New in Disk Management


The Windows XP Professional operating system provides improved disk management. Table 12-1 summarizes the enhancements made from Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional to Windows XP Professional.

Table 12-1: Enhancements and Changes Since Windows 2000

New Feature

Feature Description

Manage disks at the command line by using DiskPart.

Use the new command-line tool DiskPart to perform disk-related tasks at the command line as an alternative to using the Disk Management snap-in. When you use DiskPart, you can create scripts to automate tasks, such as creating volumes or converting disks to dynamic.

Extend simple and spanned volumes that were converted from basic to dynamic.

You can now extend most simple and spanned volumes after converting them from basic to dynamic. For more information, see Converting Basic Disks to Dynamic Disks later in this chapter.

Extend basic volumes by using DiskPart.

Use DiskPart to extend primary partitions and logical drives on basic disks that use the MBR partition style.

Use a new partition style for disks in Itanium-based computers.

Windows XP 64-Bit Edition supports a new partition style called GUID partition table (GPT). The GPT partition style offers benefits such as support for volumes up to 18 exabytes and 128 partitions per disk.

Use NTFS when you format dynamic volumes and GPT disks by using Disk Management.

When you use the Disk Management snap-in, NTFS is the only file system available for dynamic volumes and for disks that use the GPT partition style. If you want to format dynamic volumes and GPT disks by using the file allocation table (FAT) file systems, you must use the format command at the command line.

Use dynamic disks to create volumes that span multiple disks.

Dynamic disks are the mandatory storage type for volumes that span multiple disks. Therefore, before you upgrade from Windows 2000 Professional to Windows XP Professional, you must convert basic disks to dynamic if they contain volume sets or stripe sets created by using Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0.

If you are migrating from Microsoft Windows NT version 4.0, the enhancements in Table 12-2 apply in addition to those outlined in Table 12-1.

Table 12-2: Enhancements and Changes Since Windows NT 4.0

New Feature

Feature Description

Basic and dynamic disk storage

Windows XP Professional offers two types of disk storage: basic and dynamic. Basic disks use the same disk structures as those used in Windows NT 4.0.

Dynamic disks, which offer features not available in basic disks, were introduced in Windows 2000 and are supported and enhanced by Windows XP Professional.

Online disk management

You can perform most disk-related tasks without shutting down the computer or interrupting users, and most configuration changes take effect immediately. For example, you can create or extend a volume without restarting the computer. You can also add disks without restarting. For information about changes that do require restarting the computer, see Converting Basic Disks to Dynamic Disks later in this chapter.

Disk Management snap-in

The Disk Management snap-in replaces the Disk Administrator program used in Windows NT 4.0.

Local and remote disk management

By using the Disk Management snap-in, you can manage any remote computer running Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP 64-Bit Edition on which you are a member of the Administrators group.

Limited support for multidisk volumes created by using Windows NT 4.0

Because Windows XP Professional offers limited support for multidisk volumes created by Windows NT 4.0, you must perform certain steps before you upgrade to Windows XP Professional. For more information, see Preparing Multidisk Volumes for Windows XP Professional later in this chapter.




Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit 2003
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit 2003
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 338

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