Planning a Windows Installation Flashcards
Installation Sources - Planning a Windows Installation
- Bootable USB - Computer must support booting from USB
- CD-ROM and DVD-ROM
- PXE - Preboot eXecution Environment
- NetBoot - Apple tech to boot Macs from the network
- Solid state drives/hard drives - Store many OS installation files
- External / hot swappable drive - Boot from USB
- Internal hard drive - Install and boot from separate drive
Types of installations - Planning a Windows Installation
- In-place upgrade - Maintain existing applications and data
- Clean install - wipe the slate clean and reinstall
- Image - deploy a clone on every computer
- Unattended installation - Answer questions in a file (unattend.xml)
Other installation types - Planning a Windows Installation
- Repair installation - Fix problems with the OS
- Multiboot - Pick from two or more operating systems from a single installation media
- Recovery partition - Hidden partition with installation files
- Refresh / restore - Windows 8 feature to clean things up
MBR (Master Boot Record) partition style - Planning a Windows Installation
- Maximum of four primary partitions per hard disk
- One of the primary partitions can be marked as Active
- Extended partitions increase the maximum number of partitions
- Logical partitions inside an extended partition are not bootable
GPT (GUID Partition Table) partition style - Planning a Windows Installation
- The latest partition format standard - Requires a UEFI BIOS
- Can have up to 128 primary partitions
- No need for extended partitions or logical drives
Disk partitioning - Planning a Windows Installation
- The first step when preparing disks
- An MBR-style hard disk can have up to four partitions
- GUID partition tables support up to 128 partitions
FAT - File allocation Table file system - Planning a Windows Installation
- One of the first PC-based file systems (circa 1980)
- FAT32 - Native support in Windows 2000 and newer
- Larger (2 terabyte) volume sizes
- Maximum file size of 4 gigabytes
- exFAT - Extended File Allocation Table
- Microsoft flash drive file system
- Files can be larger than 4 gigabytes
NTFS (NT File System) and CDFS (Compact Disk File System) - Planning a Windows Installation
- NTFS is included with Windows NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1
- Provides quotas, file compression, encryption, symbolic links, large file support, security, recoverability
CDFS (Compact Disk File System) - Planning a Windows Installation
- Read data from a CD-ROM
* CDFS is an ISO 9660 international standard
Other file systems - Planning a Windows Installation
- ext3 - Third extended file system - Commonly used by Linux OS
- ext4 - Fourth extended file system - An update to ext3
- NFS - Network File System
- Access files across the network as if they were local
Basic disk storage - Planning a Windows Installation
- Available in DOS and Windows versions
- Primary/extended partitions, logical drives
- Basic disk partitions can’t span separate physical disks
Dynamic disk storage - Planning a Windows Installation
- Span multiple disks to create a large volume
- Split data across physical disks (striping)
- Duplicate data across physical disks (mirroring)
Quick format vs. full format - Planning a Windows Installation
- Quick format in Windows Vista, 7, and 8/8.1
- Quick format creates a new file table - Data is not erased
- Full format fully erases data from the drive - Check sectors
Other installation considerations - Planning a Windows Installation
- Load alternate third party drivers when necessary
- Decide on Workgroup vs. Domain setup - Home vs. business
- Time/date/region/language settings
- Driver installation, software and windows updates
- Install a factory recovery partition
