Setting Up the NTFS Partition- Installing Windows Server 2022

Although the features mentioned in the previous section likely compel most system administrators to use NTFS, additional reasons make using it mandatory. The most important reason is that the Active Directory data store must reside on an NTFS partition. Therefore, before you begin installing Active Directory, make sure you have at least one NTFS partition available. Also, be sure you have a reasonable amount of disk space available (at least 4 GB). Because the size of the Active Directory data store will grow as you add objects to it, also be sure that you have adequate space for the future.

Exercise 3.6 shows you how to use the administrative tools to view and modify disk configuration.

Before you make any disk configuration changes, be sure you completely understand their potential effects; then perform the test in a lab environment and make sure you have good, verifiable backups handy. Changing partition sizes and adding and removing partitions can result in a total loss of all information on one or more partitions.

If you want to convert an existing partition from FAT or FAT32 to NTFS, you need to use the CONVERT command- line utility. For example, the following command converts the C: partition from FAT to NTFS: CONVERT c: /fs:ntfs

EXERCISE 3.6

Viewing Disk Configurations

  1. Right- click the Start button and choose Disk Management (shown in Figure 3.28).

FIGURE 3.28 Disk Management

The Disk Management program shows you the logical and physical disks that are currently configured on your system. Note that information about the size of each partition is also displayed (in the Capacity column).

2. To see the available options for modifying partition settings, right-c lick any of the disks or partitions and choose Properties. This step is optional.

3. Close Computer Management.

Storage in Windows Server 2022

As an IT administrator, you’ll need to ask many questions before you start setting up a server. What type of disks should be used? What type of RAID sets should be made? What type of hardware platform should be purchased? These are all questions you must ask when planning for storage in a Windows Server 2022 server. In this section, I will answer these questions so that you can make the best decisions for storage in your network’s environment.

Initializing Disks

To begin, let’s first discuss how to add disk drives to a server. Once a disk drive has been physically installed, it must be initialized by selecting the type of partition. Different types of partition styles are used to initialize disks: Master Boot Record (MBR) and GUID Partition Table (GPT).

MBR has a partition table that indicates where the partitions are located on the disk drive, and with this particular partition style, only volumes up to 2 TB (2,048 GB) are supported. An MBR drive can have up to four primary partitions or it can have three primary partitions and one extended partition that can be divided into unlimited logical drives.

Windows Server 2022 can only boot off an MBR disk unless it is based on the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI); then it can boot from GPT. An Itanium server is an example of an EFI- based system. GPT is not constrained by the same limitations as MBR. In fact, a GPT disk drive can support volumes of up to 18 EB (18,874,368 million terabytes) and 128 partitions. As a result, GPT is recommended for disks larger than 2 TB or disks used on Itanium- based computers. Exercise 3.7 demonstrates the process of initializing additional disk drives to an active computer running Windows Server 2022. If you’re not adding a new drive, then stop after step 4. I am completing this exercise using Computer Management, but you also can do this exercise using Server Manager.

EXERCISE 3.7

Initializing Disk Drives
  1. Open Computer Management under Administrative Tools.
  2. Select Disk Management.
  3. After disk drives have been installed, right- click Disk Management and select Rescan Re-scan Disks.
  4. A pop- up box appears indicating that the server is scanning for new disks. If you did not add a new disk, go to step 9.
  5. After the server has completed the scan, the new disk appears as Unknown.
  6. Right- click the Unknown disk and select Initialize Disk.
  7. A pop- up box appears asking for the partition style. For this exercise, choose MBR.

8. Click OK.

9. Close Computer Management.

The disk will now appear online as a basic disk with unallocated space.

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