Disk Management and Maintenance

The Hard Disk Drive is one  of the most important and yet mysterious parts  of a computer system.  The hard disk of our computer  is more than just a storage device; it is a requiring constant maintenance. Therefore, we should  use Disk Cleanup, Diskpart, Defragmentation, Disk Management Console to increase the functionality and the performance of the  hard disk.

Disk Cleanup generates  the possibility of our computer faster running, while  free up the space disk. The utility Disk Cleanup was designed to automate the process  of analyzing and  identifying   files  that are no  longer  needed or used  by operating system. These files may  consist of installation files and folders, temporary files, Internet files and recycle bin. Disk Cleanup  finds  and  acompresses older  files  thereby  the amount of space is reduced on the hard drive.  The Disk Cleanup tool  also offers to remove  old backups or unused  programs installed on the hard drive. There is a benefit  that  free space on the hard drive is made  available for other  programs or files that need it.   Moreover,  Microsoft  Support  Center  warned  the  users  of  employing  this option  with  caution.  Plus, Disk Cleanup tool  gives the option to remove all but the most  recent  restore  points for a computer. Usually  multiple restore points are created  by default to ensure there is a point  a computer can  be restored to in case of  a unnoticed  problem that suddenly presents itself.

Diskpart is another Microsoft’s  utility  increasing the functionality  and performance of a HDD.  It was  reported  that “Diskpart is a tool introduced by  Microsoft, to extend the data volumes  in Windows 2000, Windows XP  and  Windows  2003.”(New Technology, June 16, 2006.) It is a command  line utility  to extend  the existing  partitions  by using  the  unallocated   space  displayed  in Disk  Management.  The benefit of  partitioning  realizes  in isolation  the operating system from other files.  Partitioning  gives the possibility to organize the file setup on our drive.   Meanwhile, the designer acknowledged that “the basic disk can be empty, contain basic partitions or logical disk. The disk  may be with data, system or boot disk, but should not be composed of fault-tolerant sets (FtDisk), such as striped or mirrored sets” (New Technology, 2006). To convert basic disks, which contain sets of FtDisk, use Disk  Management  in Windows 2000, or convert the drive before you upgrade to Windows

XP.  According to (Support. microsoft) “there is a possibility to convert  a dynamic disk  to a basic disk, however, any dynamic volumes should be deleted before this process. Never  delete  partitions on a dynamic disk, but if there is an urgent  case.  It is recommended  not  to  use  the dynamic partitions and the  prime basic partitions  on the same drive, because the computer  may not to restart”. With  Diskpart  you can remove the missing dynamic disks. Dynamic disks contain a part of a common database, therefore, each dynamic disk has information about other dynamic disks on the computer. If you move a dynamic disk the initial computer grips  it  lacking.

Over time and with regular use, files and folders  on a computer’s hard drive break down or become defragmented. When computer files  are fragmented, they are disorganized. As  a result the Operating System (OS) runs  slowly and detects the processing problems  states Support. microsoft. Defragmenting the computer gathers and reunites the files, which  usually improves overall  performance. During the work a computer program  must  access various files, which frequently  are spread out on opposite sides, the computer  will have  extra time to access the information.  It happened  the defragmenting severe  was  the reason of entirely   program stop  running.  Defragmenting also referred to as “defragging” revises the hard drive  by putting  pieces of connected  data  back together  that  organize  a contiguous  sort.  As a result, the computer system can access files more efficiently. By efficiently organized files and folders, defragmenting will leave the computer’s free space in one big chunk.  The best way to ensure maximum  performance from our  drive is to  regularly – weekly  or biweekly – defragment it  ( is also called optimizing). For the best result of optimizing  on a regular basis the Defragmentation  follows  after  Disk Clean Up. Here, it should be ensured that Screen Saver does not interrupt Defragmentation process.

C. Anderson, (2003) informedthat “The administrative console  Disk Management  in Windows 2000 replaced the utility of Windows NT  Disk Administrator, through which  the experienced users can create, delete and change the parameters of the volumes on the  physical  disks.  We can find  it  when  open the Administrative Tools  and select Computer Management-Storage-Disk Management. Thereby, the new conception of basic and dynamic disk appeared in Windows 2000”.(Windows 2000 Magazine, 2003). It is considered  now that  disk is any  media which is capable to store the information. The hardware  drive and volume are named the sections of these disks.

Typical  basic disks are those hard drives, which subsystem  support Windows NT 4.0; by default, all t hard disks  are basic. On the basic disk drives can be arranged simple volumes, such as basic disk partitions, extended partitions and logical drives. However, it is impossible to create new  multiplate volumes.  For  their great  importance it is needed to create  the dynamic disk, which are supported by logical volume management.  It is possible automatically convert the basic disk to the dynamic  by means of the command the Upgrade Dynamic Disk. For Dynamic Volumes, the unallocated space can be any empty space on any Dynamic disk on the system.  Dynamic  disk have their features is the citation fromWindows  2000 Magazine, (2003). First, these discs are only available for Windows 2000, and more for any other operating system.  “Regardless of the disk type—basic or dynamic—you can use any file system you want, including FAT or NTFS. However, you can make volume changes to dynamic disks without having to reboot the system. We can create the  different types of volumes  with a dynamic disk: Simple volumes, Spanned volumes, Striped volumes, Mirrored volumes, RAID 5 volumes” was stated by S. Lowe, (2005). (Techrepublic, 2005).

According to  B. Chronister’s, (2004)  explanation  the advantage of dynamic disks is that you can create a volume that spans disks; you can create RAID 1 and RAID 5 volumes in Windows Server 2003 and Win2K Server. The disadvantage of dynamic disks is that you must delete all volumes on a dynamic disk before you can revert the disk back to a basic disk.  Another major disadvantage of dynamic disks is the near absence of tools to fix the disk if it has corrupt sectors on it. (Windowsitpro, 2004).