Before you start
Objectives: learn how to create new partitions, extend partitions, create logical drives, convert from Basic to Dynamic disks, and create new and extend existing Volumes in Windows XP.
Prerequisites: you have to know what is file system.
Key terms: partition, volume, create, disk, extend, space, dynamic, basic, logical, drive, hard, free, primary, spanned, upgrade
Configure Partitions
Storage on Basic disks is organized into partitions and logical drives. We can use Disk Management which is located in Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Administrative Tools > Computer Management, to manage partitions and logical drives. Notice that Disk 2 (E:) is Basic disk.
Image 253.1 – Basic Disk
To create new partition, we have to right-click the unallocated space and select ‘New partition’ to open ‘New Partition Wizard’.
Image 253.2 – New Partition
Image 253.3 – New Partition Wizard
Click ‘Next’. We can create a Primary partition or an Extended partition. A Primary partition is a partition from which an operating system can start (it must be marked as Active, and is usually represented with drive letter C:). Only one partition can be marked as ‘Active’. We can create up to four primary partitions on a single disk, or we can create three primary partitions and one Extended partition. An Extended partition allows us to create more than four partitions on a Basic disk. Extended partitions actually contain Logical drives. If we create an Extended partition, then we will have to add Logical drives to that Extended partition. To recap, we can only create one Extended partition on single disk, but we can create multiple Logical drives on that partition. Those drives will have their own drive letters in Windows. Let’s select ‘Primary partition’.
Image 253.4 – Select Partition Type
Click ‘Next’. We need to enter the partition size. In this example we will use 1 GB of space.
Image 253.5 – Specify Partition Size
Let’s click ‘Next’. We will use the E drive.
Image 254.6 – Specify Drive Letter
Click ‘Next’. We will use NTFS and perform a quick format.
Image 253.7 – Format Options
Click ‘Next’. Click ‘Finish’ to create partition. As you can see we now have a new partition.
Image 253.8 – New Partition
Now, let’s create an Extended partition. Right-click the unallocated space, select ‘New partition’, and click ‘Next’.
Image 253.9 – Right-click Unallocated Space
This time we want to create an Extended partition, so we will select ‘Extended partition’ option.
Image 253.10 – Extended Partition
Click ‘Next’. Let’s use the rest of the space on the disk.
Image 253.11 – Partition Size
Click ‘Next’ and click ‘Finish’. Notice that the Extended partition exists, but there aren’t any drives in it.
Image 253.12 – Extended Disk
At this point we need to create Logical drives. Let’s right-click ‘free space’ on our extended partition and select ‘New logical drive’. Click ‘Next’ on the Wizard. We have only one option – to create a Logical drive.
Image 253.13 – Logical Drive Option
Click ‘Next’. We need to specify the size of the Logical drive. In our example we will enter 1 GB again.
Image 253.14 – Size Options
Click ‘Next’. We will accept the F drive.
Image 253.15 – Drive Letter
Click ‘Next’. We will perform a quick format on an NTFS volume.
Image 253.16 – Formatting Options
Click ‘Next’ again and then click ‘Finish’. At this point we have one Primary partition and one Extended partition which contains a single Logical drive. We still have some free space left, so we can use that free space to create additional Logical drives.
Image 253.17 – Logical Drive Created
Configure Disk Types
Before we can create Volumes to take advantage of the new volume features in Windows XP, we must upgrade our Hard Disk to a Dynamic disk. To do that, go to the Disk Management utility. Let’s take a look at Disk 2.
Image 253.18 – Disk 2
Notice the Disc 2 is currently configured as Basic disk. It contains a Primary partition and Extended partition with one Logical drive. We also have some free space on our extended partition. We can upgrade new, clean disks or we can upgrade a disk that already contains data. To upgrade the disk to Dynamic, in our case we will right-click Disk 2 and select ‘Convert to Dynamic Disk’.
Image 253.19 – Right-click Disk 2
Notice that we can select multiple disks for conversion. In our example we will only check Disk 2. Click OK.
Image 253.20 – Disk Selection
On the next screen we can see all the disks that are going to be converted. Click ‘Convert’.
Image 253.21 – Disks to Convert
We will get a warning. If we convert this disk to Dynamic disk, we will not be able to start other installed operating systems. Let’s click ‘Yes’ to continue.
Image 253.22 – First Warning
Again we have a warning. The disks being converted will be dismounted. Click ‘Yes’ to continue.
Image 253.23 – Second Warning
That’s it. Notice that the Primary partition, Extended partition, and Logical drive have been converted to Simple volumes. Notice that the free space, that was located on the Extended partition, is now unallocated.
Image 253.24 – Resulting Volumes
Let’s say that we have a Dynamic disk and we want to convert it to a Basic disk. To do that first we have to delete all the volumes on the disk. Let’s right click on every volume and select ‘Delete Volume’. All data on the Volume will be lost. Of course, we have to backup our data before we delete Volumes. Click ‘Yes’ on the warning message.
Image 253.25 – Warning Message
Now we can convert Disk 2 to Basic disk. Let’s right-click Disk 2 and select ‘Convert to Basic Disk’.
Image 253.26 – Right-click Disk 2
Notice that the Disk 2 is now a Basic disk.
Image 253.27 – Basic Disk
Create Volumes
Storage on Dynamic disks is organized by Volumes. We can use Disk Management to create new Volumes. In our example we have one Basic disk, and two Dynamic disks.
Image 253.28 – Disks
Let’s create a new Volume. To do that, in our case we will right-click Disk 2, start the ‘New Volume Wizard’, and click ‘Next’. The following window appears.
Image 253.29 – Volume Type
First we need to specify the type of Volume that we want to create. Options that are available depend on the disks that we have in our system. For example, if we have only one disk with free space, we’ll be able to create a Simple volume. Simple volume uses one disk. In our example, we have two disks with free space, so we can create a Spanned or a Striped volume. Spanned and Striped volumes require two disks with free space. Let’s select ‘Spanned’.
Image 253.30 – Spanned Volume Selected
Click ‘Next’. Now we need to select disks.
Image 253.31 – Disk Selection
On the left we see a list of available disks and on the right we see a list of disks that will be used in our Spanned volume. Notice that Disk 2 is already selected. That’s because we have selected Disk 2 when we started the wizard. Let’s select Disk 0 and click on the ‘Add’ button. We can also change the amount of space for our Volume. We can do that on both disks. In our example we will use all available space for our Volume. Let’s click ‘Next’.
Image 253.32 – Drive Letter
We will use the drive letter ‘E’. Let’s click ‘Next’.
Image 253.33 – Formatting Options
Because we are using Dynamic disks we can only use NTFS. We can also change the allocation unit size. Allocation unit is the smallest amount of space that can be allocated to store a file. The smaller the Allocation unit size, the more efficiently we store information. Let’s click ‘Next’, and ‘Finish’. Now we have a Spanned volume on Disk 0 and Disk 2.
Image 253.34 – New Volume
Extend Volumes
Let’s say that we have a following situation. We have three disks. Disk 1 is Basic disk, Disk 0 is Dynamic disk and we have created a Volume on it. Disk 2 is also a Dynamic disk, but it is now unallocated.
Image 253.35 – Disks
Let’s say that we have run out of space on Disk 0. We can extend Disk 0 with free space on Disk 2. To do that, right-click the Disk 0 and select ‘Extend Volume’. The Wizard will appear, so click ‘Next’.
Image 253.36 – Right-click
Now, we have to select the disks to extend to. Let’s select Disk 2 and click ‘Add’ button. We will use the maximum available space.
Image 253.37 – Selected Disk
Let’s click ‘Next’, and click ‘Finish’. Notice that we have extended our volume E to the Disk 2.
Image 253.38 – Extended Volume
Remember
Storage on Basic disks is organized into partitions and logical drives. A Primary partition is a partition from which an operating system can start (it must be marked as Active). Only one partition can be marked as ‘Active’. We can create up to four primary partitions on a single disk, or we can create three primary partitions and one Extended partition. An Extended partition allows us to create more than four partitions on a Basic disk. Extended partitions actually contain Logical drives. If we create an Extended partition, then we will have to add Logical drives to that Extended partition. We can only create one Extended partition on single disk, but we can create multiple Logical drives on that partition. Storage on Dynamic disks is organized by Volumes. Before we can create Volumes we must upgrade our Hard Disk to a Dynamic disk. We can upgrade new, clean disks or we can upgrade a disk that already contains data, to Dynamic disk. To convert Dynamic disk back to Basic disk, first we have to delete all Volumes on the disk. Simple volume uses one disk. Spanned and Striped volumes require two disks with free space. With Dynamic disks we can only use NTFS as our File System. We cannot extend Basic disks, or Volume from which the operating system boots from.
Paths that are mentioned in this article
- Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management – utility which we can use to manage Hard Disks in XP