1. Managing Windows XP
File Systems and Storage
Prepared by: Dashty Latif Mustafa
Subject: Computer
Group: A
Date : 17-May.-2012

2. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Objectives
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3. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
File Storage Basics
• Basic storage
• Centers on partitioning physical disk
• Dynamic storage
• New method supported only by Windows XP and
Windows 2000
• Based on volumes, not partitions
• Allows for more flexibility in drive configurations
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4. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Basic Storage
• Traditional method of dividing a hard drive into
partitions
• Partition
• Logical division of the physical space on a hard drive
• Must be formatted before they can be used
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5. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-1: Creating a Disk
Partition
• Objective: Use Disk Management to create a new
partition
• Use Computer Management tool to create a partition
• Primary partition
• Can be marked active
• Used to boot the computer
• Extended partition
• Can be subdivided into additional divisions or drives called
logical drives
• Cannot be used to boot computer
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6. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-2: Activating a
Partition
• Objective: Use Disk Management to make a
different partition active
• Follow instructions to mark partition active
• Volumes
• Two to 32 partitions combined into a single logical
structure formatted with a single file system
• Represented in the operating system by a single drive letter
• Should be as large as file system/OS allows
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7. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Dynamic Storage
• Does not use partitions
• Views an entire physical hard drive as a single entity
• Drives belong to the OS on which they were created
• Existing drives with partitions can be upgraded to
dynamic storage
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8. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-3: Creating a New
Volume/Activity
• Objective: Use the Disk Management tool to create a
new volume and format it with a file system
• Follow instructions to create a new volume using
Computer Management
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9. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-4: Converting From
Basic to Dynamic
• Objective: Use Disk Management to convert a basic
disk to a dynamic disk.
• Follow instructions to convert drive
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10. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-5: Creating a New
Volume on a Dynamic Disk
• Objective: Create a volume on a dynamic disk
• Create a new volume on the disk created in the
previous activity.
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11. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-6: Extending a Volume
• Objective: Use Disk Management to extend a
volume
• Volume is extended to cover two drives
• Good technique when drive runs out of space
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12. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-7: Reverting From
Dynamic to Basic
• Objective: Use Disk Management to convert a
dynamic disk back to a basic disk
• Volumes on drive must be removed before drive is
converted
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13. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Drive Configurations
• Simple volume
• All or part of a single drive
• Spanned volume
• Two or more parts (up to 32) of one or more drives, or a
volume configuration of two or more entire drives
• Striped volume
• Two or more volumes (up to 32) of one or more drives or
two or more entire drives (up to 32)
• Do not provide any fault tolerance
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14. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
File Systems
• XP supported file systems:
• NTFS
• FAT
• FAT32
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15. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
FAT and FAT32
• For backwards compatibility with older systems
• Supports volumes up to 4 GB in size
• Most efficient on volumes smaller than 256 MB
• Root directory can contain only 512 entries
• No file-level compression
• No file-level security
• Maximum file size is 2 GB
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16. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
NTFS
• Support for volumes up to 2 TB in size
• Most efficient on volumes larger than 10 MB
• Root directory can contain unlimited entries
• File-level compression
• File-level security
• File-level encryption
• Disk quotas, which are a means to limit drive space
consumption by users
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17. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Converting File Systems
• To convert:
• Reformat drive with new file system
• Use Convert utility to convert FAT/FAT32 to NTFS
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18. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-8: Converting To NTFS
• Objective: Use the CONVERT command to convert
a FAT partition to NTFS
• Follow instructions to convert partition
• Proceed only if the conversion of this volume will not
compromise your system
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19. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
File Compression
• Ability to compress data on the basis of single files,
folders, or entire volumes
• Benefit
• Able to store more data in the same space
• Drawback
• Performance suffers due to compressing and
uncompressing
• Must have Full Control to compress object
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20. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-9: Compressing and
Decompressing A Folder
• Objective: Use Windows Explorer to compress and
decompress a folder and its contents
• Practice compressing folders using the folder
Properties
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21. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Disk Management Actions
• Disk Management tool
• All Tasks menu
• Context sensitive menu
• Options to create, remove and configure
• Disks
• Volumes
• Partitions
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22. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-10: Changing Drive
Letters
• Objective: Change the letter assigned to a drive using
the right-click menu
• Use Disk Management tool to change drive letter
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23. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-11: Deleting a
Partition
• Objective: Delete a partition
• Follow instructions to use Disk Management to
remove a partition
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24. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-12: Deleting a Volume
• Objective: Use Disk Management to delete a volume
• Follow instructions to use Disk Management to
remove a volume
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25. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
The Properties Dialog Boxes
• Offer additional details and configuration settings for:
• Drives
• Volumes
• Partitions
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26. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Drive Letters and Mount Points
• Grant applications and user interface utilities access
to file system resources
• A & B:
• Used for floppies
• C through Z
• Used for local hard drives or mappings for network shares
• Mount point
• Alternative to drive letters
• Connects a FAT/FAT32 or NTFS volume or partition to an
empty directory on an NTFS volume or partition
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27. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-13: Creating a New
Mounted Volume
• Objective: Create a mount point on an NTFS folder
using Disk Management. Create a new map point to
Partition B
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28. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-14: Deleting a
Mounted Volume
• Objective: Delete the mounted volume that was
created in the last activity
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29. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Disk Cleanup
• Tool used to free up space on hard drives by
removing deleted, orphaned, temporary, or
downloaded files
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30. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Check Disk
• Inspection utility
• Examines disk integrity and locates both logical and
physical errors on a hard drive
• Called ScanDisk Check Disk in earlier versions of
Windows
• Used after improper shutdown
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31. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Defragmentation
• Fragmentation
• Division of a file into two or more parts
• Each part stored in a different location on the hard drive
• Defragmentation
• Reorganize files so they are stored contiguously and no
gaps are left between files
• Disk Defragmenter utility
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32. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
FSUTIL
• Powerful command-line utility
• Only used by administrators
• Help and Support Center
• Contains online documentation
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33. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Folder Options
• Used to set the functional and visual parameters of
the folders on the system
• General tab
• View tab
• File Types tab
• Offline Files tab
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34. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
File System Object Level
Properties
• Accessed through
• Properties dialog boxes of folder or object
• Minor differences depending on file system
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35. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
NTFS Folder Object
• General tab:
• General information (name, size, etc.)
• Sharing tab
• Security tab
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36. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
FAT/FAT32 Folder Object
• General tab:
• Name, type, location, etc.
• Sharing tab
• Customize tab
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37. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
NTFS File Object
• Three common tabs:
• General
• Sharing
• Security
• Other tabs depending on
object type
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38. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
FAT/FAT32 File Object
• General tab
• Other tabs depending on
object type
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39. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
NTFS-Mounted Volume Object
• General tab
• Sharing tab
• Security tab
• Customize tab
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40. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
FAT/FAT32-Mounted Volume
Object
• General tab
• Sharing tab
• Customize tab
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41. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Managing NTFS Permissions
• NTFS
• Only file system supported by Windows XP that offers file-
level security
• Determines what can be done to a file system object
and who can perform those actions
• Different permissions for folders and files
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42. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
NTFS File and Folder
Permissions
• Read
• Write
• List folder contents
• Read & execute
• Modify
• Full control
• Configured on the Security tab of object’s Properties
dialog box
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43. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Rules for Working With NTFS
Permissions
• NTFS object permissions always apply
• Permissions are cumulative
• Override any contradictory settings on the parent or
container folder
• Deny overrides all other specific Allows
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44. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Inheritance of Permissions
• New object assumes permissions of parent container
• Moving or copying an object from NTFS to FAT
• NTFS settings are lost
• Object inherits the FAT attributes and settings of its new
container
• Moving or copying an object from FAT to NTFS
• Object inherits NTFS settings and permissions of its new
container
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45. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Troubleshooting Access and
Permission Problems
• Most access problems:
• Resource object has wrong settings
• Or user account has wrong settings
• Avoid Common problems:
• Grant permission only as needed.
• Rely upon NTFS to restrict access
• Grant Full Control only when necessary, even on shares
• Change permissions on a folder level, allow changes to
affect all child elements
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46. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Simple File Sharing
• Used when quick and easy file sharing is needed
• Commonly used in home networks
• No granular permission control
• Effective only when Windows XP is a member of
workgroup
• Dragging and dropping folders and drives into Shared
Documents folder
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47. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Managing Shared Folders
• Sharing tab
• Found on both
FAT/FAT32 and NTFS
folder Properties dialog
boxes
• Used to enable remote
access
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48. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-15: Creating a Share
• Objective: Create a share using Windows Explorer
for a specific group
• Activity requires that Windows XP be installed and
that an NTFS partition is present.
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49. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-16: Creating and
Removing a Share
• Objective: Use Windows Explorer to create and then
remove a share
• Activity requires that Windows XP be installed and
that an NTFS partition is present
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50. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-17: Mapping a
Network Drive
• Objective: Use Windows Explorer to map a drive to
a network share
• Activity requires that the Windows XP Professional
be a client on a network with at least one shared
folder available for mapping
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51. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Working With Media Folders
and The Customize Tab
• My Documents, My Music, and My Pictures folders
• Default storage locations for:
• Documents
• Music files
• Images
• Top-level media folders cannot be altered
• Customize tab
• Used to define type of folder the mount point represents
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52. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Zipping Files and Compressed
Folders
• Zipped files
• Preferred method of moving large or multiple files around
over the Internet
• Compressed files that house one or more files into a single
.zip file
• Zipping capabilities built into file system of XP
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53. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Burning CDs
• Support for writing files to a blank recordable CD
Included in XP
• Ability to duplicate CDs
• Record audio CDs from other audio CDs or music
files (through Windows Media Player)
• Erase CD-RWs
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54. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-18: Copying Files
to a CD
• Objective: Use Windows XP’s built-in CD-burning
software to copy files from the disk drive to a CD
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55. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Using Offline Files
• Work with network files when not connected to
network
• Does not change normal access methods
• Maintains the duplicate offline version of the files
• Redirections completely unseen by user
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56. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Activity 4-19: Accessing Offline
Files
• Objective: Make files located on the network
available while not connected to the network
• Use Windows Explorer to make files available offline
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57. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Folder Redirection
• Alter physical storage location of commonly used
folders
• Redirect to a network server
• Retain original local access methods
• To configure:
• Local users alter location of My Documents folder
• Group policy redirects to a share on a network server
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58. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Removable Media
• Include any storage device installed onto a Windows
XP system
• Tape devices
• DVD and CD-ROM drives
• Optical drives
• Zip and Jaz drives
• Can be configured through Device Manager
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59. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
The Microsoft Distributed File
System
• Windows 2000 or Windows .NET Server-hosted
service
• Manipulate and manage shared resources
• Single hierarchical system
• Single access point for logical tree structure
• No regard to physical location of resources
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60. Duhok-Biology department-Computer
Summary
• Volumes and partitions formatted with NTFS, FAT,
or FAT32
• NTFS recommended
• Disk-related utilities are Disk Cleanup, Check Disk,
Disk Defragmenter
• File system objects have Properties
• XP includes support for simple file sharing, zipped
files, CD burning, folder redirection, management of
removable media, and DFS
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