Simple Volumes

Simple Volumes

A simple volume consists of disk space on a single physical disk. It can consist of a single area on a disk or multiple areas on the same disk that are linked together. To create a simple volume using the Disk Management console, perform the following steps:

1. Open Disk Management.

2. Right-click the unallocated space on the dynamic disk where you want to create the simple volume and then click New Simple Volume.

3. When the Welcome to the New Simple Volume Wizard appears, click Next.

4. Specify the size of the volume and click Next.

5. When it asks you to assign a drive letter or path as shown in Figure 4.3, select a drive letter and click Next.

6. Choose a file system (NTFS is recommended). You should also specify

a name for the volume so that it can be easier to identify. You can then perform a quick format (or a long format if you don’t select quick for- mat) and enable file and folder compression if desired.

7. When the summary appears, click the Finish button.

FIGURE 4.3 Assigning a drive letter or path to a simple volume.

To create a partition primary of length size and a starting address offset on the current drive using the diskpart command prompt, you use the following command: create partition primary size= xxx

CHAPTER 4: Disk Management

After the partition is created, the new extended partition gains the focus. To create a simple volume of length size at the diskpart command prompt,

you use the following command:

create volume simple size= xxx disk=n

If you do not specify a size, the new volume can take up the remaining contiguous free space on the disk. If you do not specify a disk, the current in-focus disk is used. After the volume is created, the disk focus is given to the targeted disk.

Here are some guidelines about simple volumes: . You can create simple volumes on dynamic disks only. . Simple volumes are not fault tolerant. . Simple volumes cannot contain partitions or logical drives.

Spanned Volumes

A spanned volume consists of disk space from more than one physical disk. You can add more space to a spanned volume by extending it at any time. To create a spanned volume, perform the following steps:

1. Open Disk Management.

2. Right-click the unallocated space on one of the dynamic disks where you want to create the spanned volume and then click New Spanned

Volume.

3. When the Welcome to the New Spanned Volume Wizard appears, click the Next button.

4. Add two or more drives on the selected column. Specify the size of each volume. Click the Next button.

5. Specify the drive letter and click the Next button.

6. Specify NTFS file system and specify a volume label for easier identifi- cation. You can also specify a quick format and enable file and folder

compression. Click the Next button.

7. When the wizard is complete, click the Finish button.

Working with Volumes

Here are some guidelines about spanned volumes: . You can create spanned volumes on dynamic disks only. . You need at least two dynamic disks to create a spanned volume. . You can extend a spanned volume onto a maximum of 32 dynamic disks. . Spanned volumes cannot be mirrored or striped. . Spanned volumes are not fault tolerant.