Книга: Windows Server 2012 R2 Storage, Security, & Networking Pocket Consultant

Partitioning basics

Partitioning basics

In Windows Server 2012 R2, a physical drive using the MBR partition style can have up to four primary partitions and one extended partition. This allows you to configure MBR drives in one of two ways: by using one to four primary partitions, or by using one to three primary partitions and one extended partition. A primary partition can fill an entire disk, or you can size it as appropriate for the workstation or server you’re configuring. Within an extended partition, you can create one or more logical drives. A logical drive is simply a section of a partition with its own file system. Generally, you use logical drives to divide a large drive into manageable sections. With this in mind, you might want to divide a 600-GB extended partition into three logical drives of 200 GB each. Physical disks with the GPT partition style can have up to 128 partitions.

After you partition a drive, you format the partitions. This is high-level formatting that creates the file system structure rather than low-level formatting that sets up the drive for initial use. You’re probably very familiar with the C drive used by Windows Server 2012 R2. Well, the C drive is simply the designator for a disk partition. If you partition a disk into multiple sections, each section can have its own drive letter. You use the drive letters to access file systems in various partitions on a physical drive. Unlike MS-DOS, which assigns drive letters automatically starting with the letter C, Windows Server 2012 R2 lets you specify drive letters. Generally, the drive letters C through Z are available for your use.

NOTE The drive letter A used to be assigned to a system’s floppy disk drive. If the system had a second floppy disk drive, the letter B was assigned to it, so you could use only the letters C through Z. Don’t forget that DVD drives and other types of media drives need drive letters as well. The total number of drive letters you can use at one time is 24. If you need additional volumes, you can create them by using drive paths.

By using drive letters, you can have only 24 active volumes. To get around this limitation, you can mount disks to drive paths. A drive path is set as a folder location on another drive. For example, you might mount additional drives as E: Data1, E: Data2, and E: Data3. You can use drive paths with basic and dynamic disks. The only restriction for drive paths is that you mount them on empty folders that are on NTFS drives.

To help you differentiate between primary partitions and extended partitions with logical drives, Disk Management color codes the partitions. For example, primary partitions might be color coded with a dark-blue band and logical drives in extended partitions might be color coded with a light-blue band. The key for the color scheme is shown at the bottom of the Disk Management window. You can change the colors in the Settings dialog box by choosing Settings from the View menu.

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