Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
exeRcISe 1.3
Initializing disk drives
1.
Open Computer Management under Administrative Tools.
2.
Select Disk Management.
3.
After disk drives have been installed, right-click Disk Management and select Rescan
Disks.
4.
A pop-up box appears indicating that the server is scanning for new disks. If you did not
add a new disk, go to step 9.
5.
After the server has completed the scan, the new disk appears as Unknown.
6.
Right-click the Unknown disk, and select Initialize Disk.
7.
A pop-up box appears asking for the partition style. For this exercise, choose MBR.
8.
Click OK.
9.
Close Computer Management.
The disk will now appear online as a basic disk with unallocated space.
Configuring Basic and Dynamic Disks
Windows Server 2012 R2 supports two types of disk configurations: basic and dynamic.
Basic disks are divided into partitions and can be used with previous versions of Windows.
Dynamic disks are divided into volumes and can be used with Windows 2000 Server and
newer releases.
When a disk is initialized, it is automatically created as a basic disk, but when a new
fault-tolerant (RAID) volume set is created, the disks in the set are converted to dynamic
disks. Fault-tolerance features and the ability to modify disks without having to reboot the
server are what distinguish dynamic disks from basic disks.
Fault tolerance (RAID) is discussed in detail later in this chapter in the
“Redundant Array of Independent Disks” section.
A basic disk can simply be converted to a dynamic disk without loss of data. When
a basic disk is converted, the partitions are automatically changed to the appropriate
volumes. However, converting a dynamic disk back to a basic disk is not as simple. First,
all the data on the dynamic disk must be backed up or moved. Then, all the volumes on the
dynamic disk have to be deleted. The dynamic disk can then be converted to a basic disk.
Partitions and logical drives can be created, and the data can be restored.
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