Copyright: Monday, July 09, 2001 08:13:51


Displays each disk size equally, regardless of the disk's capacity.


Specifies the scale used to display disks. Logarithmic displays disks by using a logarithmic computation of each disk's capacity. Use Logarithmic if you manage disks of varying sizes. Linear displays each disk based on its size relative to the largest disk. Use Linear if you manage disks of similar sizes. For example, if you have a 100-MB disk and a 2-GB disk and you select Linear, the 100-MB disk will be barely visible. If you select Logarithmic, the disks will be displayed proportionately.


Displays each disk region size equally, regardless of the region's capacity. A disk region can be space used by a volume, unallocated space, or free space within an extended partition.


Specifies the scale used to display disk regions. Logarithmic displays regions by using a logarithmic computation of each region's capacity. Use Logarithmic if you manage regions of varying sizes. Linear displays each region based on its size relative to the largest region. Use Linear if you manage regions of similar sizes. For example, if you have a 100-MB volume and a 2-GB volume and you select Linear, the 100-MB volume will be barely visible. If you select Logarithmic, the volumes will be displayed proportionately.


Displays the file system for the volume. To format using another file system, click the arrow, and then click an item in the list.

FAT (file allocation table) is the best choice if this computer also runs Windows 95 or later, Windows for Workgroups, MS-DOS, or OS/2. The FAT file system is best used on smaller volumes; it is inefficient for volumes larger than 2 GB.

NTFS (NT file system) provides features such as permissions, encryption, compression, and recoverability. NTFS is recommended if the computer has no other operating system installed. If the computer also runs Windows 95 or later, Windows for Workgroups, MS-DOS, or OS/2, be careful when formatting volumes to use NTFS because these operating systems are unable to access or start from NTFS volumes on the computer.

FAT32 provides improvements over FAT, such as support for volumes up to 32 GB and more efficient use of disk space by using smaller cluster sizes. Windows 98, Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2, Windows 2000, and Windows XP, are the only operating systems capable of accessing FAT32 volumes. MS-DOS, Windows 3.1 and earlier, Windows for Workgroups, the original version of Windows 95, and Windows NT 4.0 and earlier do not recognize FAT32 volumes and are unable to start from a FAT32 volume.


Specifies the disk allocation unit size, or cluster size. All file systems used by Windows 2000 or Windows XP organize your hard disk based on cluster size, which represents the smallest amount of disk space that can be allocated to hold a file. The smaller the cluster size, the more efficiently your disk stores information. If you do not specify a cluster size when formatting, Disk Management chooses a cluster size based on the size of the volume. These sizes are selected to reduce the amount of space lost and to reduce the amount of fragmentation on the volume. For general use, default settings are strongly recommended.


Provides a space for you to type a name for the volume so you can easily identify it later.


Specifies whether to perform a quick format by removing files from the disk without scanning the disk for bad sectors. Use this option only if this disk has been previously formatted and you are sure the disk is not damaged.


Specifies whether to format the disk so that folders and files created on the disk are compressed. You can compress NTFS volumes only.


Specifies the type of volume or region whose bar colors you want to modify in the graphical view.


Specifies the color to use when displaying the selected volume or region.


Specifies the pattern to use when displaying the selected volume or region.


Shows how the new bar color and pattern will appear in the graphical view.


Specifies the disk number, which corresponds to the physical device number. Disk numbers are determined by first looking at controllers and then the disks attached to the controllers. Disk numbers always start with 0 and go up sequentially. Removable devices have disk numbers, but floppy, CD-ROM, and DVD drives do not have disk numbers. Users cannot change disk numbers.


Specifies the type of disk: Basic, Dynamic, CDRom, Removable, DVD, or Unknown. Unknown indicates that the disk could not be reached to determine its type, such as when the disk is spinning up or is not accessible. If the disk is not accessible, the disk has the status Unreadable. A disk with an OEM company's signature could also be specified as Unknown, with a status of Unrecognized.


Specifies the capacity of the disk.


Specifies the amount of free space on the disk.


Specifies the status of the disk: Online, Offline, Online (Errors), Foreign, Unreadable, Unrecognized, or No Media.


Specifies the device type of the disk, either SCSI, IDE, EIDE and so on.


Specifies the manufacturer of the disk, if available.


Specifies the manufacturer of the hard disk adapter, if available.


Lists the volumes on the disk. This information includes the volume label, drive letter, and capacity of each volume.


Click to view the properties of a volume selected in Volumes. This button is unavailable when you manage disks on a remote computer.


Specifies that you want to assign a drive letter to the volume.


Lists the available drive letters. Click the drive letter you want from the list.


Specifies that you want to mount the volume in an empty NTFS folder (a folder that contains no files or subfolders on a volume formatted using the NTFS file system).


Provides a place for you to type the path to the empty NTFS folder. This will be used as a drive path. (An empty NTFS folder is a folder that contains no files or subfolders on a volume that is formatted with the NTFS file system.)


Click to browse for or create an empty NTFS folder to be used as a drive path. (An empty NTFS folder is a folder that contains no files or subfolders on a volume that is formatted using the NTFS file system.)


Lists the drive letters and paths currently assigned to the volume.


Click to add a drive letter or path for the volume.


Click to modify the selected drive letter.


Click to remove the selected drive letter or path.


Lists the disks that contain copies of the mirrored volume. Click the disk containing the mirror (copy) that you want to remove, and then click Remove Mirror.


Removes the mirror (a copy of the volume) from the selected disk.


Lists the dynamic disks that you can use to mirror the volume. Click the disk that you want to use to create the mirror, and then click Add Mirror.


Adds a mirror of the volume on the selected disk.


Lists the dynamic disks that you can choose from to replace the broken portion of the RAID-5 volume.


Lists the unallocated space that you can use to repair the broken volume.


Click to select one or more disks you want to add from the group of disks. If you do not have any dynamic disks installed, all of the disks in the group will be added regardless of what disks you select to add.


Lists the dynamic foreign disks that you have attached to this computer. You must import these disks to manage them using Disk Management.


Lists the disks available for importing.


Lists the volumes on the disks that you want to add. Review the Data Condition column carefully. If there are any problems, this will tell you what will happen to each volume on these disks after the disks have been imported.

Data Incomplete Data spans multiple disks, but not all of the disks were moved. Data on this volume will be destroyed unless you move the remaining disks that contain this volume, and then import all of the disks at the same time. You cannot import the missing disks at a later time to restore the data.

Data Not Redundant (applies to RAID-5 and mirrored volumes only). Data spans multiple disks, but one of the disks that contain the volume was not moved. This volume will lose redundancy if you import all but one of the disks that contain the volume. To prevent this, connect all disks that span this volume to the new computer at the same time, and then import all of the disks together. You cannot import the missing disks at a later time to restore redundancy. If you choose to import only some of the disks, any mirrored volumes will become simple volumes and any RAID-5 volumes will become RAID-5 volumes with the status Failed Redundancy.

Stale Data (applies to RAID-5 and mirrored volumes only). Data spans multiple disks, but not all of the disks were moved. The disks have a stale mirror or stale parity information.


Lists all of the disks you have selected to upgrade. To see the volumes on these disks, click a disk, and then click Details. Note that Disk Management will restart your computer if you upgrade disks that contain system and boot partitions or if the disks you want to upgrade are currently being used by a program.


Click to see the volumes on the selected disk.


Lists the basic disks that you can upgrade. If the partition was created prior to Windows 2000, you must have at least 1 MB of free disk space available at the end of the disk you want to upgrade. Once you upgrade a disk, you cannot change the disk or volumes back to basic without first deleting all of the volumes.


Upgrades the selected disks to dynamic. If the disk or disks contain volumes, the Disk to Upgrade dialog box appears, where you can verify the disks and volumes to be upgraded, view details about them, and determine whether the upgrade will be successful.


Lists the volumes on each disk that will be upgraded. You can look at these to see which volumes span multiple disks. If a volume spans multiple disks, those disks have been added to the list of disks that will be upgraded.


Upgrades the selected basic disks to dynamic disks. Once you upgrade a disk to dynamic, you cannot change the disk or its volumes back to basic without first deleting all of the volumes.


Lists the drive letters of volumes on which you can create drive paths. Click the plus sign next to a drive letter to display the folders on the volume. To create a new folder, select the location in which you want to create an empty folder and then click New Folder.


Creates a new folder for the drive path. Select a path in which you want to create an empty folder and then click New Folder. The folder must be located on an NTFS volume.


Displays the path for the empty folder where you want to create the drive path. The folder must be located on an NTFS volume.


Lists all of the drive paths for all of the volumes on this computer.


Lists the floppy disk drives and other removable storage devices (such as Zip drives) that are available on this computer.


Saves all the changes you have made without closing the dialog box.


Specifies the disk's partitioning scheme: MBR (Master Boot Record) found on x86-based computers, GPT (GUID Partition Table) found on Itanium-based computers, or Not Applicable for an uninitialized disk or unknown device.


Specifies the amount of disk space reserved for use by the operating system.


Provides the current volume information for the disk. Any updates made to the volumes or the disk after you click this button are not displayed.

To update the data on this tab, click Cancel, and then reopen the Properties dialog box. Click the Volume tab, and then click Populate.