Local Storage

Question 1

Partition table format:

How many partitions per drive can MBR / GPT handle ?

Answer 1

MBR : 4 Primary partitions

GPT : 128 partitions

Question 2

Partition table format:

How big can MBR / GPT disks be ?

Answer 2

MBR: up to 2 TB
GPT: up to 128 exabytes

Question 3

Disk type:

Can the disk type be converted without data loss ?

Answer 3

Basic disk -> dynamic disk: yes

Dynamic disk -> Basic disk: no

Question 4

What file systems are there ?

Answer 4

FAT (partitions up to 2GB)
FAT32 (partitions up to 2TB)
exFAT (for flash drives)
NTFS
ReFS

Question 5

How to view information about the NTFS volume ?

Answer 5

fsutil fsinfo volumeinfo f:

Question 6

How to view the sector information about the NTFS volume ?

Answer 6

fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo f:

Question 7

Create a new dynamically resizing .vhd file of 10 GB with PS

Answer 7

New-VHD -Path c:\sales.vhd -Dynamic -SizeBytes 10Gb

Question 8

Cmdlets to

• mount a VHD,
• initialize it,
• create a Partition
• format it

Answer 8

• Mount-VHD
• Initialize-disk -PartitionStyle MBR
• New-Partition -AssignDriveLetter -UseMaximumSize
• Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS
  - Confirm:$false -Force

Question 9

Change the physical sector size of MyDisk.vhdx with PS

Answer 9

Set-VHD –Path MyDisk.vhdx –PhysicalSectorSizeBytes 4096

Question 10

Cmdlets to

• get Information about a VHD
• convert it to vhdx

Answer 10

• Get-VHD

- Convert-VHD

Question 11

What kind of volumes does 2016 support ?

Answer 11

• simple
• spanned
• striped (RAID 0)
• mirrored (RAID 1)
• RAID 5

but only on dynamic disks

Question 12

How many disks can be used for a spanned volume ?

Answer 12

2 - 32

Question 13

Tools to create and manage volumes

Answer 13

Server Manager
Disk Management
Diskpart.exe
Power Shell

Question 14

In Server Manager -> Files and Storage Services ->
Volumes
What can be done with existing volumes ?

Answer 14

Manage Drive Letter And Access Paths 
Format 
Extend Volume 
Delete Volume 
Properties

Question 15

Cmdlet to remove all partitions and volumes from a disk

Answer 15

Clear-disk

Question 16

Cmdlet to list all available disks in the computer

Answer 16

Get-disk

Question 17

Cmdlet to list all accessible volumes

Answer 17

Get-volume

Question 18

What are the limitations of extending and shrinking volumes ?

Answer 18

FAT, FAT32, exFAT cannot be resized
ReFS can only be extended
NTFS can be extended and shrunk
A volume with bad clusters cannot be shrunk

Question 19

How can a volume be extended or shrunk ?

Answer 19

Disk Management
Diskpart.exe (EXTEND / SHRINK)
Resize-Partition

Question 20

List all the available disks that have yet to be initialized

Answer 20

Get-Disk | Where-Object PartitionStyle –eq “RAW”

Question 21

Create a virtual hard disk and volume on it with PS

Answer 21

New-VHD -Path c:\MyDisk.vhd -Dynamic -SizeBytes 10Gb
Mount-VHD
Initialize-Disk
New-Partition -AssignDriveLetter -UseMaximumSize
Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS
-Confirm:$false -Force

Question 22

Dismount a virtual hard disk with PS

Answer 22

Dismount-vhd C:\MyDisk.vhd

Question 23

Check the properties of a virtual hard disk

Answer 23

Get-vhd C:\MyDisk.vhd

Question 24

Tool to create a symbolic link to a file or folder

Answer 24

mklink.exe

Question 25

Can chkdsk.exe be used on a
ReFS - volume
Ntfs - volume
virtual disk

Answer 25

ReFS : No
Ntfs : Yes
Virtual Disk : No

Question 26

Can Defrag.exe be used on a
ReFS - volume
Ntfs - volume
virtual disk

Answer 26

ReFS : No
Ntfs : Yes
Virtual Disk : No