DisksTasks
| Disks Tasks |
Unless otherwise indicated, the procedures that follow use the Disk Management tool described earlier.
Add a Disk
The procedure for adding new disks to a system depends on whether the system supports hot swapping.
- Hot swapping supported
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Install the new disks
right-click on disk Rescan Disks
If the change is not detected , reboot the system.
- Hot swapping not supported
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Install the new disks and reboot the system.
To remove disks from a system, follow the same procedures for adding a disk listed earlier.
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Assign a Drive Letter
Assign a new drive letter to a partition or volume this way:
Right-click on a partition or volume Change Drive Letter and Path Change
If you are using a removable storage device, you should assign this device a drive letter that is beyond those used by permanent partitions, volumes, and drives on your system.
Assign a Drive Path
You can mount a partition or volume to an empty folder on an NTFS volume, a process also referred to as assigning a drive path to the partition or volume:
Right-click on a partition or volume Change Drive Letter and Path Add Mount in the following empty NTFS folder specify folder
For example, if you create a second partition E : and then mount this partition to the empty folder C:\test , you can display the files in this partition in the right pane of Windows Explorer either by selecting E : drive or C:\test in the left pane. Mounting a drive to an empty folder on a local NTFS volume lets you do some fancy things. For example, you can create a C:\temp folder for temporary program files and mount it to a simple volume on another physical disk, allowing you to extend the volume when it runs low on space.
Convert a Disk
Converting a disk changes it from basic to dynamic storage. You need to do this if you want to use WS2003 fault-tolerant disk technologies such as mirrored or RAID-5 volumes or if you want to extend a volume, create a spanned volume, or create a striped volume. To convert a disk from basic to dynamic, first close any applications running or files open on the disk and then do this:
Right-click any disk Convert to dynamic disk select disks to convert
You can also use diskpart from the command line to convert disks. If you convert the boot or system partition, the conversion process requires two reboots. Note that you must have at least 1 MB of unallocated space on the disk in order for conversion to be successful. This space is used to store the database that contains the configuration information of all physical disks in the system. Table 4-9 shows how partitions, logical drives in extended partitions, mirror sets, volume sets, stripe sets, and stripe sets with parity are upgraded when you convert your disk subsystem from basic to dynamic storage.
Table 4-9. What happens when basic storage is converted to dynamic
| Previous basic storage type | New dynamic storage type |
|---|---|
| Primary partition | Simple volume |
| Extended partition with logical drives and free space | Simple volumes (from logical drives) and unallocated space (from free space) |
| Mirror set | Mirrored volume |
| Volume set | Spanned volume |
| Stripe set | Striped volume |
| Stripe set with parity | RAID-5 volume |
| Unallocated space | Unallocated space |
Create a Partition
Right-click on unallocated space on a basic disk Create Partition
This option launches the Create Partition Wizard, which lets you create either primary or extended partitions, assign them a drive letter, format the partitions, and so on.
Create a Logical Drive
Right-click on an extended partition Create Logical Drive
This option starts the Create Partition Wizard. The only option available is creating a new logical drive and then specifying its size, drive letter, and filesystem.
Create a Volume
Right-click on unallocated space on a dynamic disk Create Volume
This option launches the Create Volume Wizard, which lets you create simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, and RAID-5 volumes. Simple volumes can be formatted using FAT, FAT32, or NTFS, but other types of volumes require NTFS. The steps are different, depending on which type of volume you choose to create:
- Simple volume
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The steps are similar to creating a partition except that volumes can either be assigned a drive letter or mounted to an empty folder.
- Spanned volume
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To create a spanned volume, extend a simple volume with unallocated space from another disk. If you extend it with space from the same disk, it is still a simple volume.
- Mirrored volume
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You can use the wizard to create a mirrored volume from scratch by selecting unallocated space from two different disks. You can also mirror an existing volume by right-clicking on the volume and selecting Add Mirror.
- Striped volume
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Select between 2 and 32 different disks that have sufficient unallocated space. The maximum size of the striped volume you create is determined by the disk with the smallest amount of unallocated space. (Striped volumes use equal amounts of unallocated space from each disk.)
- RAID-5 volume
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This is the same as striped volume, except that at least three disks must be used to create a RAID-5 volume.
Delete a Partition or Volume
Right-click on partition or volume Delete
Note that you can't delete:
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The system partition where hardware-specific boot files such as Ntldr and Ntdetect reside
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The boot partition where the \Windows folder resides
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Any volume with an active paging file
To delete an extended partition, you must first delete any logical drives in the partition. Deleting a partition or volume is a permanent action and can't be undone.
Extend a Volume
Right-click on a simple volume Extend Volume
This option launches the Extend Volume Wizard, which lets you add unallocated space to an existing volume to make it bigger. If you extend a simple volume using contiguous or noncontiguous unallocated space on the same disk, it is still a simple volume, only larger. If you extend it using space on another disk, it becomes a spanned volume.
Note that you can't extend FAT or FAT32 volumes, only NTFS. Furthermore, you can't extend the System or Boot volume or any volume that was formerly a partition before you upgraded your disks from basic to dynamic storage. You can extend only simple volumes that you created from unallocated space on dynamic disks using the Create Volume Wizard.
Format a Partition or Volume
To format a partition or volume, you can do the following:
Right-click on partition or volume Format
You can also use My Computer or Windows Explorer to format disks. The only advantage of using Disk Management for formatting disks is that it provides more options for choosing the allocation unit size, although this is generally best left at Default.
Defragment a Disk
Note that this task uses the Disk Defragmenter snap-in, not Disk Management. Before defragmenting a disk, first analyze it to see if it needs defragmenting:
Disk Defragmenter right-click on partition or volume Analyze
If the result indicates that defragmenting the disk could improve its performance, click the Defragment button to start the process and watch the fun.
Reactivate a Disk
Should the status of a dynamic disk become Missing or Offline, first check to make sure the disk is attached properly and has power, and then:
Right-click on the disk or volume Reactivate Disk or Volume
The disk status should return to Online. Table 4-10 lists disk status indicators, their meanings, and what steps to take in each case.
Table 4-10. Disk status indicators
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Online | Disk OK. |
| Online (Errors) [2] | I/O errors found on the disk. Try reactivating the disk in case the problem is transient; otherwise, remove the disk and replace it. |
| Offline | Disk is disconnected, powered down, or corrupted. Check controller and power cables, and then try reactivating the disk. If this fails, remove the disk and replace it. |
| Foreign | Disk has been moved to this system from another computer running WS2003. Import the foreign disk to use it. |
| Unreadable | Disk has I/O errors, hardware failure, or corrupted configuration database. Try rescanning disk or rebooting the system; otherwise, remove the disk and replace it. |
| Unrecognized | Unknown disk type, such as from a Unix system or with an OEM signature. Replace the disk. |
| No Media | No compact disc in CD-ROM drive, or no media in removable drive. |
[2] Dynamic volumes only.
Recover a Failed Mirrored Volume
You can identify a failed mirrored volume in Disk Management as follows :
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The volume is marked as Failed Redundancy.
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The disk that failed is marked as either Missing, Offline, or Online (Errors).
If the status of the failed disk is Online (Errors), then:
Right-click on disk marked Online (Errors) Reactivate Disk
If all goes well, the mirrored volume regenerates and the volume status should read Healthy (see Table 4-11 for a list of partition and volume status indicators).
If the status of the failed disk is Missing or Offline, first make sure the disk is attached properly and has power, and then perform the steps listed earlier. If a disk doesn't reactivate (volume doesn't return to Healthy status), replace the failed disk. Break the old mirror by:
Right-click on the mirrored volume on the failed disk Remove Mirror
Create a new mirror by:
Right-click on the good half of the broken mirror Add Mirror
Recover a Failed RAID-5 Volume
You can identify a failed RAID-5 volume in Disk Management as follows:
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The volume is marked as Failed Redundancy.
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The disk that failed is marked as either Missing, Offline, or Online (Errors).
If the status of the failed disk is Online (Errors), then:
Right-click on the disk marked Online (Errors) Reactivate Disk
If all goes well, the RAID-5 volume regenerates and the volume status should read Healthy. If the status of the failed disk is Missing or Offline, first make sure the disk is attached properly and has power, and then perform the steps listed earlier.
If a disk doesn't reactivate (volume doesn't return to Healthy status), replace the failed disk and then:
Right-click on the RAID-5 volume on the failed disk Repair Volume select the disk to replace the failed one
This automatically regenerates the RAID-5 volume.
Repair a Partition or Volume
Should the status of a partition or volume become Failed, first check to make sure the physical disk on which the partition or volume resides is attached properly and has power. If the underlying disk has status Missing or Offline, see Reactivate a Disk earlier in this section for information about what to do. This should return the disk status to Online and the failed volume should return to Healthy. If the volume still indicates Failed, try:
Right-click on the failed volume Reactive Volume
Note that you can repair a failed volume only if it is on a dynamic disk, not a basic disk.
Table 4-11 shows the different possible partition/volume status indicators, their meanings, and what steps to take in each case.
Table 4-11. Partition and volume status indicators
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Healthy | Volume OK. |
| Healthy (At Risk) [3] | Displayed by all volumes on a disk where I/O errors have been detected anywhere on the disk. Reactivate the disk. |
| Initializing | Normal at system startup. |
| Resynching | A mirrored volume is resynching its mirrors. don't make any configuration changes while this is happening. |
| Regenerating | A RAID-5 volume is being regenerated. don't make any configuration changes while this is happening. |
| Failed Redundancy | A disk has failed in a mirrored or RAID-5 volume. See Recover a Failed Mirrored Volume and Recover a Failed RAID-5 Volume earlier in this section. |
| Failed Redundancy (At Risk) [3] | A disk has failed in a mirrored or RAID-5 volume and I/O errors have also been detected. Reactivate the failed disk and proceed as described earlier. |
| Failed | A disk has failed or become corrupted. Check the disk cables, then reactivate the disk if necessary. If it still doesn't display Healthy status, try reactivating the volume. |
[3] Dynamic volumes only.
Rescan Disks
Right-click on Disk Management Rescan Disks
This updates the hardware information on all hard drives and updates information about removable media, CD-ROM drives, volumes, partitions, filesystems, and drive letters . If you make configuration changes to your disks and this information doesn't show up properly in Disk Management, use Rescan Disks to rebuild the disk-configuration database on each disk. You should always perform this action after adding disks to or removing disks from your system. Rescanning disks can take a few minutes, so be patient.
Restore Disk Configuration
Use this procedure if you are installing WS2003 on a machine already running NT 4.0 Server. If you want to be able to use existing NT mirror sets, volume sets, stripe sets, or stripe sets with parity on the machine:
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First use the NT administrative tool, Disk Administrator, to save the disk-configuration information for the system to a floppy disk.
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Install WS2003 on the system.
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Finally, open Disk Management, select Action
Restore Basic Disk Configuration, insert the floppy, and follow the instructions.
Disk Management should now be able to access the existing NT fault-tolerant volumes on the system.
Revert a Disk
To change a dynamic disk back to a basic disk, back up everything to tape, delete all volumes on the disk, and then:
Right-click on a dynamic disk Revert to Basic Disk
If your dynamic disk contains the System or Boot partition, you must reinstall WS2003 after the reversion process is complete.
Update Disk Information
After you have made changes to drive letters or filesystems or created or deleted partitions or volumes, you can do the following:
Right-click on Disk Management Refresh
View Status of a Disk
Use either Disk List or Graphical view and do this:
Right-click on a disk Properties
The Volumes tab shows the logical number of the disk (starting with Disk 0), the type (basic or dynamic), the status (online, offline, foreign, or unknown), and other useful information. The Policies tab can be used to turn write caching on or offturning write caching on improves performance but could result in data loss, especially if you don't have a UPS device.
New to WS2003 is the Enable Advanced Performance setting on the Policies tab, which provides even more aggressive write caching called Power Protected Mode, but be careful enabling this unless you have a backup power supply for your system.
View Status of Partition or Volume
Use either Volume List view or Graphical view and do this:
Right-click on a volume or partition Properties
The properties sheet displays information concerning the volume or partition and lets you configure access disk maintenance tools, configure disk quotas, share disks, configure permissions, and so on. Most of these tasks are covered elsewhere in this book.
Enable Disk Quotas
Disk quotas need to be enabled before quota limits and warnings can be set. To enable and set disk quotas on a partition or volume:
Right-click on partition or volume Properties Quota Enable quota management
Note that if both "Enable quota management" and "Do not limit disk usage" are selected, quotas aren't tracked. The traffic light on the Quota tab of a disk's properties sheet indicates the status of disk quotas as follows:
- Green light
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Disk quotas are enabled.
- Red light
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Disk quotas aren't enabled.
- Yellow light
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Disk quotas are enabled, but WS2003 is currently busy rebuilding the quota information.
Enforce Quota Limit
Right-click on partition or volume Properties Quota Deny disk space to users exceeding quota limit
Set Quota Limit
Right-click on partition or volume Properties Quota Limit disk space to
This sets a "soft limit" on the amount of disk space that can be used. The limit set here applies to all users individually. In order to make this a "hard limit," see the previous section.
Set Quota Warning
Right-click on partition or volume Properties Quota Set warning level to
You might typically set the quota warning level to about 50% or 75% of the quota limit value.
Log Disk Quota Events
Right-click on partition or volume Properties Quota Log event when a user exceeds his quota (or warning) limit
You can log quota warning events, quota limit exceeded events, or both. These events are logged to the System log where they can be viewed with Event Viewer.
Monitor Quota Entries
To view how much of their allotted space users have filled on a disk on which quotas have been enabled, do this:
Right-click on partition or volume Properties Quota Quota Entries
The information in this Quota Entries window is displayed as a flat-file database, so to keep things simple you should probably not mix users from different OUs or domains when having them store work on a specific partition, volume, or logical drive. If you must mix users from different OUs or domains, select View Containing Folder to more easily distinguish users from different domains and OUs.
Note that quota entries are visible only for users who have stored files on the volume on which disk quotas have been enabled. The first time the Quota Entries window is opened for a volume, the computer must contact a domain controller to resolve user SID numbers (which are used by NTFS to record volume usage) to user logon names. This may take a few seconds if many users are using the volume. Once the SIDs have been resolved to logon names , this information is stored locally on the quota-enabled volume. If new users have been created and the list of users displayed from the information stored locally in the Quota Entries window becomes out of date, press F5 to refresh the user information from the nearest domain controller.
Override Quota Limit
Once a global quota limit has been established for all users, it may be overridden with specific quota limits for individual users. For example, if a user is given work on a special project and needs additional disk space, you can temporarily increase the quota specifically for that user by:
Right-click on partition or volume Properties Quota Quota Entries select a user modify quota limit and warning level
You can also use the Quota Entries box to set quotas for specific users who have not yet stored any files on the volumefor example, if you know in advance that a few selected users may require different quota limits from the rest. Do it like this:
Right-click on partition or volume Properties Quota Quota Entries New Quota Entry
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