Formatting Disks

Formatting a hard drive is the process of writing the file system structure on the disk so that it can be used to store programs and data. This includes creat- ing a file allocation table (an index listing all directories and files and where they are located on the disk) and a root directory to start with. In addition, formatting creates a volume boot sector, which is used to store the boot files of an operating system. If you format a disk that already has a file system and files or folders, you overwrite with a new file system, which erases all content on the drive.

When you create a volume in the Disk Management console using the Add Volume Wizard, it formats the volume. However, you can format the disk any time if you want to erase all content on a volume by right-clicking the volume in the Disk Management console and selecting Format. You then specify a volume label, the file system, the allocation unit size, if you want to perform a quick format, and if you want to enable file and folder compression. Then click OK.

To format the disk using a command executed from the command prompt, you can also use the format command. To format the drive as D drive with an NTFS file system, you execute the following command:

format d: /fs:ntfs

Cram Quiz

1. Which of the following is not supported in Windows 7?

❍ A. Simple disk ❍ B. Spanned disk ❍ C. Mirrored disk ❍ D. Striped disk ❍ E. RAID-5

Working with Volumes

2. You have a Windows 7 computer. You want to provide fault tolerance for the volume containing the operating system. Each disk is configured as a basic disk. The operating system is installed on the first disk. What should you do?

❍ A. Configure a new mirrored volume using disk 0 and 1. ❍ B. Convert both disks to a dynamic disk. Configure a new mirrored

volume using disk 0 and 1. ❍ C. Convert disk 1 to dynamic disks. Configure a new mirrored volume

using disk 0 and 1. ❍ D. Convert the disk 0 and disk 1 to dynamic disks. Configure the two

disks as a striped set using disk 0 and 1. 3. Which of the following gives you the best read-access performance?

❍ A. Simple disk ❍ B. Spanned disk ❍ C. Mirrored disk ❍ D. Striped disk

Cram Quiz Answers

1. E is correct. Although Windows Server 2008 supports all five that are listed, Windows 7 does not support RAID-5 software RAID using Windows. You can still use hardware RAID to implement RAID-5, but this capability is not Windows 7 native. Therefore, the other answers are incorrect because they are supported in Windows 7.

2. B is correct. To use RAID provided by Windows 7, you must use dynamic disks. To provide fault tolerance, you create a mirrored set using disk 0 and 1. Answer

A is incorrect because basic disks cannot be used for a mirror or RAID 5 disks. Answer C is incorrect because both disks must be dynamic to support mirroring and RAID-5 sets. Answer D is incorrect because a striped set is not fault tolerant.

3. D is correct. Striped volumes can substantially improve the speed of access to the data on disk. Striped volumes are often referred to as RAID-0; this config- uration tends to enhance performance, but it is not fault tolerant. Answer C is incorrect because while mirroring does provide some increased performance and provides fault tolerance, striped disks offer faster read performance. Answers A and B are incorrect because they do not offer any increase in performance.

CHAPTER 4: Disk Management

Formatting Disks