CHAPTER 6

MANAGING PARTITIONS

Lesson 1: Partitioning a Disk

Before a hard disk can be formatted with a file system, the disk must first be partitioned.

Partitioning a disk involves specifying which portion and how much of the hard disk can be

formatted with a file system. You can divide a hard disk into a maximum of four partitions.

When a partition is created, Windows NT assigns it a drive letter.

Primary and Extended Partitions

Partitions are created in hard disk free space. Free space is the unused or unpartitioned

portion of a hard disk. Multiple primary partitions and one extended partition can coexist

on the same disk. There can be up to four partitions on a hard disk.

Primary partitions

A primary partition is a portion of a disk that can be marked as active and used by the system

to start the computer. There can be up to four primary partitions per disk (or up to three, it

there is an extended partition). A primary partition cannot be divided into smaller partitions.

With the partitions you can have 3 primary partitions and 1 extended partition, you cannot

extend an extended partition more than it already is.

All partitions used by Microsoft Windows 95 or MS-DOS operating system must be

formatted with the FAT file system.

On RISC-based computer, the primary partition created on the Manufacturer’s configuration

program must be FAT, and at least 2MG in size.

Some operating system, such as MS-DOS version 5.0, can recognize only one primary

partition per disk, even if other primary partitions are formatted.

Extended Partitions

An extended partition is a method for avoiding the four-partition limit, and for configuring a

hard disk into more than four logical volumes. Similar to a primary partition, an extended

partition is created from free space on a hard drive. For example, if you are not using Drive F,

you can partition it into F:/G:/H:, and just have smaller amounts in each of them. Instead what

you create is an extended partition with Logical Drives. You format each logical drive with a

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particular file system; this allows additional drive letters for organizing applications, data files,

e-mail, multiple file systems, and so on. You are limited to number of drive letters by the

alphabet. Typically the C partition would contain the system and boot files, and the remaining

disk space would be an extended partition with space distributed among one or more logical

drives to complement your working environment.

System and Boot Partitions

The Windows NT system partition must be a primary partition. The Windows NT boot

partition can be either a primary partition or a logical drive in an extended partition.

What is a Volume Set?

A volume set is a partition formed by collecting 2 to 32 areas of unformatted free space on

one or more hard disks. Each area is referred to as a member of the volume set. The members

form one large logical volume set, which is treated as a single partition. Though this does not

improve performance, volume sets do increase the disk space available for a single logical

drive and free up drive letters for other purposes.

A volume set can combine areas of different types of hard disks, including small computer

system interface (SCSI), enhanced small device interface (ESDI), and integrated device electronics

(IDE). When creating a volume set, the free space can be an unallocated area within an extended

partition, or an unpartitioned area elsewhere on the disk.

Create a volume set when you have disk space from two or more unused areas that can be

combined into a single large partition, or when an application requires a larger amount of disk

space than you have on any single hard drive.

Guidelines for Managing Volume Sets:

• You cannot reclaim portions of disk space used in a volume set for other purposes without

losing the entire volume set and all the data stored on it.

• The Windows NT boot and system partitions cannot reside in a volume set.
• If a computer running Windows NT is configured to allow booting to another operating

system that does not support volume sets, such as Windows 95 or MS-DOS,

that operating system cannot access information in a volume set.

• Volume sets do not provide any fault tolerance (the ability of a computer or operating

system to respond to a catastrophic event, such as a power outage or hardware failure,

so that no data is lost and work in progress is not corrupted) because there is no data

redundancy. In fact, volume sets spanning multiple hard disks are more susceptible to

failure because a failure on any of the hard disks will destroy the full volume set.

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• In a volume set, data is written to one member of the set a time until no space remains

on that member. Data is then written to the next member in the volume set, and so on.

What is a Strip Set?

Stripe sets are similar to volume sets in that they also combine areas of unformatted free space

into one large logical drive.

Unlike a volume set, which can be implemented with a single hard disk, a stripe set requires at

least two hard disks. Strip sets, like volume sets, can include disk space from as many as 32

hard disks and can combine areas on different types of hard disks, such as SCSI, ESDI, and

IDE. The amount of space used on each disk will be equal to the smallest unpartitioned space

that you selected on the disks. SCSI ( or scussy) hard drives are hot swappable, or they can

be swaped when other people are still accessing the system. SCSI run very well, and are

more efficient, but are more expensive.

In a stripe set, data is written evenly across all of the physical disks, one row at a time. The

Windows NT implementation to stripe sets writes these in 64KB units.

All of the hard disks belonging to the stripe set perform the same functions as a single hard disk.

This allows concurrent I/O commands to be issued and processed on all hard disks simultaneously.

In this way, strip sets can increase the speed of system I/O.

NOTE: If there is a power problem, always have an extra hard drive ready to go and formatted.

Guidelines for Managing Stripe Sets

Stripe sets are similar to volume sets in the following ways:

• You cannot reclaim portions of disk space used in a stripe set for other purposes

without losing the entire strip set and all of the data stored on it.

• The Windows NT boot and system partitions cannot reside in a stripe set.
• If a computer running Windows NT is configured to allow booting of another operating

system that does not support stripe sets, such as Windows 95 or MS-DOS, that

operating system cannot access information in a stripe set.

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Stripe sets inherently do not provide any fault tolerance because there is no data redundancy.

In fact, a stripe set is more susceptible to failure because it spans two or more hard disks, and

a failure on any of the hard disks will destroy the full stripe set.

NOTE: You can add parity to stripe sets that can enable stripe sets to provide fault tolerance.

Comparing a Strip Set to a Volume Set

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Condition Stripe Set Volume Set

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Can it be created on one hard disk? No Yes

Can it contain the system or boot partition No No

What is the maximum number of areas

that can be combined? 32 32

Must the areas combined be of approx.

the same size? Yes No

Can it combine areas on different types

Of hard disks such as SCSI, ESDI, and IDE? Yes Yes

Is the area on one hard disk filled before

Starting to fill the next hard disk? No Yes

Can it improve I/O performance. Yes No

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NOTE: A volume set can appear to slightly improve performance on reads if the controller has the ability to

do concurrent reads. The small read performance gains that can occur when using a volume set is actually

a function of the hardware, and not the volume set.

Other Disk Management Considerations

Windows NT has other disk management tasks such as adding hard drives and configuring a disk for

removable media.

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Adding Hard Disks

The number of hard disks that can be added to a computer depends on the following variables:

• The physical configuration of the computer, such as the number of slots or bays available.
• The number of devices that can be connected to a disk controller or SCSI bus controller.
• The number of controllers in the computer.

When a new hard disk is added to the computer, the Disk Administrator program updates the registry

when the computer is shut down and restarted. To partition and format the hard disk, run Disk

Administrator.

Removable Media

Removable Media can have only one partition, and it must be a primary partition. Removable media

cannot be part of a volume set or stripe set, and cannot contain a system or boot partition. Windows

NT supports formatting removable media as either FAT or NTFS. If NTFS, you must shut down

and restart to change disks.

Lesson 2: Managing Partitions Using Disk Administrator

What is Disk Administrator?

Disk Administrator is an administrative tool for managing hard disks. Disk Administrator can be

thought of as a graphical Windows NT version of the MS-DOS Fdisk utility. This can only be done

on FAT ONLY. You must format in the proper order, Primary, Extended, and Logical.

To Start Disk Administrator:

• Shut down, and restart in Workstation.
• Log on as Administrator
• Click Start/Programs/Administrative Tools (Common)
• Disk Manager If this is the first time you have run Disk Administrator, you will get the following message:

Disk Administrator has determined that this is the first time Disk

Administrator has been run, or that one or more disks have been added

to your computer since Disk Administrator was last run.

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OR

No signature found on Disk 0. Writing a signature is a safe operation

and will not affect your ability to access this from other operating

system, such as DOS . . . .

• If you get the first message, click OK. If you get the second message, click Yes.

Disk Administrator starts.

Clicking Yes creates a 32-bit signature that identifies the disk. The signature is written in the Master

Boot Record of the disk. Even if a disk is moved to a different controller, or its identification is changed,

Disk Administrator and the Windows NT fault tolerance driver (Ftdisk.sys) recognize it.

Disk Administrator displays the computer’s disk resources through a status bar and legend. This

legend can be customized by colors and patterns to display disk regions and disk usage. To get rid

of Partitions, you must get rid of them in the reverse order, Logical, Extended and then lastly Primary.

Creating and Formatting Partitions

Use the Disk Administrator Partition and Options menus. You specify the location and when

prompted, specify the size of the partition. When a partition is created, Windows NT assigns

the next available drive letter.

After the hard disk is partitioned, the partitions must be formatted with a file system. A partition

can be formatted in one of two ways:

• Use the format command in a command prompt with the following syntax:

format^d:^/fs:FAT|NTFS

• Use the Format option on the Tools menu in Disk Administrator.

Both options allow formatting of a partition as either FAT or NTFS and assigning a volume label.

The Drives are set-up that the System Partition holds the Boot Files, and the Boot Partition holds the

system Files.

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Deleting Partitions

Use the Disk Administrator Delete command, located on the Partition menu, to delete partitions.

Partitions can be deleted at any time except during these conditions:

The system and boot partitions cannot be deleted from within Windows NT. You can remove the

system and boot partitions by either of the following methods:

Booting with another operating system such as MS-DOS and then deleting the partitions.

Booting from the Windows NT Setup Disk1, as if doing an installation. You are then prompted to

inset Setup Disk2 and 3. and are asked where to install Windows NT. You can also create and

delete partitions from this screen. Select the system partition and then press d. follow the prompts

on the screen to finish deleting the partitions. A partition containing an open file cannot be deleted.

This includes the partition that contains Pagefile.sys, the Windows NT paging file.

NOTE: In the Boot.ini file, is at the root of C Drive.

SCDI or Scussy can have a master drive = 0, and a slave drive = 1.

ARC:

Mult (0) Disk (0) rdisk (0) Partition (2)

SCSI ( ) Disk( ) rdisk (0) Partition (3)

Primary IDE = 0 multi 0 or 1

Secondary IDE = 1

Multi/Disk/Rdisk starts 0 Drive C = 1, Drive D = 2, Drive E = 3

C

D

E

F

Problem:

Extended Makes a primary

A blank screen

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Marking Partitions as Active:

The active partition contains the system files. On Intel X86-based computer, the active partition

is a primary partition containing the system boot files. The active partition is on the disk that the

computer accesses when starting up.

NOTE: On RISC-based computers, partitions are not marked active. Instead, they are configured

by a hardware configuration program supplied by the manufacturer.

Creating, Formatting, Extending and Deleting Volume Sets

You have learned that a volume set is a collection of free space combined to create a single logical drive.

Boot and System partitions cannot be part of a volume set. Only Temporary files, nonessential files.

Do not put say users home directories on a volume set.

Create. A volume set is created by selecting free space on the computer’s hard disks. After a

volume set is created, it must be formatted. If one goes down, all goes down NT Server and

Workstation.

Format. Volume sets can be formatted with either FAT or NTFS. Use the Format command in

Disk Administrators Tools.

Extended. You can also extend an existing NTFS volume set. In these circumstances, the

extended partition is automatically formatted with NTFS when the computer is restarted.

There is no way to extend a FAT volume set. If you have a FAT Volume Set and you want to

extend it, you must first convert the volume to NTFS. Then you can extend it. Must be NTFS,

when you use volume sets.

After a volume set is extended and the configuration is saved, space cannot be reclaimed without

deleting the entire volume set.

Deleting. Deleting a volume set deletes all information on all parts of the volume set and returns

free space.

****** Try and do the simulation on page 222 *****

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Creating, Formatting and Deleting Strip Sets

Areas of free space are combined to form a single logical drive. However, while a volume set can

consist of space on one or more hard disks, (up to 32 max.) a stripe set requires space on two or

more (up to 32) hard disks.

Unlike a volume set, a stripe set cannot be extended.

The partitions combined to create a stripe set must be approximately the same size. If they are not

the Disk Administrator makes each partition of the stripe set approximately the same size.

CAUTION: Deleting the stripe set deletes all the information stored in the stripe set.

Primary and extended partitions can be removed, reconfigured, and formatted without restarting

the computer.

• Will work on Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server.
• 2 disks minimum and 32 disks maximum. Stripe Set Requirements:
• FAT or NTFS (NTFS is the better choice)
• Sections must be equal size. You are only limited by the smallest area you are choosing.

5GB

3GB

8GB

Choose the smallest which is 3 GB and (3X3) = 9 GB would be the largest area to use. You can have

multiple stripe sets, faster than volume sets. The swap file goes great on the stripe set, and take off the

boot system partition.

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Strip Sets write across the three drives at the same time.

Disadvantage: If you loose on one drive, you loose it all, if it is a stripe set without parity. The

advantage is that it is very fast.

MCSE Exam type questions:

Choose the largest amount of space for a stripe set:

1. 8 GB

2. 2 GB

3. 900MG

4. 8GB

The largest would be 5.4 GB, eliminate the 900 MG and go with 1.8 X 3 = 5.4GB

Choose the smallest amount of space for a strip set: (use above figures)

Then 900MB X 4 = 3.6 GB

Partition Renumbering

Windows NT assigns partition numbers to all primary partitions before assigning partition numbers

to any logical drives within an extended partition. The hierarchy is 1) Primary partition,

2) Boot Extended partition, 3) Logical drives in Extended partition.

Support Issue

Windows NT uses a file named Boot.ini to find the boot partition. If the boot partition resides on an

extended partition that was subsequently renumbered, then the Boot.ini file must be manually updated

so that it points to the boot partition, otherwise Windows NT will not start.

Automatic Assignment of Drive Letters by Windows NT

Until Disk Administrator is run for the first time, Windows NT dynamically assigns drive letters using

the following procedure:

• Starting with Disk 0, the first primary partition on each disk is assigned a

Consecutive drive letter, beginning with the active system partition as Drive C. See page

228. The primary partition on Disk 0 is assigned C, Disk 1 has no primary partition, Disk

2 is assigned D, and Disk 3 is assigned E.

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Then, starting with Disk 0, logical drives on each disk are assigned the next

Consecutive letter(s). Disk 1 has three logical drives, which are assigned F, G, and H.

After Disk Administrator is run for the first time, it assigns static drive letters partitions.

Reassigning Drive Letters through Disk Administrator

You can reassign Drive letters through Disk Administrator Tools Menu, Drive letter command. A

partition can be statically assigned any letter that is not already in use by a local drive, such as a

CD-ROM drive, or in use by a network connection.

Assigning CD-ROM Drive Letters Through Disk Administrator

You can also assign CD-ROM Drive letters, through Disk Administrator in the Tools Menu.

Securing a System Partition

You learned about selecting a file system for the system partition in Chapter 2, “Installing Windows NT.”

Although only NTFS provides local security, FAT may be required for the system partition. For example,

RISC-based computers require system partitions to be formatted with FAT, regardless of the operating

system. This is because these computers will only start from a FAT file system.

Securing a FAT System Partition on a RISC-based Computer

Because FAT partitions cannot be protected with local security, the system partitions on a RISC-based

computer are vulnerable unless the system partition is secured through Disk Administrator or with a

third-party utility.

Lesson 3: General Maintenance and Troubleshooting

Disk configuration information is initially stored on the Emergency Repair Disk and in the

systemroot\Repair folder at system installation. When you make changes to the configuration of

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the system, you must update your Emergency Repair Disks. Restoring saved disk configuration

information is useful in the following situations:

• The computer was recently recovered with the Emergency Repair process and the registry was

reset to its initial state. At this point, the current disk configuration will be as it was when the

system was originally installed.

• The new version of Windows NT is being installed.

The Rdisk.exe utility, in the systemroot\System32 folder, can also be used to restore the

configuration to its previous state in the last update operation.

NOTE: Use the Rdisk.exe utility to update the Emergency Repair Disk.

File System Problems and solutions

There are two categories: failure to recognize the hard disk or partition, and corrupted files.

• Failure to recognize hard disks or partitions. Detected hardware appears in the registry

under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE.

• File system corruption. In general, if a logical drive appears corrupted and a backup exists,

then reformat the drive and restore the files.

• Corrupted or lost files when running MS-DOS-based utilities on dual-boot FAT

Partitions. When a computer is booted under MS-DOS, some third-party disk utilities

that directly manipulate FAT can destroy long file name LFN entries, or even the file itself.

Users should be careful when using these utilities; the utilities give errors indicating that there is

something wrong with FAT. It is more likely that the LFN entries are causing the error message,

rather than FAT.

• Problems with 1-GB IDE disks. These disks follow the EIDE standard.

Windows NT generally cannot gain access to all of the space on the disk because the disks do not

translate in a way that Windows NT recognizes. This is due to a BIOS limit of 1024 cylinders, not

an operating system limit.

SUMMARY:

• Windows NT supports primary and extended partitions.
• A physical disk can have as many as four partitions, or as few as one. If there are four

partitions,up to four can be primary, but only one can be extended.

• Windows NT also supports volume sets and stripe sets.

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• A volume set is a partition formed by collecting areas of free space to form one large

logical volume.

• This both increases the disk space available for a single logical drive and frees up drive

letters for other purposes.

• Stripe sets are similar to volume sets in that they also combine areas of unformatted free

space into one large logical drive. However, a stripe set requires at least two hard disks.

• Stripe sets, like volume sets, can include disk space from as many as 32 hard disks and

can combine areas on different types of hard disk, such as SCSI, ESDI, and IDE.

• In a stripe set, data is written evenly across all of the physical disks, one row at a time. The

amount of space used on each disk will be equal to the smallest unpartitioned space that you

selected on the disks.

• The hard disks belonging to a stripe set perform the same functions as a single hard disk,

allowing concurrent I/O commands to be issued and processed on all hard disks simultaneously,

thereby increasing the speed of computer I/O.

• Disk Administrator is the graphical tool provided by Windows NT that is used to create,

manage, and delete partitions, volume sets, and stripe sets.

• Problems may arise relating to partitions, such as failure to recognize a hard disk or partition,

or file corruption. These problems can usually be resolved by following general maintenance

and troubleshooting procedures.

• The Emergency Repair Disk can be used to restore your current disk configuration when

emergency repair is required.

How to replace a Hard Drive:

• Power off
• Unplug, or ground yourself. If you do not have a grounding wire, keep the unit

plugged in and keep touching the case to ground yourself.

• If you unplug, have the proper tools available, and an unmagnetized screw driver.

Write down the Hard Drive information, just in case you have to key it in manually.

• Proper tools, determine which screws to remove at the back of the case, all cases are

different depending on the one you purchase.

• Describe what the hard drive looks like, will it fit, if mounting brackets are needed you

may as well go to a store and have them do this.

• Load free 3 ½” drive bay, cable power connector and IDE Cable, cable is ½ way down

Hard Drive cable. The red stripe = pine1. Usually 90% of the time it is the closest to

the power.

• Master and Slave Hard Drive, it will be welded on the bottom of the hard drive.
• Set the case back on.
• Keyboard and monitor, and get the hard drive going.

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• Boot the system, delete to enter the BIOS.
• IDE auto detect, save the settings, reboot the system. Ensure that nothing else is loose,

can you detect the hard drive and the CD-ROM.

• Type in numbers from the new hard drive.
• If WIN NT is operating.
• Disk Administrator Utility, the first time it will be different.

If it is a SCSI drive you may have to locate this:

SCSI 1 = 8 bit 7 peripherals to one controller

Terminates at the end of the line.

SCSI 2 = 15 devices, slave off of each one. Know

The system, and the end of the line.

SCSI 3 = 32 bit, for servers, find place along cable

To fix up.

Disk Administrator:

Commit Changes Now, Apply, if you do not and just say OK, the changes are not applied to the

system files. You can choose to make it FAT or NTFS.

Convert^d:^/fs:NTFS

System Maintenance on the Hard Disk:

It is important to perform regular system maintenance on the Network for it to work properly.

• Scandisk (their lunch time)
• Defragment
• Remove temporary files
• Good, regular backup schedule, disks will die at the worst time.
• Up-to-date repair disks.
• Rdisk^/s gets the security information onto a diskette.
• Winnt32^/ox creates the three diskettes for the repair process.
• Sector sparing, is a good idea, works better on SCSI then IDE drives.