Lesson 20: Managing Local

Storage
MOAC 70-687: Configuring Windows 8.1

Overview
Exam Objective 6.2: Manage local storage
o Manage disk volumes and file systems
o Manage storage spaces

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Working with Disks

Lesson 20: Managing Local Storage

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Working with Disks

When you install Windows 8.1 on a
computer, the setup program automatically
performs all preparation tasks for the
computer's hard disks.
If you add another disk, you must perform
the following tasks:
o
o
o
o

Select a partitioning style.

Select a disk type.
Divide the disk into partitions or volumes.
Format the volumes with a file system.

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Understanding Partition
Styles
The term partition style refers to the method
Windows operating systems use to organize
partitions on the disk.
Two hard disk partition styles in Windows 8.1:
o MBR This is the default partition style for x86based and x64-based computers.
o GPT First introduced in Windows Vista, you can
now use the GPT partition style on x86-, as well as
x64-based, Windows 8 computers.

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Understanding Disk
Types
Windows 8.1 supports two disk types: basic disks
and dynamic disks.
A basic disk uses primary partitions, extended
partitions, and logical drives to organize data.
The alternative to using a basic disk is to convert
it to a dynamic disk. The process of converting
a basic disk to a dynamic disk creates a single
partition that occupies the entire disk. You can
then create an unlimited number of volumes
out of the space in that partition.
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Understanding Volume
Types
When you create a volume on a dynamic disk
in Windows 8.1, you can choose from the
following four volume types:
o Simple volume Consists of space from a single disk.
o Spanned volume Consists of space from at least
two, to a maximum of 32, physical disks, all of which
must be dynamic disks.
o Striped volume Consists of space from at least two,
to a maximum of 32, physical disks, all of which must
be dynamic disks.
o Mirrored volume Consists of an equal amount of
space from two disks, both of which must be dynamic
disks.
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Understanding File
Systems
In Windows 8.1, there are two basic file
system options to choose from: NTFS and
FAT.
NTFS is the preferred file system for Windows
8.1.
FAT file systems that Windows 8.1 supports
are:
o exFAT
o FAT
o FAT32
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Using the Disk

Management Snap-in
Disk Management is a Microsoft Management
Console (MMC) snap-in you use to perform diskrelated tasks, such as:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Initializing disks
Selecting a partition style
Converting basic disks to dynamic disks
Creating partitions and volumes
Extending, shrinking, and deleting volumes
Formatting partitions and volumes
Assigning and changing driver letters and paths
Examining and managing physical disk properties,
such as disk quotas, folder sharing and error-checking

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Opening the Disk Management

Snap-in

Disk Managements Disk List view

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Opening the Disk Management

Snap-in

Disk Managements Volume List view

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Opening the Disk Management

Snap-in

Disk Managements Graphical View

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Disk Management Graphical

View Information
Information
displayed

Disk status column

Volume status column

Disk number
Disk type
Disk capacity
Disk status

Volume name
Volume size
File system
Volume status

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Disk Management Graphical

View Information
Context
menu
commands

Disk status column

Convert a basic disk to a
dynamic disk
Convert an MBR disk to a
GPT disk
Create a new spanned,
striped, or mirrored volume
Take the disk offline
Open the disks Properties
sheet

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Volume status column

For a mounted partition or volume:
Mark a basic disk as active
Change the drive letter and paths
Format the partition or volume
Extend the volume
Shrink the volume
Add a mirror
Delete the volume
Open the volumes Properties sheet
For unallocated space:
Create a new simple volume
Create a new spanned volume
Create a new striped volume
Create a new mirrored volume
Open the disks Properties sheet

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Add a New Disk

The Initialize Disk dialog box

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Changing the Partition

Style
If you are running an x86-based computer,
Disk Management has most likely selected
the MBR partition style by default. You can
quickly check which partition style the hard
disk is assigned by right-clicking the disk
status column in the Graphical view.
You can also check the volumes
information by opening the Properties sheet
for disk and clicking the Volumes tab.
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Converting a Basic Disk to

a Dynamic Disk
Before you convert a basic disk to a dynamic
disk, you must be aware of the following
conditions:
Make sure that you have enough hard disk
space available for the conversion.
You should not convert a basic disk to a
dynamic disk if you are multibooting the
computer.
You cannot convert removable media to
dynamic disks.
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Converting a Basic Disk to

a Dynamic Disk (cont.)
Before you convert a basic disk to a dynamic
disk, you must be aware of the following
conditions:
You cannot convert drives that use an
allocation unit size (sector size) greater than
512 bytes unless you reformat the drive with
a smaller sector size before the conversion.
Once you change a basic disk to a
dynamic disk, the only way you can change
it back again is to back up the entire disk
and delete the dynamic disk volumes.
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Convert a Basic Disk to a Dynamic

Disk

The Convert to Dynamic Disk dialog box

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Convert a Basic Disk to a Dynamic

Disk

The Disks to Convert dialog box

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Convert a Basic Disk to a Dynamic

Disk

The Convert Details dialog box

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Converting a Basic Disk to

a Dynamic Disk
When you convert from a basic disk to a
dynamic disk, Disk Management performs
the following tasks.
o Basic disk partitions are converted to dynamic
disk volumes of equal size.
o Basic disk primary partitions and logical drives in
the extended partition are converted to simple
volumes.
o Any free space in a basic disk extended partition
is marked as unallocated.
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Create a Volume

The Specify Volume Size page

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Create a Volume

The Assign Drive Letter or Path page

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Create a Volume

The Format Partition page

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Extending and Shrinking

Volumes

To extend or shrink a partition or volume, you

simply right-click a partition or volume and
select Extend Volume or Shrink Volume from the
context menu, or from the Action menu.
Windows 8.1 extends existing primary partitions,
logical drives, and simple volumes by
expanding them into adjacent unallocated
space on the same disk.
When you extend a simple volume across
multiple disks, the simple volume becomes a
spanned volume.
You cannot extend striped volumes.
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Extending and Shrinking

Volumes
To extend a partition on a basic disk, the system
must meet the following requirements:
A basic partition must be either unformatted or
formatted with the NTFS file system.
If you extend a logical drive, the console first
consumes the contiguous free space remaining
in the extended partition.
You can extend the partition of logical drives,
boot volumes, or system volumes only into
contiguous space, and only if the hard disk can
be upgraded into a dynamic disk.
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Extending and Shrinking

Volumes

To extend a simple or spanned volume on a

dynamic disk, the system must meet these
requirements:
When extending a simple volume, you can only
use the available space on the same disk, if the
volume is to remain simple.
You can extend a simple volume across
additional disks if it is not a system volume or a
boot volume.
You can extend a simple or spanned volume if
it does not have a file system (a raw volume) or
if you formatted it using the NTFS file system.
(You cannot extend FAT volumes.)
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Extending and Shrinking

Volumes

To shrink a basic disk partition or any kind of

dynamic disk volume except for a striped volume,
the system must meet the following requirements.
The existing partition or volume must not be full
and must contain the specified amount of
available free space for shrinking.
The partition or volume must not be a raw
partition (one without a file system). Shrinking a
raw partition that contains data mighty destroy
the data.
You can shrink a partition or volume only if you
formatted it using the NTFS file system. (You
cannot shrink FAT volumes.)
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Creating Spanned, Striped,

and Mirrored Volumes
Spanned, striped, or mirrored volumes
require dynamic disks.
When you create a spanned, striped, or
mirrored volume, you create a single
dynamic volume that extends across
multiple physical disks.

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Creating Spanned, Striped, and

Mirrored Volumes

A spanned volume in the Disk Management snap-in

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Using Storage Spaces

Windows 8.1 includes a new disk
virtualization technology called Storage
Spaces, which enables a computer to
concatenate storage space from individual
physical disks and use that space to create
a virtual disk.
Storage Spaces uses unallocated disk space
to create storage pools.

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Using Storage Spaces

(cont.)
A storage pool can span multiple drives
invisibly, providing an accumulated storage
resource that you can expand or reduce as
needed by adding disks to or removing
them from the pool.
When you create a storage pool, it appears
to the operating system as a single volume,
called a storage space, even if it consists of
many physical disks.
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Create a Storage Pool

The Storage Spaces control panel

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Create a Storage Pool

The Select drives to create a storage pool page

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Create a Storage Pool

The Enter a name, resiliency type, and size for the

storage space page
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Create a Storage Pool

The Storage Spaces control panel, with a storage pool

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Using Diskpart.exe
Diskpart.exe is a powerful utility that can
perform any task the Disk Management
snap-in can and more.
Diskpart.exe has two operational modes, a
script mode and an interactive mode. If you
choose to create Diskpart scripts, you can
run them from the command prompt using
the following syntax:
Diskpart.exe /s scriptname

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Using Diskpart.exe

Shifting object focus in Diskpart.exe

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Using Disk Tools

The Windows 8.1 disk tools are all accessible
from each volumes Properties sheet.
You can access the tools from any File
Explorer window or from the Disk
Management snap-in.

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Disk Cleanup
When a disk starts to run low on storage
space, it is often possible to reclaim space
occupied by unnecessary files, such as
temporary files, setup logs, and files in the
Recycle Bin.
Windows 8.1 refers to the process of deleting
these files as cleaning up a disk.

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Clean up a Volume

The Disk Cleanup dialog box

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Defragmenting Disks

Hard disk drives write data in clusters, units of a

standard size designated when you format the
disk.
Over time, as files are written and rewritten to
the disk, the contiguous spaces grow smaller,
and the drive is forced to split files into clusters
located at different places on the disk. This
process is called fragmentation.
Windows 8.1 includes a tool that enables you to
defragment your volumes by recopying
fragmented files to contiguous space on the
disk.
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Defragment a Volume

The Disk Defragmenter dialog box

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Checking for Disk Errors

Windows 8.1 includes a tool that can check
disks for errors and, in many cases, repair
them. If, for example, one of a systems
volumes is unavailable for defragmentation,
it could be due to errors that you must repair
first.
You can also use the Chkdsk.exe utility to
check for disk errors from the command
prompt.
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Lesson Summary
There are two hard disk partition styles that you can use in
Windows 8.1: MBR and GPT.
Windows 8.1 supports two disk types: basic disks and dynamic
disks.
Basic disks can have up to four partitions: three primary
partitions and the fourth usually being an extended partition,
on which you can create multiple logical drives.
Windows 8.1 supports four types of dynamic volumes: simple,
spanned, striped, and mirrored.
You use the Disk Management snap-in for MMC to manage
disks.

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Lesson Summary
Windows 8.1 includes a new disk virtualization technology
called Storage Spaces, which enables a server to
concatenate storage space from individual physical disks and
allocate it to create virtual disks of any size.

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Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc..

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