at the bottom of the dialogbox. In either case, the Select Disks page displays the total volume size you can expect to end up with.
http://www.experiencewindows.co.uk/images/par1.jpg
The procedure for extending an existing volume is considerably simpler:
In the Disk Management window, right-click the volume you want to extend and choose Extend Volume. This option is available only if unallocated space exists on the same dynamic disk or another dynamic disk in the same system.
In the Extend Volume Wizard, click Next to skip past the Welcome screen.
On the Select Disks page, select which disk (or disks) you want to use by adding them to the Selected list. You can extend a simple volume to use unallocated contiguous space on the same disk, noncontiguous space on the same disk, or space on another dynamic disk. (In the latter two cases, the volume becomes a spanned volume.) At the bottom of this page, specify how much of the unallocated space you want to use.
Click Next and then click Finish.
After a volume is extended, you can extend it again, using additional unallocated space, but you can’t reduce its size—except by deleting the entire volume.
Creating Logical Drives
A logical drive is a part of an extended partition that you subdivide and format as a separate volume. A logical drive can have its own drive letter or can be assigned as a mounted volume within an NTFS volume. Creating a logical drive uses the same wizard that you use to create a new partition or volume.
To create a logical drive, open the Disk Management utility and follow these steps:
In the graphical view at the bottom of the Disk Management window, right-click the free space within an extended partition and choose New Logical Drive from the shortcut menu.
In the New Partition Wizard that appears, click Next to skip past the Welcome screen. Click Next to skip the Select Partition Type page as well, where Logical Drive, the only available option, is already selected.
On the remaining wizard pages, specify the size, drive letter or path, and format, just as you would for a primary partition.
Formatting a Partition, Volume, or Logical Drive
Formatting a partition, logical drive, or volume deletes any existing files and prepares the volume for use. Normally, a wizard handles this task when you create a new partition, logical drive, or volume. You can reformat any drive or volume other than the current system or boot volume at any time. This option is a useful way to start fresh with a partition that you use strictly for temporary files, such as music files that you burn to CD.
To format an existing drive or volume, right-click its icon in the Disk Management utility and choose Format from the shortcut menu. You’ll see a dialog box that offers the same choices as those found in the New Partition Wizard and New Volume Wizard.
You can also format any primary partition or logical drive that currently has a drive letter assigned to it from Windows Explorer. Right-click the drive icon and choose Format from the shortcut menu to display the dialog box shown here. Although the layout of this dialog box is different, the options are exactly the same as those found in the Disk Management window.
Finally, if you’re a command-prompt fan, you can use the Format command. For volumes and partitions located on hard disks, this option doesn’t provide any capabilities that aren’t also available from the graphical interface. From a command prompt, use the Format Volumecommand. The Volumeparameter specifies the drive letter (which must be followed by a colon), or the mount point or volume name. You can modify the Format command using any of the following switches:
/FS:filesystem Specifies the file system to be used—substitute FAT, FAT32, or NTFS for filesystem.
/V:label Assigns a volume label using the specified text.
/Q Performs a quick format.
/C NTFS only: all files and folders created on the new volume will be compressed by default.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. Caution: Using this switch may cause data loss if applications have open files with unsaved changes.
/A:size Overrides the default allocation unit size. Use the /? switch to see details and restrictions.
Creating Partitions from Free Disk Space
When you add a new drive to an existing system or delete partitions from an existing drive, you have a wide range of options for using the new disk space. How you choose to carve up the space is up to you. If you stick with basic disks, your options are similar to those that are familiar from earlier Windows versions. On the other hand, if you’re willing to learn the ins and outs of dynamic disks, you can combine disk space in creative ways. In either case, wizards do most of the work.
Creating Partitions on a Basic Disk
To create a new partition on a basic disk, you need free space on your hard disk. (In the default Disk Management view, free space is identified by a black bar with the Unallocated label.) When you add a new hard disk to your system, the entire disk is available for use. You can choose all or part of the available space for use as a primaryor an extended partition. If no unallocated space is available, you can make room by deleting an existing partition (and its data).
To create a new partition, follow these steps:
In the bottom half of the Disk Management window, right-click an unallocated portion of a disk and choose New Partition from the shortcut menu.
Click Next to advance past the Welcome screen of the New Partition Wizard.
On the Select Partition Type page, select Primary Partition or Extended Partition and click Next.
If you create an extended partition, the wizard ends here. Before you can store data on the newly created partition, you must define one or more logical drives within it, as explained in the following section. A primary partition, on the other hand, consists of a single volume, and the remaining steps of the wizard allow you to format that volume. If you select Primary Partition and click Next, the Specify Partition Size page appears.
On the Specify Partition Size page, specify how much of the unallocated space you want to use for the new partition. The default value is the entire unallocated space. Click Next to continue. The Assign Drive Letter Or Path page appears.
On the Assign Drive Letter Or Path page, these three options appear:
Assign The Following Drive Letter. By default, Windows assigns the lowest available drive letter to the partition. The list includes only drive letters that are not currently being used for local disks or for mapped network drives.
Mount In The Following Empty NTFS Folder. You can create a mounted drive, which appears as a subfolder of another drive.
Do Not Assign A Drive Letter Or Drive Path. Choose this option if you want to create the partition but you do not want to make it available for storage yet. Before you can use the partition to store and retrieve data, you must return to the Disk Management utility and assign a drive letter or create a mounted drive.
Select one of the above options and click Next to continue. The Format Partition page appears.
choose from these options:
File System. Choose NTFS or FAT32 from the list. NTFS is selected by default. If the size of the volume is 4 GB (4096 MB) or less, you can also choose FAT.
Allocation Unit Size. The allocation unit size (also known as the cluster size) is the smallest space that can be allocated to a file. The Default selection, in which Windows XP selects the appropriate cluster size based on volume size, is best.
Volume Label. The volume label identifies the drive in the My Computer window. The default label text is New Volume. (You can change this text at any time).
Select Perform A Quick Format if you want Disk Management to skip the sometimes lengthy disk-checking process. Select Enable File And Folder Compression if you want all data on the new volume to use NTFS compression. (This option is unavailable if you choose the FAT or FAT32 file system.)
Click Next, confirm your settings, and click Finish.
Creating a Simple Volume on a Dynamic Disk
On dynamic disks, simple volumes are the equivalent of primary partitions on basic disks. To create a simple volume, log on using an account in the Administrators group and follow these steps:
Open the Disk Management window, right-click an unallocated portion of a dynamic disk, and then choose New Volume. In the New Volume Wizard, click Next to move past the Welcome screen. The Select Volume Type page appears.
On the Select Volume Type page, select Simple. (If you have only one dynamic disk, this is your only choice. If you have multiple dynamic disks and you want to create a spanned or striped volume, see the instructions in the following section.)
Note: Don’t be confused by the explanatory text in this dialog box. Although dynamic disks support five different types of volumes, only the three choices shown here are available with Windows XP Professional. The remaining two options—mirrored volumes and RAID-5 volumes—are available only on Windows .NET Server installations.
Click Next. The Select Disks page appears.
On the Select Disks page, select the disk on which you want to create the volume. By default, the disk you right-clicked in step 1 is shown in the Selected box. (To choose a different disk, click Remove, and then select a different disk and click Add.) By default, the wizard offers to create a new volume using all available unallocated space; if you want to make a smaller volume, change the value in the bottom of this dialog box. Click Next to continue.
On the remaining wizard pages, specify the drive letter or path and format the disk. These options are identical to those used in the New Partition Wizard.
If you have additional unallocated space on a dynamic disk—either the same disk or another disk—you can extend an existing volume to increase its size. If you have unallocated space on two or more dynamic disks, you can combine that space to create a volume. These combinations are subject to the following limitations:
You can extend only simple volumes and spanned volumes on dynamic disks; you can’t extend striped volumes or partitions on basic disks.
You can extend a volume only if it’s formatted with NTFS or it’s unformatted; you can’t extend FAT or FAT32 volumes. You can’t extend a system volume or boot volume.
Caution: Weigh the risks carefully before creating a volume that contains space from two or more dynamic disks. If a catastrophic failure occurs on either physical disk, the entire spanned or striped volume and all its data will be lost. Also, you cannot reverse your decision and remove one chunk of space from the extended, spanned, or striped volume. Deleting one part of the volume deletes the entire volume.
Learn to read the numbers
When working with extended, spanned, and striped volumes, the numbers can be confusing. In dialog boxes, values are typically listed in megabytes (MB). In the graphical view at the bottom of the Disk Management window, values are typically listed in gigabytes (GB). Because 1 GB is equal to 1024 MB, the numbers aren’t always comparable. For instance, 35080 MB appears in the graphical view as 34.26 GB. As long as you’re aware that the value in the graphical view will always appear a bit smaller than the one shown in dialog boxes, you should have no trouble.
To create a spanned or striped volume from unallocated space on two or more dynamic disks, use the New Volume Wizard, as described in the previous section, with the following changes:
On the Select Volume Type page, select Spanned or Striped.
On the Select Disks page, use the Add button to select two or more disks and specify the amount of space you want to use from each one. On a spanned volume, the portions of unallocated space on each drive can be of different sizes; in the case of a striped drive (as shown here), the two chunks of disk space must be of equal size, and the wizard will adjust the space on both disks if you change the amount at the bottom of the dialogbox. In either case, the Select Disks page displays the total volume size you can expect to end up with.
http://www.experiencewindows.co.uk/images/par1.jpg
The procedure for extending an existing volume is considerably simpler:
In the Disk Management window, right-click the volume you want to extend and choose Extend Volume. This option is available only if unallocated space exists on the same dynamic disk or another dynamic disk in the same system.
In the Extend Volume Wizard, click Next to skip past the Welcome screen.
On the Select Disks page, select which disk (or disks) you want to use by adding them to the Selected list. You can extend a simple volume to use unallocated contiguous space on the same disk, noncontiguous space on the same disk, or space on another dynamic disk. (In the latter two cases, the volume becomes a spanned volume.) At the bottom of this page, specify how much of the unallocated space you want to use.
Click Next and then click Finish.
After a volume is extended, you can extend it again, using additional unallocated space, but you can’t reduce its size—except by deleting the entire volume.
Creating Logical Drives
A logical drive is a part of an extended partition that you subdivide and format as a separate volume. A logical drive can have its own drive letter or can be assigned as a mounted volume within an NTFS volume. Creating a logical drive uses the same wizard that you use to create a new partition or volume.
To create a logical drive, open the Disk Management utility and follow these steps:
In the graphical view at the bottom of the Disk Management window, right-click the free space within an extended partition and choose New Logical Drive from the shortcut menu.
In the New Partition Wizard that appears, click Next to skip past the Welcome screen. Click Next to skip the Select Partition Type page as well, where Logical Drive, the only available option, is already selected.
On the remaining wizard pages, specify the size, drive letter or path, and format, just as you would for a primary partition.
Formatting a Partition, Volume, or Logical Drive
Formatting a partition, logical drive, or volume deletes any existing files and prepares the volume for use. Normally, a wizard handles this task when you create a new partition, logical drive, or volume. You can reformat any drive or volume other than the current system or boot volume at any time. This option is a useful way to start fresh with a partition that you use strictly for temporary files, such as music files that you burn to CD.
To format an existing drive or volume, right-click its icon in the Disk Management utility and choose Format from the shortcut menu. You’ll see a dialog box that offers the same choices as those found in the New Partition Wizard and New Volume Wizard.
You can also format any primary partition or logical drive that currently has a drive letter assigned to it from Windows Explorer. Right-click the drive icon and choose Format from the shortcut menu to display the dialog box shown here. Although the layout of this dialog box is different, the options are exactly the same as those found in the Disk Management window.
Finally, if you’re a command-prompt fan, you can use the Format command. For volumes and partitions located on hard disks, this option doesn’t provide any capabilities that aren’t also available from the graphical interface. From a command prompt, use the Format Volumecommand. The Volumeparameter specifies the drive letter (which must be followed by a colon), or the mount point or volume name. You can modify the Format command using any of the following switches:
/FS:filesystem Specifies the file system to be used—substitute FAT, FAT32, or NTFS for filesystem.
/V:label Assigns a volume label using the specified text.
/Q Performs a quick format.
/C NTFS only: all files and folders created on the new volume will be compressed by default.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. Caution: Using this switch may cause data loss if applications have open files with unsaved changes.
/A:size Overrides the default allocation unit size. Use the /? switch to see details and restrictions.