Lesson 10 Chapter 1 - Partitioning Flashcards
What does partitioning do?
Establishes the
Partitioning establishes the framework upon which a file system is built
[Foundation of the file system]
What does formatting do?
Creates the
Formatting creates the file system
Some storage devices come pre-formatted with a single ______
partition
Techs often abbreviate the term hard disk drive to just ____
SSDs are also referred by this, even though they aren’t mechanical
disk
Devoting the entire pool of space to a single volume is still considered ______
partitioning
What’s the main reason to divide a storage device into more than one partition? (1)
to assign it to a different OS (to have more than one OS)
Each ____ ____ must be on its own partition (2)
operating system
What are the 3 different partitioning methods that Windows supports? Which one is proprietary to Microsoft?
older, newer, even newer
- Master Boot Record (MBR)
- Dynamic storage
- GUID Partition Table (GPT)
What does Microsoft call a hard drive that uses either the MBR/GPT partitioning scheme? What does it call a drive using the dynamic storage partitioning scheme? (2)
white girl
MBR/GPT = Basic disk
Dynamic storage = Dynamic disk
What’s a limitation of MBR in regards to installing Windows OS?
MBR does not support Windows 11
What are the 2 very small data structures MBR partitioning creates on a drive?
MBR partitioning creates
1. Master Boot Record
2. Partition Table
data structures in the boot sector of the drive
What is a boot sector? What does it store? (2)
first
The boot sector is the first sector of the hard drive
It stores the 2 very small data structures of the MBR partitioning (MBR code is first, partition table second)
MBR partition tables support up to ____ partitions
MBR partition tables support up to 4 partitions
The MBR partition table supports two types:
- Primary Partition
- Extended Partition
What does it mean if a partition supports only one volume per partition?
They support only one drive letter per partition (C:)
Describe the function of a primary partition. How many volumes do they support? (2)
- A primary partition is designed to support bootable OS
- A primary partition only supports 1 volume per partition (1 drive letter per partition)
Describe the function of an extended partition. How many volumes do they support? (2)
- An extended partition is not bootable
- Can support multiple volumes on a partition, each with its own drive letter
How many different OS can you install on an MBR partitioned storage device? (1)
Each will have its own primary partition, you choose which to boot to each time
You can install up to 4 different OS
What does it mean when a partition is “active”? How many can be active at a time? (2)
A partition is active when it’s the default boot partition
Only one can be active at a time
How does the computer know which partition is active to boot from? MBR disks
at shoe
The BIOS/UEFI reads the MBR to determine which partition is active and boots from that one
How do you select which OS you want at boot?
more than one shoe
A multi-boot utility can display a menu of OS choices at startup (the utility runs at startup from whichever partition is active, then passes control over)
The MBR only has one job:
its code looks in the partition table for a partition with a valid OS
What’s another word for multiple volumes in terms of partitioning?
A logical drive (because we’re not literally splitting it up into physical parts)
Windows creates logical drives automatically once you exceed ___ ____ on a single drive
4 volumes
When you create partitions and logical drives in Windows, the OS prompts you to create ______
volumes
What is a volume mount point/mount point?
a place in the…of an…, points to another
A volume mount point is a place in the directory structure of an existing volume that points to another volume or partition
When should you use MBR partitioning? (3) [only when you have to]
when the…, or when you think you…
Only use MBR partitioning when:
1. The motherboard only supports using BIOS
2. Or when you think you might move the storage device to a system that uses BIOS eventually
3. Hard drive is under 2.2TB total capacity
MBR has 3 negatives:
doesn’t support, allows only, doesn’t support___larger
- Doesn’t support Windows 11
- Allows only 4 partitions
- Doesn’t support disks larger than 2.2TB
Why should you use a GUID Partition Table (GPT)? (3)
Best choice when the…., as long as you don’t…., helps to fu…
GPT:
1. Best choice when the motherboard supports UEFI
2. As long as you don’t think you’ll use a motherboard that uses BIOS in the future
3. Helps to future-proof your system as GPT has many advantages
Can you initialize and partition a storage device at the same time you install the operating system?
Yes you can initialize and partition a storage device at the same time you install an operating system
What is the tool you use on Windows to add or modify drives and arrays?
Disk Management
What on your desktop do you right-click to get to Disk Management?
Start button
What are 5 volume statuses you might see at the top of Disk Management? What do they mean?
H, H-AR, F, F, U
- Healthy - All is well
- Healthy (At Risk) - Readable atm, but are read/write errors at the disk level, maybe on another volume
- Formatting - in the process of being formatted
- Failed - Volume is damaged or corrupt. Check physical connections. If Dynamic volume, check all disks in the set (if part of a RAID) are online and healthy
- Unknown - disk has not been initialized or boot sector is corrupt
What are 8 common disk statuses you might see on the bottom, far left column in Disk Management?
O, O-E, O, Not In, F, Un, Un, No M
- Online - disk is healthy and communicating well with computer
- Online-Errors - A dynamic disk has read/write errors on an area of the disk
- Offline - either corrupted or having communication problems. Right click to bring online.
- Not initialized - disk doesn’t have valid signature (maybe not been partitioned or formatted). right click > initialize disk. If disk was working, drive may be failing or corrupted.
- Foreign - appears when you move a dynamic disk into another computer. right click > import foreign disks
- Unreadable - disk is not accessible. hardware, software, corruption, or read/write error on an area of the disk
- Unrecognized - disk type not supported by Windows, may be from a different OS
- No Media - removable media drive (like DVD) has no disk in it
New disks must be initialized before use. What does this mean?
identifies what
Initializing identifies what system that disk belongs to and what role it will have
What happens if you don’t initalize a hard drive?
???
If you don’t initialize a hard drive, it will show up as Unknown status
If a hard disk has previously been used, you don’t need to _____ it
initialize
How do you change a MBR disk to GPT?
You right-click on the disk in the lower pane, left side and select Convert to GPT
How do you know the disk has been initialized?
It will show a status of Basic and Online in the lower portion of the Disk Management window
After a disk has been initialized, and the disk space shows as unallocated, how do you create a new volume?
You right-click on the volume and “New Simple Volume”
Allocation unit is another name for cluster; what is a cluster?
a cluster is a ____ of ____addressed as a
a cluster is a group of sectors that is addressed as a single unit
(a group of people being known as 1 name = Jabbawokees)
What two groups do partitioning errors fall in?
failing to, making the wrong
- Failure to partition at all
- Partitioned using the wrong type or size
How would you know you have a partition error, like when you try to find it or when you start filling it up with files? (2)
You would know you have a partition error because
1. the drive wouldn’t show up
2. the drive is so small it fills up quickly
What is diskpart?
a command line utility for partitioning storage devices
What are 2 things diskpart can do that Disk Management can’t?
creating ____ partitions on ____, setting ____ ____
diskpart can:
create extended partitions on a MBR drive
setting up mirrored volumes
