Windows 2000 Disk Management
Disk management in Windows 2000 Server is significantly different from Windows NT Server 4.0. You will see some familiar features and functions concerning fault tolerance and general disk management, but there are several new technologies and features you will have to get a handle on to properly manage your system hard disk(s).
File Systems
Windows 2000 Server supports FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. The NTFS file system provided in Windows 2000 Server is an enhanced version that supports the additional security features of Kerberos. When you installed Windows 2000 Server, setup retained your file system from Windows NT (if the installation was an upgrade). Unless you have specific reasons for using FAT or FAT32, you should implement NTFS on all your disk drives. NTFS allows you to use a variety of security and file storage features in Windows 2000 Server, and it is your best performance choice.
You can format any partitions (with the exception of the boot or system partition) using the Disk Management tool in Windows 2000 Server. To format or reformat any drives, follow these steps:
Click Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, Computer Management. The console window opens.
Expand the Storage tree, and double-click Disk Management. The Disk Management utility appears in the right pane.
Right-click the partition you want to format or reformat, and choose Format.
A window appears, as shown in Figure 1, asking you to choose a file system, an allocation unit size, and a volume label. For the file system, you can choose FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. Make your selections, and click OK.
A dialog box appears, telling you that formatting will erase all data on the partition. Click OK to continue or Cancel to quit.
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Figure 1 Drive format.