Disks, File Systems , and Partitions

Before an OS can actually use disk storage space, what must happen to the disk first?

It must be initialized, specifically it has to be broughy online

What does it mean to initialize a disk?

Determining the partitioning scheme it will use

What can you do after partitioning the disk?

You can give it a file system

What is MBR

A legacy disk standard prior to 2TB hard disks

How many partitions can MBR support?

4

How much disk space does MBR have?

2 TB

GUID

Supports much lever hard disk

How many partitions can GUID support?

128

What makes GUID better than MBR?

It stores boot and partitioning data in multiple places for higher resiliency

Format command

Formats a partition

emdir

Remove directory

Robocopy

Can sync files from two different hosts

SFC

Can check disks for errors and corruption

FAT32

File Allocation Table

Max size of a FAT32 partition size?

8TB

What doesn't FAT32 support natively?

Local file systems, compression, encryption, or files over 4 Gb

Max file storage size for FAT32?

4 Gb

Max volume size of NTFS?

8 PB

What does NTFS support?

Local file system permissions, compression, Encryption File System (EFS)

what is exFAT used for?

SD cards, USB flash drives for digital cameras, tablets, or smartphone

Max volume size of exFAT?

16 EB

Is exFAT a compatible friendly?

No

ext

Extended Filesystem - common on Linux hosts, a journaled filesystem which keeps a log for any changes of disk activity that need to be committed to disk before it's actually committed. Can rebuild corrupted file systems

ext3 vs ext4

ext4 supports larger file systems than ext3, more efficient reads and writes

What is a primary partition?

It contains the operating system files, there can be up to four primary partitions per hard drive. It cannot be subdivided into smaller sections.

What is a extended partition?

A type of disk partition in the MBR partitioning scheme, they are placeholders for one or more logical partitions.

WINLOAD.EXE

A component that is used to load Windows from a suspended state

NTOSKERNEL.EXE

The Windows kernel; when it is loaded, the boot process is handed over to the operating system

WINLOAD.EXE

Used for the normal booting of the Windows operating system, it loads the NTOSKERNAL.EXE

/REBUILDBCD

Can be used with bootrec to to rebuild the boot configuration data

/FIXBOOT

Can be used with bootrec to write a new boot sector to the system partition

/SCANOS

Used with bootrec to scan all other partitions that are found to have Windows installation

/FIXMBR

Used with bootrec to write a new master boot record for the partition

BCD

Boot Configuration Data, used to direct Windows to the proper boot installation

Which operating system life cycle term is used to describe an OS that is almost ready to be sold to customers?

A release candidate, which is a pre-release of an operating system, before it is released to market (RTM)

Alpha version of OS

versions of software that are highly unstable

Beta versions of an OS

More stable with bugs but not ready for retail

Mainstream of OS

a term used to describe the current release of the operating system

Which traditional type of backup media can be physically taken off site for safe storage?

Disk-to-tape

Disk-to-tape storage

a traditional backup media that can be taken off site for safe storage

Disk-to-disk storage

normally a rack-mounted unit that can be hosted at a remote site, but it's not easily transferable

Disk-to-cloud storage

not a traditional backup method and cannot be physically taken off site

When you create a partition on a disk that will be booted, what must you configure?

it must be marked as active

OEM

Original Equipment Manufacturer, the term used to describe the operating system that comes preinstalled on a computer

dual-booting

A computer with two operating systems that can be booted to either operating system via a bootloader menu

L2 cache

Cache memory that is larger and slower than L1 cache, and not as close to the processor. It's usually, but not always, dedicated to one processor core

L3 Cache

The largest and slowest cache memory bank, which is often shared among multiple cores within a processor.

Disk Array

A system consisting of multiple drives that usually operate as one entity

What can be used to enhance the security of bitlocker?

TPM or the HSM

Factors to consider for best disk performance?

Faster seek time and higher rates of revolution per minute

What should you tell a user who's computer keeps locking up?

Increase the size of the paging file to alleviate the problem

What does it mean when a system locks up or extended delays between clicks and responses?

The system is running out of memory

What is disk thrashing?

When a computer's virtual memory is in a constant state of paging; this occurs automatically and will have an adverse affect on a computer's performance

Discretionary Access Control (DAC)

Users can specify access rights to resource themselves; includes cloud systems, objects, and services

Mandatory Access Control (MAC)

provides a very high level of security by comparing the user's credentials with the level of access permitted to the resources being accessed

What is one way to start partitioning a disk for an NTFS file system?

View detected disks devices by the OS

How do you view detected disk devices by the OS?

Search and launch Computer Management>Disk Management tool>disk initializing menu will pop up and give options (you can click if you don't want to partition the disk right away)

Does GPT have any disk partition number limitations?

No

What is another way to start a disk for partitioning?

Launch Server Manager>File and Storage services(on the left)>Disks

How can you initialize a disk in Server Manager?

Right click on a disk and choose "initialize," and it will initialize it as GPT only

How can you change a GPT partition to an NTFS partition in Server Manager?

Refresh by going to the Tasks button, right click on the disk and choose "New Volume,"

How would we format an NTFS partition by using the older Disk Management tool?

Right click on the disk and choose "New Simple Volume," choose the max amount of space and then the disk name, choose and stay on the NTFS, then name the data label, then enable Perform a quick format, and done

How do you begin to partition a disk for the ext4 filesystem?

Use the lsblk to determine which disks the OS knows about>sudo fdsk /dev/[drive name]> n for new partition> p for primary partition> press enter to accept defaults

How can you commit a newly partitioned disk to the partition table and write that to disk?

w to write it

What command can you use to format a partition?

mkfs

Which file system or support system supports file encryption and quotas?

NTFS

What is the advantage of defragmenting a hard drive?

improves file access time

What is the common name used for a volume containing the startup files?

system volume

How are firmware updates installed?

By flashing the BIOS