Implementing Mass Storage

Chapter 9

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode: Understanding Partitioning

Core 2: 1.9 Given a scenario, perform OS installations

Objective(s):
and upgrades in a diverse OS environment.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode Description

We organize physical storage into logical

subdivisions called partitions. Partitions
serve several critical functions beyond just
storing our data. Specialized partitions
support virtual memory, boot, and recovery
functions.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms

• 1:42 - Swap partition

• 1:57 - Objective term - Recovery partition

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Quick Review
• A partition is a logical electronic device
readable by an operating system
• Partitions define the location of operating
systems, swap files, and
recovery partitions
• Partitions must be created and mounted
• In Windows, partitions manifest as drive
letters; in Linux/macOS, partitions manifest
as folders

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode: MBR Partitioning

Core 2: 1.3 Given a scenario, use features and tools of

the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system (OS).
Objective(s):
Core 2: 1.9 Given a scenario, perform OS installations
and upgrades in a diverse OS environment.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode Description

Master boot record (MBR) partitioning is

the oldest way to partition mass storage. All
operating systems still support MBR, so it’s
important for techs to recognize its
limitations.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms
• 0:22 - Objective term - Master boot record
(MBR)
• 1:06 - LBA 0
• 3:31 - Max. 2 TB per partition
• 3:46 - Limited to 4 partitions
• 8:38 - Extended partitions
• 9:33 - Primary partitions
• 10:02 - Logical drives
• 11:26 - 2 TB limit became a real problem

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Quick Review
• Master boot record (MBR) is the oldest
type of partition still in use today
• MBR consists of a boot loader and up to
four partitions with one set as an active
partition
• If more than four partitions are needed on a
single drive, an extended partition with
additional logical drives can be created

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode: GPT Partitioning

Core 2: 1.3 Given a scenario, use features and tools of

the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system (OS).
Objective(s):
Core 2: 1.9 Given a scenario, perform OS installations
and upgrades in a diverse OS environment.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode Description

Globally unique identifier (GUID) partition

table (GPT) partitioning is more modern and
used by all operating systems today. It’s
important for a tech to understand the
benefits of GPT as well as how to use it.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms

• 0:21 - Objective term - GUID partition table

(GPT)
• 0:52 - Globally unique identifier (GUID)
• 1:22 - 128 partitions per drive
• 1:42 - 18.8 million terabytes per partition

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Quick Review
• GUID partition table (GPT) has many
features that improve upon MBR
partitions
• GPT supports up to 128 volumes on a
partition
• GPT uses a protective MBR but the
GPT starts at the primary GPT header
and includes a secondary GPT header

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode: Understanding File Systems

Core 2: 1.8 Explain common OS types and their

purposes.
Objective(s):
Core 2: 1.9 Given a scenario, perform OS installations
and upgrades in a diverse OS environment.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode Description

A file system organizes data stored on

mass storage devices. A tech should have a
good understanding of multiple file systems,
why they are used and how to troubleshoot
them.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms

• 5:09 - Objective term - FAT32

• 10:35 - Fragmentation

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Quick Review
• A file system is applied to a partition by
formatting
• A partition must be formatted before they
are usable
• All file systems have a data structure that
keeps track of the location of files and
folders
• File systems often have a problem with
fragmentation

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode: Popular File Systems

Core 2: 1.8 Explain common OS types and their

Objective(s):
purposes.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode Description

There are many file systems available for

different systems, purposes, and type of
storage. It’s important to know the
difference between files systems such as
NTFS, ext3, FAT, and HFS+.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms
• 0:41 - Objective term - FAT32
• 1:10 - 8 TiB volumes
• 1:41 - Objective term - New Technology File
System (NTFS)
• 1:58 - Massive volumes up to 16 EiB
• 2:07 - 256 TiB
• 2:17 - Master file table (MFT)
• 3:36 - Objective term - Extensible File Allocation
Table (exFAT)

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms
• 4:16 - Compact Disc File System (CDFS)
• 4:37 - 4 GiB
• 4:55 - Objective term - Third extended
filesystem (ext3) and Fourth extended
filesystem (ext4)
• 5:03 - ext3 supports 32 TiB volumes and 2
GiB files
• 5:15 - ext4 supports 2 EiB volumes and 16
TiB files

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Quick Review
• FAT32 and exFAT are handy for thumb
drives
• NTFS is the primary file system for
Windows
• NTFS supports compression, encryption,
and folder/file security
• CDFS is for optical media
• Linux uses ext3 and ext4 file systems

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode: Formatting in Action

Core 2: 1.3 Given a scenario, use features and tools of the

Microsoft Windows 10 operating system (OS).
Objective(s): Core 2: 1.8 Explain common OS types and their purposes.
Core 2: 1.9 Given a scenario, perform OS installations and
upgrades in a diverse OS environment.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode Description

File systems are created through the

processes called formatting. There’s a
number of different ways to format mass
storage and a good tech knows how to do
this for the most common file systems.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms

• Demo NTFS in Windows and ext4 in Linux

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Quick Review
• Windows uses Disk Management to
partition and format disks
• New drives must first be initialized in
Windows
• There is no single Linux tool for
partitioning and formatting – choose
one you like

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode: Dynamic Disks

Core 2: 1.9 Given a scenario, perform OS installations

Objective(s):
and upgrades in a diverse OS environment.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode Description

Dynamic disks are unique to the Windows

operating system. Make sure you
understand why Microsoft uses dynamic
disks and how to configure spanning,
striping, etc.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms
• 0:28 - Dynamic disks
• 0:48 - Shrink or expand
• 4:12 - Spanned volume
• 7:28 - 1. Keep the boot drive basic (not
dynamic)
• 7:52 - 2. Set boot drive to GPT
• 8:04 - 3. It’s easy to create dynamic disks, but
changing back to basic erases all the disk
data

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Quick Review
• Dynamic disks are unique to Windows
• Drives must be converted from basic to
dynamic in Disk Management
• Dynamic disks enable shrinking,
extending, and spanning volumes
without losing the data on the disk

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode: New Installation - First Drive

Core 2: 1.8 Explain common OS types and their

purposes.
Objective(s):
Core 2: 1.9 Given a scenario, perform OS installations
and upgrades in a diverse OS environment.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode Description

A brand-new system doesn’t have a

bootable drive with an installed operating
system. In this episode you will go through
the process of setting up an initial drive and
installing an operating system using
bootable media.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms

• Demo new hard drive installation on

Windows and Linux

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Quick Review
• The first drive on a system relies on the OS
install program to provide partition and
format functions
• The partitioning and formatting tools in
installation programs provide a smaller
subset of tools compared to their main
tools
• Installation tools may provide features not
normally seen anywhere else (such as
swap file creation)

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Software RAID in Storage
Episode:
Spaces

Core 1: 3.3 Given a scenario, select and install storage

devices.
Objective(s):
Core 2: 1.3 Given a scenario, use features and tools of
the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system (OS).

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode Description

Microsoft’s Storage Spaces feature

provides a superb tool to configure many
different RAID configurations on any
Windows system. A good tech knows which
types of RAID it supports and how to set
them up.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms

• 3:57 - Just a bunch of disks (JBOD)

• 7:00 - Three-way mirror

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Quick Review
• Software RAID uses the operating
system to configure the RAID array
• Windows comes with a powerful tool
called Storage Spaces to
configure advanced software RAID
arrays
• Storage Spaces provides superb
flexibility

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode: Encrypting Mass Storage

Core 1: 3.4 Given a scenario, install and configure

motherboards, central processing units (CPUs), and add-on
Objective(s): cards.
Core 2: 2.5 Given a scenario, manage and configure basic
security settings in the Microsoft Windows OS.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode Description

Securing mass storage is a critical aspect

of system security. Make sure you know the
many ways a system’s mass storage can be
encrypted.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms
• 0:32 - Objective term - Encryption
• 1:01 - File-based encryption
• 1:04 - Disk-based encryption
• 1:41 - Objective term - Encrypting File System
(EFS)
• 4:23 - Objective term - BitLocker for Windows
• 4:28 - Objective term - FileVault for macOS
• 4:46 - Objective term - Trusted Platform Module
(TPM)
• 7:55 - Objective term - BitLocker To Go

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Quick Review
• File-based encryption encrypts files and
folders; disk-based encryption encrypts
entire drives
• Windows uses Encrypted File System
(EFS) to encrypt folders and files
• Windows uses Bitlocker to encrypt entire
hard drives
• Bitlocker requires a system with a Trusted
Platform Module (TPM) chip

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode: Maintaining Storage Disks

Core 2: 3.3 Given a scenario, use best practice

procedures for malware removal.
Objective(s):
Core 2: 3.1 Given a scenario, troubleshoot common
Windows OS problems.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Episode Description

Mass storage devices need ongoing

maintenance to ensure optimal operation.
Windows systems have automated tools to
optimize performance and to check drives
for bad areas.

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Key Terms

• 0:22 - Error checking

• 0:28 - Optimization
• 1:23 - Objective term - Chkdsk
• 2:41 - Objective term - Optimization/disk
defragment/defrag

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson
 Quick Review
• Error checking runs chkdsk on a disk
partition to check for bad sectors
• Trimming allows data to be written in
individual pages termed "available for use"
• Optimizing trims blocks in disks to allow for
new data to be written in partially full
blocks

CompTIA A+ (220-110x)
Mike Meyers and Steve Nicholson