Managing Disk Drives

Windows XP Professional supplies administrators with two tools for managing basic and dynamic disks. These tools are:

• The Disk Management snap-in and extension

• The diskpart command

The Disk Management snap-in or extension can be used to provide point-and-click management over disk drives on local and remote network computers. The diskpart command can be used to configure disk drives from the Windows XP command line or from within administrative scripts.

Working with the Disk Management Snap-in and Extension

The Disk Management extension, found in the Computer Management console as shown in Figure 11.1, can be used to manage disk drives on local and remote computers. It displays both a text and a graphic view of the targeted computer's disks and CD-ROM drives.

Figure 11.1: Using the Disk Management extension in the Computer Management console to manage disk drives

Note 

For information about the Computer Management console and how to work with it, refer to "Working with the Computer Management Console" in Chapter 10, "Microsoft Management Consoles."

Using the Disk Management snap-in or extension, administrators can perform any of the following actions.

• View disk status and information

• Format disks

• Create and manage volumes and partitions

• Change drive letter assignment

• Convert basic disks to dynamic disks

• Eject removable media such as CDs

• View drive properties

The following procedure outlines the steps required to view a computer's disk drives using the Computer Management console's Disk Management extension.

1. Open the Computer Management console.

2. Expand the Storage node.

3. Select the Disk Management extension. The computer's disk and CD-ROM drives are displayed.

Note 

To select a different computer and view its disk drives, right-click on the Computer Management root node, select Connect to another computer, type the name or IP address of the network computer,and click on OK.

The top portion of the Disk Management extension displays a text view of all the drives on the targeted computer. The information presented here includes:

• Volume.Name of the drive.

• Layout.Partition, simple, striped or spanned.

• Type.Basic or dynamic.

• File System.FAT, FAT32, or NTFS.

• Status.Healthy (system), Healthy (Page File), Healthy (Boot).

• Capacity.The amount of space allocated to the drive.

• Free Space.The amount of unused space left on the drive.

• %Free.The percent of space still available on the drive.

• Fault Tolerance.Windows XP does not support fault tolerance.

• Overhead.Current processing overhead consumed by the drive.

The bottom portion of the Disk Management extension presents a graphical view of each drive on the computer. The information presented here includes:

• The unique disk number that Windows XP assigns to each drive

• The type of drive (basic or dynamic)

• The total size of each drive

• The status of each drive

• Existing partitions, volumes, and their free space and sizes

• Drive letter assignments

• File systems

• Partition and volume health

At the bottom of the display is a color legend that identifies which colors are used to label drive components.

Using the Diskpart Command

The diskpart command allows administrators to manage disk drives from the Windows XP command prompt. It also allows administrators to use the command from within scripts to automate disk management tasks. The diskpart command can perform the same tasks as the Disk Management snap-in and extension, except that it does not support a format option.

Note 

Information on the creation and execution of scripts is available in Chapter 14, "Shell Scripting and the WSH."

To use the diskpart command, the administrator must specify the drive number assigned to the drive that is to be managed. Then all diskpart commands that follow will be directed toward that drive until either a new drive is selected or the exit command is entered, as demonstrated below.

 diskpart select Disk 0 assign letter x select disk 1 assign letter z exit 

In this series of commands, the diskpart command is issued and the disk drive assigned disk number 0 is selected. This drive is then assigned a new drive letter assignment of X. Next, the disk whose disk number is 1 is selected and assigned a new drive letter of Z. The exit command is then used to terminate the diskpart command.

Note 

Consult the Windows XP Professional Help and Support Center for more information about the diskpart command.