Unit 2 : Configuring Disks
and Volumes
The system partition and the
boot partition
T or F?
The boot partition contains boot files
such as boot.ini and ntdetect.com.
The Windows 2003 system partition
contains a file that is used to indicate the
physical location of the folder that
contains the operating system files. what
is the name of this file?
ntdetect.com
autoexec.bat
config.sys
boot.ini
Which of the following partitions does
a Windows 2003 operating system
need as long as the server is
running?
1. the boot partition
2. the system partition
a.1 only
b.2 only
c.both 1 and 2
d.neither 1 nor 2
Advanced RISC Computing
(ARC) Paths
The ARC specification for volumes and
partitions (ARC path) defines physical
location based on four parameters: the
disk controller, the physical hard drive
on the controller, the partition on the
physical hard drive, and the folder on
the partition.
Advanced RISC Computing
(ARC) Paths
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\ospath
or
scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\ospath
Which of the following is used to
determine the arc path for
parameters such as the disk
controller and the hard drive?
a.the physical location of the hard
drive
b.the ip address of the hard drive
c.the file format used by the volume or
partition
d.the logical structure of the drive
In an arc path, which of the
following parameters denotes a
controller? (Select two)
a.ctrl
b.scsi
c.disk
d.rdisk
e.multi
In your boot.ini, you have the
arc path, shown here. Which
parameter value is significant in
identifying the hard drive?
In an arc path, which of the following
determines the values used to
represent hard drives?
a. their physical location on the cable
attached to the controller
b. the physical position of the controller
to which they are attached
c. the MAC address of the network card
d. the number of primary or logical
partitions on the disk
Which of the following can be used to
correct an incorrect arc path?
a. use the ‘export arc’ command to update the
boot.ini file
b.boot to safe mode and copy the boot.ini file
from the installation CD
c. boot to the recovery console and use the
‘map arc’ command to find the correct path
and then update the boot.ini file
d.right-click boot.ini in Windows explorer and
select update ARC
[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft
Windows 2003 Server" /fastdetect
Multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=”Wind
ows 98”
Disk Basics
How many primary partitions are
supported in a basic disk structure?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 4
d. 6
In a basic disk structure, which
partition types are bootable?
1. primary partitions
2. extended partitions
a. 1 only
b. 2 only
c. both 1 and 2
d. neither 1 nor 2
In a basic disk structure, which of the
following is an advantage of an
extended partition over a primary
partition?
a. it is fault tolerant
b.it allows for multiple operating
systems to exist
c. it can be divided into an
endless number of logical
drives
d.it is used to boot the operating
system
The following volume types can be
created:
simple,
 spanned,
 mirrored,
 striped, and
 raid-5.

T or F?
In Windows 2003 server, a basic
disk structure supports simple,
spanned, mirrored, and striped
volumes
In Windows 2003, which disk
structure supports fault
tolerance?
a. Basic
b. Dynamic
c. Both basic and dynamic
A simple volume that was converted from a
primary or logical partition on a basic disk
has special properties in that it can house
either the system or boot partition (or both).
If you create a simple volume from
scratch, it cannot have a valid ARC path
(it was never a primary partition) and,
therefore, cannot be used to boot the
system.
Assume that during initial configuration of
your Windows 2003 server, you created
a partition on a basic disk. Later, you
converted this partition to a simple
volume on a dynamic disk. Which of the
following is true?
1. this volume can be resized.
2. this volume cannot be used in a spanned
volume.
a. 1 only
b.2 only
c. both 1 and 2
d.neither 1 nor 2
You are using a simple volume that was
converted from a primary partition on a
basic disk.
T of F? Your simple volume can house
the system and boot partitions.
Which of the following are true of spanned
volumes in Windows 2003? (Select two.)
a.They are fault tolerant they can
consist of fragments of up to 64 hard
drives
b.Segments of a spanned volume do not
need to be the same size
c.One segment is filled before the next
is populated
d.Segments must be initially created as
basic partitions
What are the advantages of mirrored
volumes? (Select three.)
a.fault tolerance
b.improved read capability
c.uses segments of up to 32 hard
drives
d.individual segments can be any size
e.redundant backup
Which of the following volume
types can hold the system and
boot partitions?
In a striped volume, data is written in
blocks across each segment of the
volume. What is the size of each of
these blocks?
a.16 kb
b.32 kb
c.64 kb
d.128 kb
Characteristic
Simple
Spanned
Mirrored
Striped
RAID-5
System partition
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Boot partition
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Fault tolerant
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Space utilization
100%
100%
50%
100%
[(n-1)/n]
Drives required
1
2
2
2
3
Number of pieces included
1–32
2–32
2
2–32
3–32
Pieces must be on different drives
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Formats supported
All
All
All
All
All
Accessible locally by non-2000 OS
if FAT
No
No
No
No
No
Read performance
Average
Average
Up
Up
Up
Write performance
Average
Average
Down
Up
Down
You want to configure fault tolerance on
your Windows 2003 server. Which of the
following volume types gives the best
data storage capacity while ensuring that
a single disk failure will not destroy all
data?
You want to configure data redundancy
on your Windows 2003 server. Which of
the following volume types gives the best
data storage capacity while allowing you
to make the system/boot partition fault
tolerant?
You are considering converting to a faulttolerant raid-5 volume.
T or F? Converting to a fault-tolerant disk
volume will decrease the read performance
of your Windows 2003 server.
You want to implement mirroring on your system, but
first you need to know how this might affect the
performance of your Windows 2003 server. Which of
the following is a good way to see if the change in
performance will significantly affect your system?
a. implement mirroring on your production system,
then run performance monitor.
b. implement mirroring on a computer, then run
performance monitor.
c. set up two identical computers, implement
mirroring on one and not the other, then run
performance monitor on both.
d. you don't need to test performance, because
implementing mirroring does not have any
significant impact on performance.
Which of the computer management
trees must you expand to access the disk
manager?
You need to create a new partition on a
basic disk using disk manager. Which
of the following are types of partitions
that can be created with the disk
manager? (Select two.)
a.simple
b.primary
c.spanned
d.logical
You have created a partition with the
disk manager, but you did not assign a
label to the partition. Which of the
following is true of this partition?
a.The partition is unusable.
b.The partition is hidden.
c.The partition is automatically
assigned the next available drive
letter.
d.The partition becomes swap space
for virtual memory
Feature
FAT
FAT32
NTFS5
Maximum filename length
255
255
255
8.3 filename compatibility
Yes
Yes
Yes
Maximum file size
4 GB
2 TB
16 EB
Maximum partition size
4 GB
2 TB
16 EB
Recommended volume size
<500 MB
512 MB –
32 GB
>500 MB
Directory structure
Linked list
Linked list
B-tree
Intrinsic local security
No
No
Yes
Intrinsic local encryption
No
No
Yes
Intrinsic compression
No
Yes
Yes
Supports disk quotas
No
No
Yes
Transaction tracking
No
No
Yes
Hot fixing
No
No
Yes
Overhead
1 MB
1 MB
4.5-10 MB
Feature
FAT
FAT32
NTFS5
Locally accessible MS-DOS
Yes
No
No
Locally accessible Win 95 OSR2
Yes
Yes
No
Locally accessible Win 98
Yes
Yes
No
Locally accessible OS/2
Yes
No
No
Locally accessible Windows 2000
Yes
Yes
Yes
Locally accessible Windows NT 4.0
Yes
No
Limited
Locally accessible Windows NT 3.5x
Yes
No
No
Case-sensitive filenames
No
No
POSIX only
Case-preserving filenames
Yes
Yes
Yes
Fragmentation level
High
High
Low
Used on floppy disk
Yes
No
No
Which of the following file systems can be used
to format a partition used by Windows 2003
server?
a. FAT
b.FAT32
c. NTFS4
d.NTFS5
e. ufs
Windows 2003 comes with a utility called
convert.exe. What does this utility
accomplish?
1. converts FAT and FAT32 partitions to
NTFS5
2. converts NTFS5 partitions to FAT
a.1 only
b.2 only
c.both 1 and 2
d.neither 1 nor 2
The disk manager in Windows 2003
allows you to change the drive letter of a
partition. However, changing the drive
letter of a partition may cause a problem
with the system. Which of the following
are likely to occur if you change a drive
letter?
a.the bios will not know which
partition to boot
b.some programs will not run
c.the partition becomes unusable
d.the partition becomes hidden
Which of the following statements is true
about the partition known as the active
partition?
a.It is always assigned the drive
letter c.
b.It is the largest partition on the
system.
c.It is the most heavily used
partition.
d.It is the partition the bios will try to
boot from.
Which of the following is true of
dynamic disks?
1. They cannot contain partitions or
logical drives.
2. They can only be accessed by
Windows NT and Windows 2003.
a.1 only
b.2 only
c.both 1 and 2
d.neither 1 nor 2
You upgrade a basic disk that contains a
mirrored partition to a dynamic disk.
What happens to the mirrored partition?
a.It becomes a simple volume and
mirroring is lost.
b.It becomes an empty volume.
c.It becomes a mirrored volume.
d.You cannot upgrade a disk containing
a mirrored partition.
Mounting and Troubleshooting
Which of the following is the result of
mounting a volume or partition on your
Windows 2003 server?
a.increased disk speed
b.primary partitions are extended
c.the disk's free space is
increased
d.simple volumes are mirrored
T or F? When you mount a volume into
a folder, all applications accessing that
folder have to be reinstalled.