When you want to manage basic or dynamic disks, one of the tools you can use is Disk Management, which is shown in Figure 10.
Disk Management also is a snap-in included in Computer Management and
can be added to any custom Microsoft Management Console (MMC) you create
as well.
Important
Although Disk Management is a trusty favorite for working with disks,
it might not be available in future releases of Windows and cannot be
used to manage Storage
Spaces. Dynamic disks also are being phased out in favor of Storage
Spaces and might not be available in future versions of Windows.
Disk Management makes it easy to work with any available internal and external drives on both local and remote
systems. When you start Disk Management by tapping or clicking the
related option on the Tools menu in Server Manager, you’re automatically
connected to the local computer on which you’re running Computer
Management. In Computer Management, expand Storage and then select Disk
Management. You can now manage the drives on the local system.
To work with a remote system, press and hold or right-click the
Computer Management entry in the left pane, and select Connect To
Another Computer on the shortcut menu. This opens the Select Computer
dialog box (shown in Figure 11). Type the domain name or IP address of the system whose drives you want to view, and then tap or click OK.
Important
Server Manager provides a shortcut for remote
management as well. Select All Servers in the left pane, press and hold
or right-click the remote server to which you want to connect in the
Servers panel, and then select Computer Management. This opens Computer
Management and connects to the remote server automatically. Keep in mind
that the remote management of computers is a feature that must be
enabled.
Disk Management has three views:
-
Disk List
Shows a list of
physical disks on, or attached to, the selected system. It includes
details on type, capacity, unallocated space, and status. It is the only
disk view that shows the device type, such as Small Computer System
Interface (SCSI) or Integrated Device Electronics (IDE), and the
partition style, such as Master Boot Record (MBR) or GUID Partition
Table (GPT).
-
Graphical View
Displays summary
information for disks graphically according to disk capacity and the
size of disk regions. By default, disk and disk-region capacity are
shown on a logarithmic scale, meaning the disks and disk regions are
displayed proportionally.
-
Volume List Shows
all volumes on the selected computer (including hard-disk partitions and
logical drives). It includes details on volume layout, type, file
system, status, capacity, and free space. It also shows whether the
volume has fault tolerance and the related disk usage overhead. The
fault-tolerance information is for software RAID only.
Volume List and Graphical View are the default views. In Figure 10, the Volume
List view is in the top right corner, and the Graphical View is in the
bottom right corner. To change the top view, select View, choose Top,
and then select the view you want to use. To change the bottom view,
select View, choose Bottom, and then select the view you want to use.
The command-line counterpart to Disk Management is the DiskPart
utility. You can use DiskPart to perform all Disk Management tasks.
DiskPart is a text-mode command interpreter that you invoke so that you
can manage disks, partitions, and volumes. As such, DiskPart has a
separate command prompt and its own internal commands. Although earlier
releases of DiskPart did not allow you to format partitions, logical
drives, and volumes, the version that ships with Windows Server 2012
allows you to do this using the internal format command.
You invoke the DiskPart interpreter by typing diskpart at the command prompt. DiskPart is designed to work with physical hard disks
installed on a computer, which can be internal, external, or a mix of
both. Although it will list other types of disks—such as CD/DVD drives,
removable media, and universal serial bus (USB)–connected flash random
access memory (RAM) devices—and allow you to perform some minimal tasks,
such as assigning a drive letter, these devices are not supported.
After you invoke DiskPart, you can list available disks, partitions, and volumes by using the following list commands:
-
List Disk Lists all internal and external hard disks on the computer
-
List Volume Lists all volumes on the computer (including hard-disk partitions and logical drives)
-
List Partition Lists partitions, but only on the disk you selected
Then you must give focus to the disk, partition, or volume you want
to work with by selecting it. Giving a disk, partition, or volume focus
ensures that any commands you type will act only on that disk,
partition, or volume. To select a disk, type select disk N
, where N is the number of the disk you want to work with. To select a volume, type select volume N
, where N is the number of the volume you want to work with. To select a partition, first select its related disk by typing select disk N
, and then select the partition you want to work with by typing select partition N
.
If you use the list commands again after selecting a disk, partition,
or volume, you’ll see an asterisk (*) next to the item with focus. When
you are finished working with DiskPart, type exit at the DiskPart prompt to return to the standard command line.
Example 1
shows a sample DiskPart session. As you can see, when you first invoke
DiskPart, it shows the operating system and DiskPart version you are
using as well as the name of the computer you are working with. When you
list available disks, the output shows you the disk number, status,
size, and free space. It also shows the disk-partition style and type.
If there’s an asterisk in the Dyn column, the disk is a dynamic disk.
Otherwise, it is a basic disk. If there’s an asterisk in the Gpt column,
the disk uses the GPT partition style. Otherwise, it is an MBR disk.
Example 1. Using DiskPart: An example
C:\> diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.2.9200
Copyright (C) 1999-2012 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: CORPSVR02
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------ --- ---
Disk 0 Online 465 GB 0 B * *
Disk 1 Online 292 GB 27 GB
Disk 2 Online 378 GB 90 GB
DISKPART> list volume
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- --------- ----- ------- ------- ------ ------
Volume 0 F HRM_SSS_X64 UDF DVD-ROM 3525 MB Healthy
Volume 1 System Rese NTFS Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 2 C NTFS Partition 234 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 3 D New Volume REFS Partition 218 GB Healthy
Volume 4 E Recovery NTFS Partition 12 GB Healthy
Volume 5 G Store n Go FAT32 Removable 28 GB Healthy
DISKPART> select disk 0
Disk 0 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> list partition
Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------ -------
Partition 1 Primary 100 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 Primary 234 GB 101 MB
Partition 3 Primary 218 GB 234 GB
Partition 4 Primary 12 GB 453 GB
DISKPART> select partition 2
Partition 2 is now the selected partition.
DISKPART> list partition
Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 100 MB 1024 KB
* Partition 2 Primary 234 GB 101 MB
Partition 3 Primary 218 GB 234 GB
Partition 4 Primary 12 GB 453 GB
DISKPART> exit
Leaving DiskPart...
C:\>
Windows Server 2012 supports both Standard Format and Advanced Format hard drives. Standard Format drives have 512 bytes per physical sector and are also referred to as 512b drives. Advanced Format drives have 4096 bytes per physical sector and are also referred to as 512e drives. 512e represents a significant shift for the hard-drive industry, and it allows for large, multiterabyte drives.
When working with physical disks, keep in mind that disks perform
physical media updates in the granularity of their physical sector size.
512b disks work with data 512 bytes at a time; 512e
disks work with data 4096 bytes at a time. Having a larger physical
sector size is what allows drive capacities to jump well beyond previous
physical capacity limits.
Thanks to hot-swapping and Plug and Play technologies, the process of adding new internal disks is much easier than in the past. If a computer supports hot swapping of disks,
you can install new internal disks without having to shut down the
computer. Simply insert the hard disk drives you want to use. If the
computer doesn’t support hot swapping, you need to shut down the computer, insert the drives, and restart the computer.
Either way, after you insert the drives you want to use, log on and
access Disk Management in the Computer Management tool or in Server
Manager. If the new drives have already been initialized, meaning they
have disk
signatures, they should be brought online automatically when you select
Rescan Disks from the Action menu. If you are working with new drives
that haven’t been initialized, meaning they lack a disk signature, when
you choose to initialize the new disk, Windows Server 2012 opens the
Initialize Disk dialog box. In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select
either the MBR or GPT partitioning style. When you tap or click OK,
Windows writes a disk signature to the disks and initializes the disks
with the basic disk type.
If you don’t want to use the Initialize Disk dialog box, you can
close it and use Disk Management instead to view and work with the disk.
In the Disk List view, the disk is marked with a red downward-pointing
arrow icon, the disk’s type is listed as Unknown, and the disk’s status
is listed as Not Initialized. You can then press and hold or right-click
the disk’s icon and select Online. Press and hold or right-click the
disk’s icon again, and select Initialize Disk. You can then initialize
the disk. In the Initialize Disk dialog box, select either the MBR or
GPT partitioning style. Next tap or click OK so that Windows can write a
disk signature and initialize the disk with the basic disk type.