Chapter Summary

• Windows XP Professional provides the Disk Management utility to configure, manage, and monitor hard disks and volumes. Using this utility, you can accomplish tasks such as the creation and formatting of volumes, moving disks from one computer to another, and remote disk management. You can use additional disk utilities such as Disk Defragmenter and Chkdsk to ensure optimal disk performance.

• Windows XP Professional supports two types of disk storage: basic disks and dynamic disks. Windows XP Home Edition supports only basic disks. Portable computers also support only basic disks.

• All disks are basic disks by default. When you need to take advantage of the functionality that dynamic disks provide, you must upgrade the basic disks to dynamic disks (remember that this feature is available only in the Windows XP Professional version). You can perform this operation with no loss of data.

• You must format a volume before it can accept data, and each volume can be formatted with only a single file system. Volumes are usually assigned drive letters, such as C or D, which are used to reference the volume from within the operating system and through applications.

• Mounted volumes provide a method of extended the perceived available space on an existing volume without extending the volume’s size. Technically, a mounted volume is a separate volume, but in the user’s eyes it appears to be an extension of an existing volume.