Configuring Data Storage

Glenn Weadock
MDAA, MCAAA, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, MCITP, A+, SECURITY+

[email protected] www.i-sw.com
 Topics in
This Module Disks, volumes, and file systems
MMC, PowerShell, and DISKPART
VHD and VHDX storage
Storage spaces
Removable devices
Disks, Volumes, and File Systems
Definition of “disk:”
A physical storage device that may be
subdivided into partitions and volumes
A “virtual” disk is a file that emulates a
physical disk.
Types of Disks

Traditional spinning disks

- Platters, read/write heads

Solid-state disks (SSDs)

- Semiconductor storage

Hybrid disks
- Smaller SSD caching larger spinning disk

Removable disks (CD, DVD, USB)

Partition
A space allocated from a disk and that may be treated
(e.g. formatted with a file system) as though it is a
separate disk. Might be the entire disk; might not.
Partitions can be detected and even manipulated with
other operating systems.
Types of Partitions

MBR (Master Boot Record)

- Up to 4 partitions per disk
- Up to 2TB per partition
- Compatible with BIOS and UEFI

GPT (GUID Partition Table)

- Up to 128 partitions per disk
- Up to 256TB per partition (in Windows)
- Compatibly with UEFI and x64 OS
Volume
A space allocated from one or more partitions on one or
more disks that has been configured by the operating
system and formatted with a file system.
Volumes can be simple (single disk) or complex
(multiple disks). They are specific to the operating
system and generally not accessible to other OS’s.
 In Windows lingo, a simple formatted
partition can be considered a “volume.”
Types of Volumes (Disk Management)
Simple (Basic)
- Single disk, can be noncontiguous

Mirrored (Dynamic)
- Fault tolerance

Spanned (Dynamic)
- Capacity utilization

Striped (Dynamic)
- I/O performance

RAID (Dynamic, server only)

Dynamic disks are “passé” in favor of
“Storage Spaces” in Windows 10/11.
File System
A system for (at minimum) naming, placing, and
organizing files on a volume so they can be written, read,
copied, deleted, etc.
File systems may also provide for security, fault
tolerance, indexing, compression, and other features.
Formatting prepares a volume for a specific file system.
 Types of File Systems

File System Max Volume Max File

ReFS 1 YB 16EB
NTFS 8PB¹ 8PB¹
FAT32 32GB² 4GB
exFAT 256TB+ 16EB

¹In Windows 10/11 with 2MB clusters; limits are 256TB for
more common 64K clusters
²Limitation of Disk Management formatter; otherwise 2TB
File System Notes
ReFS
- Very limited use in Windows 10/11
(mirrored Storage Spaces)
- Self-healing in real time

exFAT
- MS proprietary format for flash drives
with large files
FAT32
- No security ACLs
- Common for flash drives
Demo

Disks, partitions, and volumes

MMC, PowerShell, and DISKPART
Storage-related consoles:
Device Manager
Disk Management
Initialize, partition, & format disks
Storage Spaces Control Panel
Demo

Managing storage with Disk Management

Storage-related PowerShell
Add-PartitionAccessPath
Clear-Disk
Format-Volume
Get-Disk; Set-
Get-Partition; New-, Remove-
Get-Volume; Set-, New-
Initialize-Disk
Resize-Partition
Demo

Managing storage with PowerShell

DISKPART (Careful!)
List Disk, List Volume, List Partition
Select Disk <number>
Clean
Create Partition
Attach Vdisk
Convert
Create, Delete
Format
Demo

Managing storage with DISKPART

VHD and VHDX Storage
Virtual disk formats:
VHD
- 2TB max
- Supports older operating systems

VHDX (default)
- 64TB max
- Windows 8+
- More robust, esp. with dynamically
expanding disks
Uses for VHD and VHDX

Client Hyper-V
- Storage for virtual machines

Windows 7 Backup & Restore

- Format used for full backups

Native VHD boot

- Install Windows to VHD & boot from it
- Dual-boot scenarios if Hyper-V not
feasible
 Creating a VHD or VHDX:

Hyper-V Manager (New > Hard Disk)

Disk Management (Action > Create VHD)
DISKPART (create vdisk file=<path> …)
PowerShell (New-VHD –Path <path> …)
Virtual Disk Flavors

Fixed (VHD or VHDX)

- Allocates all space up front
- Speed benefit (less fragmentation)

Dynamic (VHDX preferred)

- Starts small & expands as required

Differencing (AVHDX)
- Links to parent of same type
Virtual Disk-related PowerShell

Convert-VHD
Mount-VHD; Dismount-VHD
New-VHD
Optimize-VHD
Resize-VHD
Demo

Creating a VHDX in Disk Management

Storage Spaces
Storage Spaces: SAN on a budget
Combine different kinds & sizes of
physical drives
- ATA, SATA, SAS, USB, SSD
- No iSCSI or RAID

Create different kinds of virtual disks

- Simple, mirror, parity

Add storage as needed

Introduced in Windows 8.x and Server
2012; mainly for servers
Making a Storage Space
Connect 2+ non-OS disks
Delete any existing partitions
Create a pool in the Storage Spaces control
panel
- 480TB max
- 64 storage spaces per pool max

Create one or more virtual drives from the

pool
- 10TB recommended max
 A “virtual disk” in Storage Spaces is
NOT the same as a “virtual hard drive”
in Client Hyper-V.
Storage Space Decisions

“Thin provisioning” or “fixed provisioning”

Fault tolerance (“resiliency” in SS parlance)
You cannot change these later!
Tiered storage (not supported in Windows
10/11 but it works to leverage SSD speed)
Demo

Creating a simple Storage Space

Resilient Virtual Disks

Two-way mirror (RAID 1)

- ≥ 2 drives; 1 can fail

Three-way mirror
- ≥ 5 drives; 2 can fail

Parity set (RAID 5)

- ≥ 3 drives; 1 can fail
- ≥ 7 drives; 2 can fail
 1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

DISK 1 DISK 2
Parity Sets

Data written to each drive

Parity (recovery) info spread across drives
One drive can fail with no data loss
Less waste than mirroring
Major performance reduction with writes
 1 2 P1

3 P2 4

P3 5 6

7 8 P4

DISK 1 DISK 2 DISK 3

Want More Resiliency?

With mirroring, use ReFS

- On-the-fly data repair
- No need for CHKDSK, ever
- You give up EFS, quotas, etc.
- Doesn’t work with parity sets
Disk Failure

Notification Area reports “issue”

Back up data (just in case)
Connect replacement disk
Change Settings > Add Drives
- Remove crashed drive from list
 Pool capacity is not usable capacity!
Pool capacity in Control Panel is total space.

Usable capacity depends on resiliency type.

Physical Disk Utilization (Theoretical)

Simple 2-way Mirror

100% 50%

3-way Mirror Parity

33% (N-1)/N %
Complicating Factors

If disks are different sizes, usable capacity

could be less than “theoretical”
Two-way mirror with a 1TB and a 2TB drive
will waste 1TB
Low capacity warning (70%) based on
smallest drive
Storage Spaces itself imposes some
capacity overhead
 Adding Physical Storage

Existing files not automatically

+ redistributed
Control panel: “Optimize to spread existing
data across all drives”
PowerShell: Optimize-StoragePool
Add in multiples of existing set
 Removing a Drive from a Storage Space

OK if you have enough free space in pool

X Change Settings > Physical Drives >

Prepare for Removal
Could take hours
- Disable sleep mode
Removable Devices
Removable storage challenges
Very high capacity
Small form factor
Windows not designed with today’s
devices in mind
Impact from data theft/loss
BitLocker-to-Go

Encryption for:
- Removable flash memory (USB, SD)
- External hard drives

Does not use TPM chip (obviously)

- Password to unlock
- Smart cards work too
Categories of Group Policy Settings

Device driver installation

Quotas
Software installation
Optical drive access
BitLocker
Windows Defender
Demo
Removable device settings
in Group Policy
That’s it for this module!
Next up:

Configuring Data Access

and Protection