Disk management

By : AJAY PRAVINBHAI PANCHAL(STUDENT OF MCA)

Disk management Disk Management is a system utility for

managing hard disks and the volumes or partitions that they contain. With Disk Management, you can initialize disks, create volumes, and format volumes with the FAT, FAT32, or NTFS file systems. Disk Management enables you to perform most disk-related tasks without restarting the system or interrupting users.

Here the Step reach Disk Management Utility of windows 7

Extend volume You can add more space to existing primary

partitions and logical drives by extending them into adjacent unallocated space on the same disk. To extend a basic volume, it must be raw or formatted with the NTFS file system. You can extend a logical drive within contiguous free space in the extended partition that contains it. If you extend a logical drive beyond the free space available in the extended partition, the extended partition grows to contain the logical drive.

Shrink Volume You can decrease the space used by primary

partitions and logical drives by shrinking them into adjacent, contiguous space on the same disk. For example, if you discover that you need an additional partition but do not have additional disks, you can shrink the existing partition from the end of the volume to create new unallocated space that can then be used for a new partition.

Change drive letter & path You can use Disk Management to assign a

mount-point folder path (rather than a drive letter) to the drive. Mount-point folder paths are available only on empty folders on basic or dynamic NTFS volumes.

Reactivate Volume A dynamic disk may become Offline if it is

corrupted or intermittently unavailable. A dynamic disk may also become Offline if you attempt to import a foreign (dynamic) disk and the import fails. An error icon appears on the Offline disk. Only dynamic disks display the Missing or Offline status.

Only dynamic disks can be reactivated.

Create a Spanned VolumeA spanned volume is a dynamic volume consisting

of disk space on more than one physical disk. If a simple volume is not a system volume or boot volume, you can extend it across additional disks to create a spanned volume, or you can create a spanned volume in unallocated space on a dynamic disk.

You need at least two dynamic disks in addition to the startup disk to create a spanned volume. You can extend a spanned volume onto a maximum of 32 dynamic disks.

Spanned volumes are not fault tolerant.

Extending a spanned volumeA spanned volume is a dynamic volume that

consists of disk space on more than one physical disk. If a simple volume is not a system volume or boot volume, you can extend across additional disks. If you extend a simple volume across multiple disks, it becomes a spanned volume.

You can extend a volume only if it does not have a file system or if it is formatted using the NTFS file system. You cannot extend volumes formatted using FAT or FAT32.

Shrink aSpanned VolumeYou can decrease the space used by simple or

spanned volumes by shrinking them into contiguous free space at the end of the volume. For example, if you discover that you need an additional partition but do not have additional disks, you can shrink the existing partition from the end of the volume to create new unallocated space that can then be used for a new partition.

When you shrink a partition, any ordinary files are automatically relocated on the disk to create the new unallocated space. There is no need to reformat the disk to shrink the partition.

Initialize DiskNew disks appear as Not Initialized. Before

you can use a disk, you must first initialize it. If you start Disk Management after adding a disk, the Initialize Disk Wizard appears so you can initialize the disk. The disk is initialized as a basic disk.

Move Disks to Another ComputerVerify volume health.

Use Disk Management to make sure the status of the volumes on the disks is Healthy. If the status is not Healthy, you should repair the volumes before you move the disks.

Uninstall the disksRemove dynamic disks

If the disks you want to move are dynamic disks, in Disk Management, right-click the disks that you want to move, and then click Remove Disk.

Install disks in the new computerIf the disks are external, plug them into the

computer. If the disks are internal, make sure the computer is turned off and then physically install the disks in that computer.

Start the computer that contains the disks you moved and follow the instructions on the Found New Hardware dialog box.

Manage Virtual Hard DisksThe Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format is a

publicly available image format(iso) specification that specifies a virtual hard disk encapsulated in a single file, capable of hosting native file systems while supporting standard disk and file operations. They are commonly used as part of the Hyper-V feature of Windows Server 2008 R2.

You can use Disk Management to create, and attach virtual hard disks (VHDs).

The path specifying the location for the VHD must be fully qualified and cannot be in the \Windows directory.

The minimum size for a VHD is 3 megabytes (MB).

A VHD can only be a basic disk.

Because a VHD is initialized when it is created, creating a large fixed-size VHD might take some time.

Warning This is not for a daily use.It may be cause a damage to your hardrive

because it real-time deal with the hardware.