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- Managing Windows XP File Systems and Storage
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- Understand basic and dynamic storage
- Understand the drive configurations supported by Windows XP
- Understand the FAT, FAT32, and NTFS file systems
- Understand permissions, sharing, and other security issues related to
file systems
- Understand Windows XP drive, volume, and partition maintenance and
administration
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- Windows XP supports two types of storage:
- Basic storage
- Centers on partitioning a physical disk
- Dynamic storage
- Not based on partitions but volumes
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- There are two types of partitions:
- Primary partitions
- Extended partitions
- A primary partition must be marked active
- Indicates to the computer’s BIOS that it host the necessary files to
boot an operating system
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- Typically you’ll want to create partitions or volumes as large as the
operating system and file system allow
- FAT—4 GB
- FAT32—32 GB
- NTFS—4 TB
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- There are two partitions associated with Windows XP:
- System partition
- Active partition where the boot files are stored
- Boot partition
- Hosts the main Windows XP system files and is the initial default
location for the paging file
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- This storage method offers drive structures from simple volumes (entire
hard drives as a single formatted entity) to fully fault tolerant RAID-5
configurations
- New drives can be transformed into dynamic storage hosts through a
selection Wizard
- This Wizard is launched when the Disk Management tool is accessed
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- The inclusion of PnP technology in Windows XP brings support for
removable media and storage devices
- These removable storage devices or storage media can contain only a
single partition
- They cannot participate in dynamic storage
- They cannot host extended partitions
- They cannot be marked active
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- There are five drive configurations or structures supported by Windows
XP:
- Simple volume
- Spanned volume
- Striped volume
- Mirrored volume
- RAID-5 volume
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- Windows XP supports:
- File Allocation Table (FAT; also called FAT16)
- FAT32
- New Technology File System (NTFS)
- FAT, FAT32, and NTFS all support long file names (LFNs)
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- The important features of FAT, under Windows XP:
- 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
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- FAT32 is simply an enhanced version of FAT that was originally released
with Windows 95 OSR2
- A FAT volume is divided into clusters
- A cluster is a group of one or more sectors divided into a single
non-divisible unit
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- The important features of NTFS, under Windows XP:
- Supports volumes up to 2 TB in size
- Most efficient on volumes larger than 512 MB
- Root directory can contain unlimited entries
- File-level compression
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- The important features of NTFS, under Windows XP (cont.):
- File-level security
- File-level encryption
- Disk quotas
- POSIX support
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- If you decide you need to change the format, you have only two options:
- Reformat with the new file system
- Convert from FAT/FAT32 to NTFS
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- The ability to compress data on the basis of:
- Single files
- Folders
- Entire volumes
- Offers the benefit of being able to store more data in the same space,
but at the cost of some performance
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- In addition to creating volumes and transforming devices into dynamic
storage, the Disk Management tool offers several other useful features
- The All Tasks submenu of the Action menu is context-based, depending on
the type of object selected
- Disk Management can be used to manipulate storage devices on remote
computers
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- Windows XP uses drive letters to grant applications and user interface
utilities access to file system resources
- A mount point is an alternative to drive letters
- A mount point connects a FAT/FAT32 or NTFS volume or partition to an
empty directory on an NTFS volume or partition
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- Check Disk (Error-checking)
- Inspection utility used to:
- Examine disk integrity
- Locate both logical and physical errors on a hard drive
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- Fragmentation
- The division of a file into two or more parts where each part is stored
in a different location on the hard drive
- Defragmentation
- Process of re-organizing files so they are stored contiguously and no
gaps are left between files
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- A FAT/FAT32 mounted volume object’s Properties dialog box has three
tabs:
- General
- Sharing
- Customize
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- NTFS file and folder permissions are nearly identical
- The only differences are:
- Files do not offer child inheritance options
- Some obvious permissions apply only to folders or only to files
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- Rules to keep in mind:
- NTFS object permissions always apply, no matter if the accessing user
is local or remote
- NTFS object permissions are cumulative
- NTFS file permissions override any contradictory settings on the parent
or container folder
- Deny overrides all other specific Allows
- When disabling inheritance for an NTFS object, select to either Copy
the parent object’s permissions to the current object or Remove
permissions assigned from the parent and retain only object-specific
settings
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- There are four different situations to keep in mind when dealing with
NTFS source and destination volumes or partitions:
- Moving an object within the same volume or partition
- Copying an object within the same volume or partition
- Moving an object from one volume or partition to another
- Copying an object from one volume or partition to another
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- Important issues to keep in mind when working with shares:
- The three permission levels on a share are the only way to impose
security on shared FAT volumes
- Shares are folders not individual files
- Share permissions only apply to the network access points
- Default permission for a new share is Full Control for the Everyone
group
- Multiple share-permission levels due to group membership are cumulative
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- Important issues to keep in mind when working with shares (cont.):
- Deny always overrides any other specific allowed
- The most restrictive permissions of cumulative share or cumulative NTFS
apply
- Share permissions only restrict access for network users, not local
users
- A moved folder is no longer shared
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- Used when quick and easy file sharing is needed from a Windows XP
Professional system
- Really only effective when Windows XP is a member of a workgroup
- When enabled, as it is by default, all shared folders are accessible by
everyone on the network
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- Zipped files
- Compressed files that house one or more files, and possibly a directory
structure, into a single .zip file
- Zipped files are treated as compressed folders
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- Windows XP includes native support for writing files either to:
- This feature does require a compatible CDR or CDRW drive
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- The mechanism of altering the physical storage location of commonly used
folders to a network server while retaining the original local access
methods
- Folder Redirection can be configured through two different mechanisms
- When either of these mechanisms is used, the redirected items are still
accessed in the exact same manner as before by each user
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- Removable media include any storage device that is installed onto a
Windows XP system
- Storage devices can be:
- Read-only
- Write-once
- Re-writeable
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- In most access problems, either of the following occurred:
- The resource object has the wrong settings
- The user account has the wrong settings
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- Guidelines to design your permission levels and to avoid common
problems:
- Grant permissions only as needed
- Rely upon NTFS to restrict access
- Grant Full Control only when necessary, even on shares
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- Guidelines to design your permission levels and to avoid common problems
(cont.):
- Change permissions on a folder level, allow changes to affect all child
elements
- Use multiple folders and subfolders to separate files into groups for
different permissions levels
- Stay away from the Deny setting unless absolutely necessary
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- A Windows 2000 or Windows .NET Server hosted service used to manipulate
and manage shared resources
- The benefits of DFS include:
- All network resources are organized in a single-tree structure
- User navigation of resources is simplified because the host computer
name is not required
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- The benefits of DFS include (cont.):
- Powerful administration is simplified
- Access permissions are preserved
- The DFS root is accessed in the same way as a normal share
- Once inside the DFS root, all other resource accesses are simplified
and do not require knowing the name of the host systems
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- Be familiar with basic and dynamic storage concepts
- The FAT and FAT32 file systems are retained by Windows XP for backward
compatibility with other operating systems on the same multi-boot system
- Mount points are a new mapping method in Windows XP
- All file system objects within Windows XP have unique properties and
controls
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- Windows XP includes support for:
- Simple File Sharing
- Zipped files
- CD burning
- Folder redirection
- Management of removable media
- Support for DFS
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