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Understand Disk Management
- Disk Management is a Windows tool used to view, create, resize, and manage disks and partitions.
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Open Disk Management
- Right-click Start → Disk Management or run
diskmgmt.msc.
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View Disk Layout
- Identify disks, partitions, file systems, and free/unallocated space.
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Initialize New Disks
- Initialize disks as MBR or GPT before use (GPT preferred for modern systems).
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Create and Format Volumes
- Create simple volumes, assign drive letters, and format with NTFS or other file systems.
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Resize Volumes
- Extend or shrink partitions based on available unallocated space.
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Change Drive Letters
- Modify drive letters or mount volumes to folders if needed.
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Disk Health & Status
- Check disk status to identify offline, failed, or read-only disks.
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Understand Storage Spaces
- Storage Spaces combines multiple physical drives into a single logical storage pool.
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Create a Storage Pool
- Add eligible drives to form a pool through Control Panel → Storage Spaces.
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Choose Resiliency Type
- Select Simple, Mirror, or Parity for performance vs. data protection.
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Create Storage Spaces
- Create virtual drives from the pool and format them for use.
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Expand Storage
- Add more physical drives to the pool to increase capacity easily.
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Use Cases & Best Practices
- Use Disk Management for basic partitioning; use Storage Spaces for flexible, fault-tolerant storage.