CHAPTER 7Managing Disk and File System

INTRODUCING DISK MANAGEMENT

2 types of hard disk storage supported by Windows XP are: basic hard disk & dynamic hard disk.

Disk Management = a system utility by Windows XP that lets you inspect & manage hard disk storage.

It allows you to create, delete, format partition & converting basic disk to dynamic disk. Method 1: Start > Control Panel > Performance &

Maintenance > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

Method 2: Start > Run > type ‘ diskmgmt.msc’ and click OK.

BASIC DISK Traditional type of disk storage is called basic disk

& uses normal partition table supported by MS-DOS, Win 95, Win 98, Win Me, Win XP, Win NT & Win servers 2000.

It recognizes all disks as basic disks unless its upgraded to a dynamic disk.

3 types of partition on basic hard disk

Primary partition

•Can be configured up to 4 primary partitions on a computer.•It can be configured as a bootable drive

Extended partition

•A way to exceed the 4 primary partition limits.•It can not be formatted with any file system

Logical partition

•It can be created inside a extended partition•Used for organizing files

BASIC DISK

You can perform the following only on a basic disk: Create & delete primary & extended partitions. Create & delete logical drives within an extended

partition. Format a partition & mark it as active Delete volume, stripped, mirror or stripe sets

with parity.

DYNAMIC DISK

Is a physical disk that provides features that basic disks do not such as support for volumes spanning multiple disks.

It uses hidden database to track information about dynamic volumes on the disk & other disks.

5 types of dynamic disks: Simple volumes Spanned volumes Stripped volumes Mirrored volumes RAID-5 volumes

ADVANTAGES OF DYNAMIC DISK OVER BASIC DISK

Dynamic Disk Basic Disk

Allows disk to be divided into many volumes

Primary & extended partitions does not exist, hence cannot divide disk into many volumes

Configuration information not stored in the disk.

Configuration information are stored in the disk itself.

CONVERTING TO BASIC & DYNAMIC DISK

Windows XP professional has the feature to convert basic disks to dynamic disks.

Advantage of doing this? – Windows OS allows you to span a single volume across multiple dynamic disks.

That means you create a larger volume than what a single disk can hold, better performance.

Note: once you convert basic disk into dynamic disk, you cannot convert it back unless you delete every volume on the entire disk!

MAINTAINING DISK DRIVE

Tools to maintain : Disk Degrafmentation, Check Disk and Disk Cleanup.

Helps you to organize hard disk efficiently, recover readable information from damaged areas on your hard disk.

DEFRAGMENTING A DISK DRIVE VOLUME

A process of finding & consolidating fragmented files & folders by moving them to one location on the hard disk.

It rearranges files or folders in a hard disk to occupy contagious space on the hard disk & reducing the time the operating system needs to access files & folders.

What slows the file access? – temporary files, cache files, unnecessary programs, file system errors!

CHECKING DISK

Attempt to repair file system errors, locate bad sectors & recover readable information from the bad sectors.

All files and applications need to be closed for this application to run.

DISK CLEANUP

Helps free up space on your hard drive by searching your drives & showing you a list of temporary files, Internet cache files & potentially unnecessary program files that you can safely delete.

Options to choose when deleting files : none, some & all of those files.

Use disk cleanup for any of the following tasks: Remove temporary internet files Empty recycle bin Remove windows temporary files Remove optional windows components not being used Remove installed programs that is not being used. Remove downloaded program files.

INTRODUCING FILE SYSTEM File system – a method for storing & organizing

computer files & designed for storage of files on a data storage device such as hard disk.

Example of file systems: FAT,FAT32,NTFS

COMPARISON ON DISK & FILE SIZES

STRENGTH OF NTFS FILE SYSTEM

More powerful Includes features required for hosting active

directory & other security features. Easy to convert partitions to NTFS

Setup makes conversion easy & keeps your files intact.

Maintain access control Maintain the access control on files & folders &

support limited accounts.

CONVERTING FROM FAT32 TO NTFS

Can be done by inbuilt utility in the Windows XP OS (it’s a one way process!)

NTFS improvements over FAT32: Second copy of boot sector for improved

reliability Compression File permissions Improved recoverability Improved performance on large volumes Improved efficiency in disk space utilization Improved fault tolerance.

INTRODUCING ENCRYPTING FILE SYSTEM (EFS)

Encryption – process of converting data into a format that cannot be read by another user.

EFS – provides the core file encryption technology for NTFS volume used to store encrypted files on NTFS file system volumes.

EFS is similar to using permissions on files & folders (restrict access to data).

If intruder tries to open your encrypted file, he receives an access denied message.

Note : permissions on files/folders do not protect against unauthorized attacks.!

EFS PROVIDES FOLLOWING FEATURES