70-270: MCSE Guide to Microsoft Windows XP Professional Second Edition, Enhanced Chapter 4: Managing Windows XP File Systems and Storage

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70-270 MCSE Guide to Microsoft Windows XP
Professional Second Edition, EnhancedChapter
4 Managing Windows XP File Systems and Storage
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Objectives

• Understand basic and dynamic storage
• Understand the drive configurations supported by
  Windows XP
• Understand the FAT, FAT32, and NTFS file systems
• Understand Windows XP drive, volume, and
  partition maintenance and administration
• Understand how to manage folder-level properties
• Understand permissions, sharing, and other issues
  related to file systems

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File Storage Basics

• Basic storage
• Centers on partitioning physical disk
• Dynamic storage
• New method supported only by Windows XP and
  Windows 2000
• Based on volumes, not partitions
• Allows for more flexibility in drive
  configurations

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Basic Storage

• Traditional method of dividing a hard drive into
  partitions
• Partition
• Logical division of the physical space on a hard
  drive
• Must be formatted before they can be used

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Dynamic Storage

• Does not use partitions
• Views an entire physical hard drive as a single
  entity
• Drives belong to the OS on which they were
  created
• Existing drives with partitions can be upgraded
  to dynamic storage

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Drive Configurations

• Simple volume
• All or part of a single drive
• Spanned volume
• Two or more parts (up to 32) of one or more
  drives, or a volume configuration of two or more
  entire drives
• Striped volume
• Two or more volumes (up to 32) of one or more
  drives or two or more entire drives (up to 32)
• Do not provide any fault tolerance

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File Systems

• XP supported file systems
• NTFS
• FAT
• FAT32

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FAT and FAT32

• For backwards compatibility with older systems
• Supports volumes up to 4 GB in size
• Most efficient on volumes smaller than 256 MB
• Root directory can contain only 512 entries
• No file-level compression
• No file-level security
• Maximum file size is 2 GB

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NTFS

• Support for volumes up to 2 TB in size
• Most efficient on volumes larger than 10 MB
• Root directory can contain unlimited entries
• File-level compression
• File-level security
• File-level encryption
• Disk quotas, which are a means to limit drive
  space consumption by users

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Converting File Systems

• To convert
• Reformat drive with new file system
• Use Convert utility to convert FAT/FAT32 to NTFS

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File Compression

• Ability to compress data on the basis of single
  files, folders, or entire volumes
• Benefit
• Able to store more data in the same space
• Drawback
• Performance suffers due to compressing and
  uncompressing
• Must have Full Control to compress object

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Disk Management Actions

• Disk Management tool
• All Tasks menu
• Context sensitive menu
• Options to create, remove and configure
• Disks
• Volumes
• Partitions

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The Properties Dialog Boxes

• Offer additional details and configuration
  settings for
• Drives
• Volumes
• Partitions

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Drive Letters and Mount Points

• Grant applications and user interface utilities
  access to file system resources
• A B
• Used for floppies
• C through Z
• Used for local hard drives or mappings for
  network shares
• Mount point
• Alternative to drive letters
• Connects a FAT/FAT32 or NTFS volume or partition
  to an empty directory on an NTFS volume or
  partition

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Disk Cleanup

• Tool used to free up space on hard drives by
  removing deleted, orphaned, temporary, or
  downloaded files

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Check Disk

• Inspection utility
• Examines disk integrity and locates both logical
  and physical errors on a hard drive
• Called ScanDisk Check Disk in earlier versions of
  Windows
• Used after improper shutdown

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Defragmentation

• Fragmentation
• Division of a file into two or more parts
• Each part stored in a different location on the
  hard drive
• Defragmentation
• Reorganize files so they are stored contiguously
  and no gaps are left between files
• Disk Defragmenter utility

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FSUTIL

• Powerful command-line utility
• Only used by administrators
• Help and Support Center
• Contains online documentation

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Folder Options

• Used to set the functional and visual parameters
  of the folders on the system
• General tab
• View tab
• File Types tab
• Offline Files tab

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File System Object Level Properties

• Accessed through
• Properties dialog boxes of folder or object
• Minor differences depending on file system

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NTFS Folder Object

• General tab
• General information (name, size, etc.)
• Sharing tab
• Security tab

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FAT/FAT32 Folder Object

• General tab
• Name, type, location, etc.
• Sharing tab
• Customize tab

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NTFS File Object

• Three common tabs
• General
• Sharing
• Security
• Other tabs depending on object type

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FAT/FAT32 File Object

• General tab
• Other tabs depending on object type

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NTFS-Mounted Volume Object

• General tab
• Sharing tab
• Security tab
• Customize tab

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FAT/FAT32-Mounted Volume Object

• General tab
• Sharing tab
• Customize tab

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Managing NTFS Permissions

• NTFS
• Only file system supported by Windows XP that
  offers file-level security
• Determines what can be done to a file system
  object and who can perform those actions
• Different permissions for folders and files

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NTFS File and Folder Permissions

• Read
• Write
• List folder contents
• Read execute
• Modify
• Full control
• Configured on the Security tab of objects
  Properties dialog box

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Rules for Working With NTFS Permissions

• NTFS object permissions always apply
• Permissions are cumulative
• Override any contradictory settings on the parent
  or container folder
• Deny overrides all other specific Allows

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Inheritance of Permissions

• New object assumes permissions of parent
  container
• Moving or copying an object from NTFS to FAT
• NTFS settings are lost
• Object inherits the FAT attributes and settings
  of its new container
• Moving or copying an object from FAT to NTFS
• Object inherits NTFS settings and permissions of
  its new container

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Troubleshooting Access and Permission Problems

• Most access problems
• Resource object has wrong settings
• Or user account has wrong settings
• Avoid Common problems
• Grant permission only as needed.
• Rely upon NTFS to restrict access
• Grant Full Control only when necessary, even on
  shares
• Change permissions on a folder level, allow
  changes to affect all child elements

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Simple File Sharing

• Used when quick and easy file sharing is needed
• Commonly used in home networks
• No granular permission control
• Effective only when Windows XP is a member of
  workgroup
• Dragging and dropping folders and drives into
  Shared Documents folder

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Managing Shared Folders

• Sharing tab
• Found on both FAT/FAT32 and NTFS folder
  Properties dialog boxes
• Used to enable remote access

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Working With Media Folders and The Customize Tab

• My Documents, My Music, and My Pictures folders
• Default storage locations for
• Documents
• Music files
• Images
• Top-level media folders cannot be altered
• Customize tab
• Used to define type of folder the mount point
  represents

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Zipping Files and Compressed Folders

• Zipped files
• Preferred method of moving large or multiple
  files around over the Internet
• Compressed files that house one or more files
  into a single .zip file
• Zipping capabilities built into file system of XP

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Burning CDs

• Support for writing files to a blank recordable
  CD Included in XP
• Ability to duplicate CDs
• Record audio CDs from other audio CDs or music
  files (through Windows Media Player)
• Erase CD-RWs

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Using Offline Files

• Work with network files when not connected to
  network
• Does not change normal access methods
• Maintains the duplicate offline version of the
  files
• Redirections completely unseen by user

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Folder Redirection

• Alter physical storage location of commonly used
  folders
• Redirect to a network server
• Retain original local access methods
• To configure
• Local users alter location of My Documents folder
• Group policy redirects to a share on a network
  server

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Removable Media

• Include any storage device installed onto a
  Windows XP system
• Tape devices
• DVD and CD-ROM drives
• Optical drives
• Zip and Jaz drives
• Can be configured through Device Manager

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The Microsoft Distributed File System

• Windows 2000 or Windows .NET Server-hosted
  service
• Manipulate and manage shared resources
• Single hierarchical system
• Single access point for logical tree structure
• No regard to physical location of resources

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Summary

• Volumes and partitions formatted with NTFS, FAT,
  or FAT32
• NTFS recommended
• Disk-related utilities are Disk Cleanup, Check
  Disk, Disk Defragmenter
• File system objects have Properties
• XP includes support for simple file sharing,
  zipped files, CD burning, folder redirection,
  management of removable media, and DFS