Disks, DVD/CD-ROM drives, tape, and other media

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Exam 70-270 Study Guide
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Contents 1 Disks, DVD/CD-ROM Drives, Tape, and Other Media 2 Disk Drives 2.1 Basic Disks 2.2 Dynamic Disks 3 Managing Disk Drives 3.1 Upgrading and Reverting Disks 3.2 Adding and Importing Disks 3.3 Extending and Formatting 4 Media 4.1 Security Access 4.2 CD Recording 5 Moving Along 6 Quick Review 7 Answers:

[edit section] Disks, DVD/CD-ROM Drives, Tape, and Other Media

Removable media has historically played a large role in the function of microcomputers; a Windows XP system is certainly no exception. Removable media in Windows XP allows for the transfer of program and data files as well as normal user operations; in this guide, we will explore some of the media options in Windows XP and discuss how media is covered on the 70-270 examination.

[edit section] Disk Drives

Before we begin to look at removable media, however, we will take a closer look at disk drives in Windows XP. We have previously covered file systems and folders, but in this lesson, we will be taking a closer look at disk management in Windows XP.

Disk drives in Windows are considered fixed (non-removable) drives that can store files. The Windows system files are themselves stored on a disk drive. Windows XP divides disks into two types, basic and dynamic disks.

[edit section] Basic Disks

Basic disks in Windows XP are divided into“partitions,” or separations. Think of a partition as a logical barrier between different parts of the same disk. Note that one partition can span the entire disk or many partitions can comprise a single disk. The limit for Windows XP basic disks is four partitions. A primary partition is a simple division of the drive while an extended partition is linked to a logical system drive. So, if a system has an extended partition, it can only support four minus one, or three, additional primary partitions. Note that basic disks are fully operational in Windows XP and can be used to hold the Windows XP operating system. Several tools and system features allow for modifications and operations to be conducted on basic disk drives, but in general, basic disk functionality is limited in comparison to the functionality of a dynamic disk.

[edit section] Dynamic Disks

Dynamic disks are not divided into partitions like basic disks are; rather, dynamic disks are comprised of volumes, which are still effectively subdivisions of the whole disk. Like extended partitions, dynamic volumes are typically assigned drive letters and are operational within the Windows XP environment. However, dynamic volumes are allowed different redundancy and fault-tolerance options that are not available to the logical volumes of extended partitions.If no fault-tolerance or redundancy options are applied to the volume, it said to be a simple volume.

Some of the different dynamic volume configurations include:

• Disk spanning: If there is a need to “combine” multiple volumes to create a single volume set (for easier access to files under a single drive letter and logical separation), volumes may be spanned together. Such volumes are known as spanned volumes, and Windows XP will allow up to 32 volumes to be spanned together in this way. In a spanned volume, data is written to the disks in sequential order, filling one disk before moving onto another physical disk.
• RAID 0: RAID, or Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, is a system of data storage that was designed to provide redundancy and fault-tolerance for normal disks. It also provided a way to use standard disks (as opposed to expensive, specially-provided disks) forhigh-volume data storage across multiple volumes. RAID level 0 refers to disk striping. Disk striping is similar to spanning in that data is stored over two disks, but rather than filling up an entire disk before moving onto the next disk, striped disks are evenly distributed with data. Note that such a volume is not fault-tolerant in that data is lost if a single drive fails.
• RAID 1: A mirrored volume is similar to a striped volume in that data is copied to multiple disks, but different in that the data copied to each disk is identical. That is, RAID 1 (mirrored disks) volumes are fault-tolerant in their ability to avoid total failure with the failure of a single disk. Note that these volumes are only available on Windows Server operating systems.
• RAID 5: A RAID 5 volume is both fault-tolerant and spanned over several disks. For the purposes of the 70-270 exam (if you decide to take the Windows 2003 Server exam, you will be learning much more about RAID 5), RAID 5 volumes employ parity bits to recreate a failed disk, making a RAID 5 volume fault-tolerant and redundant. At least three disks are required for RAID 5.

[edit section] Managing Disk Drives

Disk drives can be centrally managed from the Disk Management MMC snap-in, a holdover from the Windows NT days of computing. Thankfully, though, the options available in Windows XP have expanded since those days and include many useful features. Let us review some of those features:

[edit section] Upgrading and Reverting Disks

Upgrading is the process of converting a basic disk to a dynamic volume. This process is rather painless and can be done without losing any data. In contrast, reverting is the process of converting a dynamic disk to a basic disk. Before you can revert, you must first remove all data and volumes from the dynamic disk and then choose to revert.

[edit section] Adding and Importing Disks

Windows XP allows you to add disks via “plug and play” functionality. In addition, you can import a “foreign” disk through the Import Foreign Disk wizard, which allows you to import a striped or spanned disk from another PC.

[edit section] Extending and Formatting

A volume can be extended to encompass additional space. A spanned volume in particular can be extended to span over additional drives or volumes. However, at any rate, you cannot extend a system volume as it contains the operating system that runs the partition management program (MMC).

Formatting is the process of erasing all data from a drive and can be done from the Disk Management MMC. You can specify the file type and the disk type from the MMC.

[edit section] Media

As discussed previously, removable media has historically been essential to the operation of computers. Examples of removable media includeCD/DVD, tape, ZIP format, floppies, and even USB thumb-drives. From the Removable Storage MMC you can manage all of the differing removable media drives in Windows. Drive letters are typically assigned to removable media (just as they are to fixed hard disk drives), although in some cases media can be mounted to a system folder on an existing drive letter.

[edit section] Security Access

Windows XP allows you toset permissions on the use of removable media drives as you would do with NTFS disk drives. In order to set these permissions, use the Security Settings tab on the Properties (found by right-clicking the media drive).

[edit section] CD Recording

Windows XP offers CD recording using the built-in burner program. To use this, simply drag-and-drop the files that you desire to burn and then choose to burn the CD after all the “Files to be Written to CD” have been added to the temporary folder.

[edit section] Moving Along

In our next lesson, we will take a look at ACPI and display devices in Windows XP. We will also review some content from previous lessons and learn more about printer options in Windows XP. Now, let’s take a quick break to review the content we have thus covered.

[edit section] Quick Review

1. Which of the following RAID levels allows for disk/volume mirroring?

a. RAID 0

b. RAID 1

c. RAID 2

d. RAID 3

e. RAID 5

2. Which of the following would be the best way to ensure that only administrators have access to the CD-ROM drive?

a. Use a commercial-brand “CD Lock” kit to install a physical computer lock

b. Disable CD recording in BIOS

c. Use Windows security permissions to restrict access to Administrators

d. Use group policy to limit the access of users to only domain power users or administrators

e. None of the above

3. Which of the following is not a difference between primary and dynamic disks in Windows XP?

a. Primary disks do not support the NTFS file system while dynamic disks do

b. Primary disks are divided into partitions while dynamic disks are divided into volumes

c. Primary disks do not support RAID functionality while dynamic disks do

d. Primary disks cannot be spanned while dynamic disks support spanning

e. Primary disks can be converted to dynamic disks without losing data while dynamic disks cannot be easily reverted back to primary disks (data is lost in the process)

[edit section] Answers:

1. RAID 1 allows for disk mirroring and is a feature that allows for redundancy in the case of drive failure. The answer is B.

2. Windows allows you to configure security options in the Security tab on the Properties dialogue window of a removable media (i.e. CD-ROM) device. The answer is C.

3. Both primary and dynamic disks support the NTFS file system. Though the NTFS file system works a bit more effectively on dynamic disks, a primary disk will do. The answer is A.

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