Lesson 4

Lesson 4 - Working With Disks and Devices

Agenda

□ Deconstructing basic Disks

□ MBR vs GPT disks

□ Disk Manager Basic Disk view – Master Boot Record

□ Disk Manager Basic Disk view – Master Boot Record

□ Understanding Dynamic Disks

□ Dynamic Disk Volume Types

□ Volume Types Diagrams

□ Disk Manager Dynbamic disk view

□ Managing Storage Volumes

□ FAT vs NTFS

□ Working with VHDs

(Page 63-103 MOAC Bk)

Storage Need

● Users have different storage needs

- DBAs need addtional storage protection

- Business Analyst needs speedy storage with a lot of

capacity

Main Tools to Manage Disks

• Disk Management console, most common tool (part

of the Computer Management console)

• Diskpart - a command-line hard disk partitioning

utility (Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003,

Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, Windows Vista,

and Windows 7 )

Disk Management console used to:

• Initialize disks,

• Create volumes,

• Format volumes with the FAT, FAT32, or NTFS file

systems

Features of Disk Management console:

• perform most disk-related tasks without restarting the

system or interrupting users

• Most configuration changes take effect immediately

Opening the Disk Management console

● Start

● R Click – Computer

● Manage

● Under Storage node – click Disk Management

OR

● Start

● Run dialog box – type compmgmt

(Page 115 MOAC)

Disk Management console

(Page 112-114 MOAC)

Diskpart

• Other tool to manage your disks

• Command line utility

• replaces fdisk, which was used in MS-DOS–based

operating systems

• use to convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk

(page 109 MOAC)

Diskpart (continued)

• Included as part of the Windows 7 operating system,

and it can also be found as part of WinPE.

• Can also be used with scripts to automate its usage

• To create a fourth primary partition on a basic disk, you

must use the diskpart utility. It cannot be done with the

Disk Management console

How to Use Diskpart

• select the specific disk, partition, or volume using the select command

• For example select disk[=n]

select disk 3 3 – in this example refers to the USB

drive

NOTE: the list disk cmd shows all the disks, assign #, status and

free)

i.e. - Disk Status Size Free

2 online 7633 MB 0-B

(this is a 8GB USB Flash drive, and would be identified by using the

select disk 2 command)

(page 124-125 MOAC)

Diskpart HANDS-ON

Exercise: Goto Command prompt

(Start>All Programs> Accessories> R click – Command

Prompt> Run as Administrator> Yes)

• Type diskpart

• Diskpart> Type list disk (shows you all the disks on your

system)

• Diskpart> Type select disk 1 (may be 0 instead of 1)

• Use the list command to display a summary of current disk

• Use the detail disk command to obtain the detailed

information about the current in-focus disk

• use the exit command to exit diskpart

• Close the window - X

Disk Partitioning

• Any drive or volume to be used by Windows 7, you

must first partition the disk and then format the disk

Partitioning

- defining and dividing the physical or virtual disk

into logical volumes

- Each partition functions as if it were a separate

disk drive

(page 107 MOAC)

DISK PARTITIONING

Two types of disk partitioning styles:

- Master Boot Record (MBR)

- GUID partition table (GPT)

MBR DISKS

• MBR disks have been used as standard equipment on

IBM-compatible personal computers

• MBR disks support volume sizes up to 2 terabytes (TB)

- allow up to four primary partitions per disk

OR

MBR disks support three primary partitions, one extended

partition

(page 107 MOAC)

MBR DISKS

• Can have an unlimited number of logical drive letters

created within the extended partition

(page 107 MOAC)

GPT disks

GPT disks

• Windows 7 includes support for GPT disks in cluster

storage

• introduced with computers equipped with Intel

Itanium-based processors and the Extensible Firmware

Interface (EFI)

• provides a more flexible mechanism for partitioning

disks than the older MBR partitioning

(page 107 MOAC)

GPT disks

• GPT disks support volume sizes up to 18 Exabytes

(EB) and can store up to 128 partitions on each disk

• Eighteen Exabytes are roughly equivalent to 18 billion

Gigabytes.

• Critical system files are stored on GPT partitions

• GPT disks store a duplicate set of partition tables to

ensure that partitioning information is retained

GPT disks (continued)

• no x86 version of Windows prior to Windows Vista

supported it.

• Windows XP Professional x64 does support it.

(page 107 MOAC)

MBR vs GPT disks Review

If you have disks that are greater than 2 TB, you must use

what?

Answer: GPT

Partition Terminology

• active partition -the partition or volume that is marked

as the partition to boot from

- has the necessary boot files

Disk Storage Management

Windows 7 supports two types of hard disk storage:

- basic

- and dynamic

• All disks begin as basic disks

• administrator converts basic to dynamic status, one

physical disk at a time

(page 108-109 MOAC)

BASIC DISK

• a physical disk with primary and extended partitions

• can create up to three primary partitions and one

extended partition on a basic disk or four primary partitions

• Primary partitions are partitions from which you can boot an

operating system

• Can divide an extended partition into numerous logical drives

• When you install Windows 7, the system automatically

configures the existing hard disks as basic NTFS disks

(page 108-109 MOAC)

Dynamic Disks

• Dynamic disks do not have the same limitations as

basic disks.

• For example, you can extend a dynamic disk “on-the-

fly” without requiring a reboot

• Dynamic disks support four types of volumes: simple,

spanned, mirrored, and striped.

(page 108-109 MOAC)

Dynamic Disks (continued)

• Dynamic disks do not have the same limitations as basic

disks.

• For example, you can extend a dynamic disk “on-the-fly”

without requiring a reboot

• Dynamic disks support four types of volumes: simple,

spanned, mirrored, and striped.

(page 108-109 MOAC)


• RAID-5 is listed with dynamic disks, the option is not

available for desktop operating systems including

Windows 7

- the option is grayed out

(page 110 MOAC)


• can contain a virtually unlimited number of volumes, so

you are not restricted to four volumes per disk as you are

with basic disks

• You can divide dynamic disks into as many as 2,000

separate volumes, but you should limit the number of

volumes to 32 for each dynamic disk to avoid slow boot

time performance.

• this type of configuration is most likely found on servers.

(page 108-110 MOAC)

Converting Basic Disks to Dynamic Disks

• use the Windows 7 Disk Management console (an

MMC snap-in) to upgrade a basic disk to a dynamic

disk.

• The Disk Management snap-in is located in the

Computer Management console

Converting Basic Disks to Dynamic Disks (continued)

To convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk from the Disk

Management console, perform the following steps:

1. Open the Disk Management console.

Start �� run dialog box –> type compmgmt

2. Right-click the basic disk that you want to convert to a

dynamic disk and then click Convert to Dynamic Disk.

Converting Basic Disks to Dynamic Disks (continued)

From the Windows 7 command line, perform these steps:

1. Open a command prompt window, type diskpart, and press

Enter.

2. Type commands or help to view a list of available commands.

3. Type select disk 0 to select the first hard disk (select disk 1 to

select the second hard disk, and so on) and press Enter.

4. Type convert dynamic and press Enter.

5. Type exit to quit the diskpart.exe tool and then restart the

computer to have the new configuration take effect.

• do have to restart your computer if you use the diskpart.exe

command-line tool for the conversion

(page 118-120 MOAC)

File Systems

FAT

- older file system used by DOS was the file allocation

table (FAT)

• FAT is a simple file system that uses minimum

memory

• Early DOS used FAT12, which used a 12-bit number

for each cluster, but was later expanded to FAT16,

which recognized volumes up to 2 GB

(page 107, 111 MOAC)

File Systems (continued)

FAT32

- introduced in the second major release of Windows 95

- enhancement to the FAT file system

• uses 32-bit FAT entries, which supports hard drives up

to 2 TB

NOTE - Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista,

Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server

2008 (including R2) support volumes up to 32 GB.



FAT32

• FAT32 does not have the security that NTFS provides,

so if you have a FAT32 partition or volume on your

computer, any user who has access to your computer

can read any file on it.



NTFS

- preferred file system for Windows XP and later

versions

- many benefits over the FAT and FAT32 file systems

(page 107,111 MOAC)


NTFS Benefits over the FAT and FAT32:

• Improved support for much larger hard disks

• Some automatic recovery of disk-related errors because it is a

journaling

• file system that keeps track of its transactions to make sure that

that entire transaction is completed before being recognized

• Better security because you can use permissions and encryption

to restrict access to specific files to approved users

• Disk compression

• Disk quotas



exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)

- sometimes referred to as FAT64

• New file system that is better adapted to the growing needs of mobile

personal storage such as USB flash drives that require minimum

overhead.

• Theoretically can handle up to 64 ZB (a Zettabtye (ZB) is equal to 1

billion Terabytes), 512 TB is the recommended maximum. It can also

handle files that are larger than 4 GB.

• Unfortunately, exFAT does not support the encryption and permission

features found in NTFS.

(page 107 MOAC)


exFAT

• Theoretically can handle up to 64 ZB (a Zettabtye (ZB) = 1

billion Terabytes), 512 TB is the recommended maximum. It can

also handle files that are larger than 4 GB.

• Unfortunately, exFAT does not support the encryption and

permission features found in NTFS.

(page 107 MOAC)

Review

1. You have a new hard drive that has 4 TB. What type

of partitioning style do you need to use?

❍ A. GPT

❍ B. MBR

❍ C. Basic

❍ D. Dynamic

ANSWER: A – GPT disks that are greater than 2 TB, you

must use GPT because MBR (Answer B) does not support

disks larger than 2 TB.

Working with Volumes

Dynamic Disks

- Support five types of Volumes

- Simple

- Spanned

- Striped

- Mirrored

- RAID-5 (Redundant Array of Independent Disks,

level 5)

(page 110 MOAC)

Working with Volumes (continued)

SIMPLE Volumes consists of disk space on a single physical disk

• can consist of a single area on a disk or multiple areas on the

same disk that are linked together

• You can create simple volumes on dynamic disks only.

• Simple volumes are not fault tolerant

• Simple volumes cannot contain partitions or logical drives.

(page 110 MOAC)

Creating a simple volume using the Disk

Management console

1. Open Disk Management

2. Right-click the unallocated space on the dynamic disk where

you want to create the simple volume and then

click New Simple Volume.

3. When the Welcome to the New Simple Volume Wizard

appears, click Next.

4. Specify the size of the volume and click Next.

5. When it asks you to assign a drive letter or path as shown in

Figure 4.3, select a drive letter and click Next.

6. Choose a file system (NTFS is recommended). You should also

specify a name for the volume so that it can be easier to

identify.

You can then perform a quick format (or a long format if you

don’t select quick format) and enable file and folder compression

if desired.

7. When the summary appears, click the Finish button

(page 120 MOAC)

SPANNED VOLUMES

- consists of disk space from more than one physical disk

- can add more space to a spanned volume by extending

it at any time

SPANNED VOLUMES (continued)

• You can create spanned volumes on dynamic disks

only.

• You need at least two dynamic disks to create a

spanned volume.

- You can extend a spanned volume onto a maximum of

32 dynamic disks.

• Spanned volumes cannot be mirrored or striped.

• Spanned volumes are not fault tolerant.

Creating a Spanned Volume – Using Disk Management

Console

1. Open Disk Management.

2. Right-click the unallocated space on one of the dynamic disks where

you want to create the spanned volume and then click New Spanned

Volume.

3. When the Welcome to the New Spanned Volume Wizard appears,

click the Next button.

4. Add two or more drives on the selected column. Specify the size of

each volume. Click the Next button.

5. Specify the drive letter and click the Next button.

6. Specify NTFS file system and specify a volume label for easier

identification.

• You can also specify a quick format and enable file and folder

• compression. Click the Next button.

7. When the wizard is complete, click the Finish button.

(page 123-124 MOAC)

Stripped Volumes • Striped volumes are often referred to as RAID-0;

- stores data in stripes on two or more physical disks

• Data in a striped volume is allocated alternately and evenly

(in stripes) to the disks contained within the striped volume

• can substantially improve the speed of access to the data on

disk

• configuration tends to enhance performance, but it is not

fault tolerant

Stripped Volumes

Guidelines about striped volumes:

• You need at least two physical dynamic disks to create a

striped volume.

• You can create a striped volume onto a maximum of 32

disks.

• Striped volumes are not fault tolerant.

• For increased volume capacity, select disks that contain

similar amounts of available disk space. A striped

volume’s capacity is limited to the space available on the

disk with the smallest amount of available space.

(page 110 MOAC)

Stripped Volumes

Guidelines about striped volumes (continued):

• Whenever possible, use disks that are the same model

and from the same manufacturer.

• Striped volumes cannot be extended or mirrored. If you

need to make a striped volume larger by adding another

disk, you first have to delete the volume and then re-

create it.

(page 110 MOAC)

Mirrored Volumes

• Also referred to as RAID-1

• uses volumes stored on two separate physical disks to

“mirror” (write) the data onto both disks

simultaneously and redundantly.

• You can create mirrored volumes only by using

dynamic disks.

• If one disk fails, the data remains accessibel from the

second disk

(page 110 MOAC)

Mirrored Volumes (continued)

• can stop mirroring a volume by either breaking or

removing the mirror. When you break a mirrored

volume, each volume that makes up the mirror

becomes an independent simple volume, and they are

no longer fault tolerant

(page 110 MOAC)

REVIEW - Working with Volumes

What is the maximum number of volumes you can add to

a striped volume?

– ❍ A. 2

– ❍ B. 4

– ❍ C. 8

– ❍ D. 16

– ❍ E. 32

Answer:

E is correct. A striped volume can contain up to 32

volumes


Which of the following is not supported in Windows 7?

• ❍ A. Simple disk

• ❍ B. Spanned disk

• ❍ C. Mirrored disk

• ❍ D. Striped disk

• ❍ E. RAID-5

Answer:

E is correct. Although Windows Server 2008 supports all

five that are listed, Windows 7 does not support RAID-5

software


Which of the following is not supported in Windows 7?





• ❍ E. RAID-5

Answer:

E is correct. Although Windows Server 2008 supports all

five that are listed, Windows 7 does not support RAID-5

software


Which of the following gives you the best read-access

performance?





Answer:

D is correct. Striped volumes can substantially improve

the speed of access

to the data on disk. Striped volumes are often referred to

as RAID-0.

Optimizing The Disk

• your applications and the data come from the hard

drive, so you must keep the hard drive optimized to

keep your system performing well

• should monitor free disk space, check your drive for

errors, and defrag your hard drive on a regular basis

Optimizing The Disk

Monitoring Disk Space

- monitor disk space usage on all system drives

• If a drive fills up, the performance and reliability can

greatly reduced, particularly if the system runs low on

space for storing virtual memory or temporary files

• the Disk Cleanup tool to remove unnecessary files and

compress old files (reducing disk space usage)

(page 125-126 MOAC)

Optimizing The Disk

Running Check Disk

• use the Error-checking tool to check the integrity of

disks, which examines and corrects many types of

common errors (in Disk Management)

• run Check Disk (chkdsk.exe) from the command line

• both methods above cannot fix a corrupt file

(page 128-129 MOAC)

Optimizing The Disk

Defragging the Hard Drive

- Usings automatic defragmentation

• When a file is created, it is assigned the number of

clusters needed to hold the amount of data.

• If the original file is changed or more information is

added to it, the bigger file doesn’t fit within the

allocated clusters

• Part of the file is saved in the original clusters and the

remaining amount are placed elsewhere on the disk.

Optimizing The Disk


Over time, files become fragmented as they are spread

across the disk

• fragmented files are still complete when they are

opened, but it takes longer for the computer to read

them, and opening them causes more wear and tear on

the hard disk

• To reduce fragmentation, Windows 7 automatically

defragments the disk periodically using Disk

Defragmenter

(page 126 -128 MOAC)

Optimizing The Disk


• For example, By default, Windows 7 runs the disk

defragmenter automatically at 1:00 A.M.

every Wednesday via the Task Scheduler


Optimizing The Disk

How to modify the defragmentation schedule 1. Click Start and then click Computer.

2. Under Hard Disk Drives, right-click a drive and then select

Properties.

3. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now to open the Disk

Defragmenter dialog box.

4. To cancel automated defragmentation, clear Run Automatically and

then click OK twice. To modify the defragmentation schedule, click

Modify Schedule. Use the Modify Schedule dialog box to set the

desired run schedule.

5. Click OK twice to save your settings.


Optimizing The Disk

NTFS Disk Quotas

• NTFS disk quotas track and control disk usage on a

per-user, per-drive letter (partition or volume) basis

• can apply disk quotas only to NTFS-formatted

drive letters under Windows 7

• The per-user feature of quotas enables you to track

every user’s disk space usage regardless of which

folder the user stores files in

Optimizing The Disk

Enabling Disk Quotas

- open Windows Explorer or Computer

- right-click a drive letter

- select Properties,

- click the Quota tab,

- and configure the options

Optimizing The Disk


Optimizing The Disk


- turn on the disk quota system

- can establish individual disk quota limits for each user

by clicking the Quota Entries button at the bottom of

the Quota tab

NOTE - only members of the Administrators group can

view and change quota entries and settings

Optimizing The Disk


• all members of the Administrators group inherit

unlimited disk quotas by default

• NTFS disk quotas are based on file ownership

Optimizing The Disk

How to change an existing quota entry for a user

(in Final Project)

• From the Quota Entries window

• double-click the quota entry

To set up a new quota entry for a user

- Click the Quota menu

- select the New Quota Entry option

Review - Optimizing The Disk

Why do you need to keep your drives defragged?

• ❍ A. To keep your drive from filling up

• ❍ B. To keep your drive clean from viruses

• ❍ C. To keep your drive optimized for better

performance

• ❍ D. To keep your drive free from disk errors

Answer:

C is the correct because disk fragmentation leads to slow

disk performance


You have a computer running Windows 7 used by

multiple users. You want to ensure that a single user does

not use too much disk space on the system. What can you

do?

• ❍ A. Do not assign administrative permissions to the

users

• ❍ B. Enable disk compression

• ❍ C. Establish disk quotas

• ❍ D. Run the disk cleanup tool

Answer:

C is correct. To limit how much space a user can use, you

can use disk quotas


You have a computer running Windows 7 Enterprise. Unfortunately,

you notice that the computer is running slowly. When you first look

at it, you notice that your system has 2 GB of RAM and

approximately 200 MB of free disk space. What should you do to

improve performance? (Choose two answers.)

• ❍ A. Enable your paging file

• ❍ B. Run the Disk Defragmenter utility

• ❍ C. Use Disk Cleanup to delete temporary files and

unnecessary program files

• ❍ D. Modify non-essential services to run in the background

Answer:

B and C are correct. You should run the Disk Defragmenter. A disk

tends to become more fragmented when the disk fills up.

Disk Defragmenter also helps increase performance.

You should also run the Disk Cleanup program to free up additional

space


• What option do you have to use with the chkdsk command if

you want the chkdsk command to fix problems that it finds?

• ❍ A. /c

• ❍ B. /x

• ❍ C. /f

• ❍ D. No option is required.

Answer:

C is correct. Without the /f option, Check Disk only reports the

status of the C drive and any problems that it finds

Deconstructing Basic Disks (Master Boot records)

Partition – A portion of the physical hard drive that can be

formatted and used as an individual storage volume

Primary partition – a hard drive can have up to four primary

partitions on a MBR disk

- One Partition is designated as active

- Active partitions boot the operating system

Extended Partitions - think of this partition as a container

- this container can hold one or more volumes

- Storage volumes on an extended partition cannot be used to

start the operating system

(Page 106 – 109 MOAC Bk)

MBR vs GUID Partition Table disks

MBR – Master Boot Record GUID – Globally unique identifer GPT – GUID Parition Table

MBR GUID

Windows versions

supported

ALL All recent

(Server 2003, Vista –

> current)

Bootable Yes Not – 32-bit

Limit 64-bit (need EFI

Bios)

Maximum Partition

Size

2 TB 256 TB

Maximum Partitions

per Physical Drive

4 128

(Page 108 Table 4-2 MOAC Bk)

Disk Manager Basic DISK View – Master Boot record

1st Disk (Disk 0) – System space and Primary partition – C: which is

bootable

2nd

Disk (Disk 1) has 4 partitions – 3 Primary and 1 Extended

partition (that has three logical volumes), and 126 GB of free space

Nice – color code

Tells what areas are

Disk Manager Basic DISK View – GPT

See have 5 Primary Partitions in the GUID Partition table identified

by the dark blue

Exercise – Try IT

Page 112 MOAC Bk

Opening the Disk Management Snap-in

- View the disk and volume information

Page 115 – 116 View Physical Properties of your C: drive

Understanding Dynamic Disks

Overcome the limitations of basic/MBR and Basic/GPT disks Entpr

& Ult only)

- Support for abt 2,000 dynamic voumes per disk

- Space. Extend volumes to span multilpe disks

- Speed. Improve performance by striping across multiple disks

- Reliability. Improve reliability by mirroring data across

multiple disks

(Page 109 MOAC Bk)

Virtualization

• Virtual machine technology enables multiple operating systems

to run concurrently on a single machine allows for a separation

of services while keeping cost to a minimum

• easily and quickly create Windows test environments in a safe,

self-contained environment

Virtual Machine

• Previously, Microsoft virtual server included Microsoft

Virtual Server and Virtual PC. Starting with Windows

Server 2008, Microsoft introduced Hyper- V.

• Hyper-V is based on hypervisor, a virtual machine

monitor that provides a virtualization platform that

allows multiple operating systems to run on a host

computer at the same time.

Virtual Machine (continued)

• Each virtual machine uses the following files:

1.A virtual machine configuration (.vmc) file in XML

format that contains the virtual machine configuration

information, including all settings for the virtual machine.

2 One or more virtual hard disk (.vhd) files to store the

guest operating system, applications, and data for the

virtual machine. So, if you create a 12 GB partition for the

virtual machine’s hard drive, the virtual hard disk file is 12

GB.

VHD

• In Windows 7, a VHD can be used to store an

operating system to run on a computer without a parent

operating system, virtual machine, or hypervisor

• feature, called VHD boot, is a new feature in Windows

7 that eases the transition between virtual and physical

environments

Create a Native Boot for Windows 7

How to create and configure a virtual hard disk (VHD)

running Windows® 7 for native boot.

A native-boot VHD is a virtual hard disk that can be used

as the running operating system on designated hardware

without any other parent operating system.

This is in contrast to a scenario where a VHD is connected

to a virtual machine on a computer with a parent operating

system.

EXERCISE VHD – HANDS-ON

Creating VHD using Diskpart

Creating and Attaching VHD using Diskpart utility

• Open the Start Menu.

• Click on All Programs and Accessories,

then right click on Command Prompt

and click on Run as administrator

(elevated command prompt)


After Open the Elevated Command Prompt with

Administrator Privileges and type the following

commands:

• DISKPART

• CREATE VDISK FILE="c:\win7\win7.vhd" MAXIMUM=20000

• SELECT VDISK FILE="c:\win7\win7.vhd"

• ATTACH VDISK

• CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

• ASSIGN LETTER=X

• FORMAT QUICK LABEL=Windows7

• EXIT

• This will create the VHD file of primary partition. You will see the newly

attached disk in Disk Management with Drive letter X:



Attaching and Detaching VHD in Windows 7

• Right Click on My Computer and Click 'Manage' that

will open up Computer Management, in that click on

Disk Management. Just like previous part.

• Then Right Click on Disk Management and select

'Attach VHD'. This will open new windows 'Attach

Virtual Hard Disk’


• Click on OK and that will attach the existing Virtual

Hard Disk. Now, if you don't want to make write

anything on the VHD, we will select the 'Read-only'

check box.

And subsequently we will have the attached VHD in

explorer.


How to Detach VHD?

To detach the VHD simply Right Click on the 'Disk 1'

(Blue Color) and select 'Detach VHD

After clicking on 'Detach VHD' you will be prompt you

with 'Detach Virtual Hard Disk' message. Click on

OK to detach. Also, if you want delete the VHD

permanently you can select the Checkbox

This way we have seen how can we create new VHDs,

attach/detach existing VHDs using Disk Management

and Diskpart utility.

BOOTING FROM A VHD

• How to Boot VHD`s using Windows 7

While all Windows 7 editions can create and attach a

VHD, only the Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise

editions support booting from a VHD.

BOOTING FROM A VHD

Step 1: Begin by following this Tutorial to create a

VHD: Virtual Hard Disk - Create and Attach VHD

Step 2: Open a elevated command prompt.

Step 3: type this command: bcdedit /copy {current} /d

"VHD_Boot" If the command succeeds, BCDEdit

displays a message similar to the following:

The entry was successfully copied to

{CLSID_Number}

BOOTING FROM A VHD (continued)

Take note of the CLSID number as you will need this

during the next step

Step 4: Then type this command bcdedit /set

{CLSID_Number} osdevice vhd=[C:]\disk1.vhd

Step 5: Thats it, You can now boot VHDs using

Windows 7

To confirm the settings simply type bcdedit

If your VHD is configured correctly You can reboot

and select the extra boot-option to boot from your VHD

BOOTING FROM A VHD (continued)

NOTE- • VirtualPC VHDs can not be used for booting with Windows 7

because VirtualPC uses a Pentium 3 HAL and this prevents them from

being used as boot media, You can however use this Tutorial: Virtual

Hard Disk - Create and Attach VHD and create then mount a VHD for

use with VMWare Workstation....

You simply set VMWare workstation to use a Physical Disk, you can

then Install a separate OS onto this mounted VHD for use with

Windows 7.

TIP - You Must reset your VHD VirtualOS configuration like HAL type

and driver configuration or your VHD will fail to boot!!! It must be

cleaned of VirtualOS configuration correctly before windows 7 can boot

your VHD!!

BOOTING FROM A VHD

NOTE about Virtual PC (microsoft)

There are still many bugs associated with VHD booting with Windows 7

at this time, I suspect Microsoft will be releasing a new Version of

VirtualPC that's able to manage this entire process of creating, installing

and booting separate VHDs at boot-time easily and without so many

problems

Review - Configuring a VHD

• When using a virtual system such as Hyper-V, the disk for a virtual

system is stored in what file?

• ❍ A. VMC

• ❍ B. VHD

• ❍ C. VSV

• ❍ D. AVHD

Answer:

B is correct. The virtual hard disk (.vhd) files store guest operating

systems, applications and data for the virtual machine


What utility would you use to create a VHD file?

• ❍ A. bcdboot

• ❍ B. bcdedit

• ❍ C. imagex.exe

• ❍ D. Disk Management console

Answer:

D is correct. To create a VHD, you would use the Disk Management

console.


You have a Virtual Hard Disk with Windows 7. How do you add the VHD

to the Windows 7 boot menu?

❍ A. Use diskpart.exe to select vdisk

❍ B. Attach to your machine using Disk Management

❍ C. Use the bcdedit.exe command and modify the

Windows Boot Manager settings

❍ D. Use the bootcfg.exe command to modify the Windows Boot

Manager settings

Answer:

C is correct. For Windows Vista and 7, the boot menu is configured

using the bcdedit command, which edits a hidden file called c:\boot\bcd.

To add a VHD manually to the boot menu, you also use bcdedit.exe.


• What utilities do you use to create a VHD file? (Choose all that apply.)

• ❍ A. diskpart

• ❍ B. Disk Management

• ❍ C. bcdedit

• ❍ D. bcdboot

Answer:

A and B are correct. diskpart and Disk Management are used to create a

VHD file (virtual hard drive)

WORKING WITH DEVICE DRIVER – p 135

UNDERSTADING DEVICE DRIVERS – p 136

Device drivers are program s that control a device.

- each act like a translator between the device and programs that use the device.

- Each device has its own set of specialized commands that only its driver knows.

Understanding Driver Complexity - p 136

Programs access devices by using generic commands, and the driver accepts the generic

commands from the program and translates them into specialized commands for the device.

Device drivers are needed for a device to work.

WHERE TO GET DEVICE DRIVERS FROM FOR

WINDOWS 7

drivers can be retrieved from the following sources:

. Bundled with Windows 7

. Supplied with a device

. Updated with Windows Update

. Updated from the manufacturer’s Internet site

Creating Driver Update Policy – p 137

Understanding Driver Signing – p 137-8

To ensure reliable drivers, Microsoft implemented signed drivers starting. A signed driver is a device driver that includes a digital signature, which is an electronic security mark that can indicate the publisher of the software and information that can show if a driver has been altered. When it is signed by Microsoft, the driver has been thoroughly tested to make sure that the driver will not cause problems with the system’s reliability and not cause a security problem.

Supplying Drivers during Windows 7 Installation – p 138

Device drivers that are included on the Windows 7 installation DVD

Or can be downloaded from Microsoft’s update website include a Microsoft digital signature

(making it a signed driver).

If problems installing driver or device is not working properly,

- check with Microsoft’s update website

- visit the device manufacturer’s support website to obtain an up-to date digitally signed

driver for your device.

Use the File Signature Verification program (Sigverif.exe) to check if unsigned device drivers are in

the system area of a computer.

Obtain basic list of signed and unsigned device drivers from a command prompt by running the

driverquery command with the /si switch.

Updating drivers with Windows Update – p 139

Using device manager – p 139-141

Find devices that are connected to your computer by looking in Device Manager.

Lists all of the hardware installed inside your computer as well as devices connected externally.

device is added to the system, the device list in Device Manager is re-created

To access the Device Manager, you must be logged on to the system as an administrator.

To open Device Manager,

click the Start button,

click Control Panel,

click System and Security,

and then click Device Manager in the System section

Locate and double-click a device, you can view the details of the driver

in the General tab including the status of the device.

Selecting the Driver tab, allows you to do the following:

. Driver File Details: Shows the driver file and its location, the provider of the driver, the version of

the file, and the digital signer of the file.

. Uninstall a device: The Device Manager tool can be used to uninstall the device driver and remove

the driver software from the computer.

. Enable or disable devices: - p 141

Instead of uninstalling the driver installer, you can use the Device Manager to disable the device. The

hardware configuration is not changed.

Update device drivers: - p 142

If you have an updated driver for a device, you can use the Device Manager tool to apply the updated

driver.

Roll back drivers: - p 143

If you experience system problems after you update a driver, you can roll back to the previous driver

by using driver rollback.

This feature enables you to reinstall the last device driver that was functioning before the installation of

the current device driver.

If there’s no previous version of the driver installed for the selected device, the Roll Back Driver

button is unavailable.

REVIEW – Device Drivers

You have an offline Windows 7 image. What tool would you use to add

updated device drivers to the image?

❍ A. Use the imagex command-line utility

❍ B. Use the pkgmgr.exe utility

❍ C. Use Windows SIM

❍ D. Use the DISM tool

Answer:

D is correct. Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) is a

command-line tool that is used to service and manage Windows images.

You can use it to install, uninstall, configure, and update Windows features,

packages, drivers, and international settings.


What are the advantages of using signed drivers? (Choose all that apply.)

❍ A. You can verify where the driver came from.

❍ B. You can verify that the driver has not been tampered with.

❍ C. You can limit who has access to the driver.

❍ D. You can verify the driver has been thoroughly tested.

Answer:

A, B, and D are correct. It is always recommended that you use signed

drivers because you can verify where the driver came from, that the driver

has not been tampered with, and that the driver has been thoroughly tested

to be reliable.


In Device Manager, how do you know if a device is disabled?

❍ A. There is a red X.

❍ B. There is an exclamation point.

❍ C. There is a down arrow.

❍ D. It is flashing.

Answer:

C is correct. A down black arrow indicates a disabled device. A disabled

device is a device that is physically present in the computer and is consuming

resources, but does not have a driver loaded.


You installed a new driver you got from the Internet for your sound card.

Now the sound card does not work. What do you do to correct this

problem?

❍ A. Enter Safe mode and remove the driver

❍ B. Rollback the driver

❍ C. Disable the device

❍ D. Uninstall the driver

Answer:

B is correct. When a new device driver does not function properly, you

should roll it back so you can revert to the previous driver.

RESOURCES

diskpart utility, visit the following website:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415

Documents

Lesson 4