Storage Basics and Disk Properties

Storage Basics

• Storage is any medium that allows for data to be written and retrieved.
• Examples of long-term storage include: USB memory sticks, CDs/DVDs, and hard disk drives (HDDs).
• Solid State Drives (SSDs) utilize flash memory without any moving parts.
• There are four categories of storage access methods:
  • Local storage: Only the system where it's installed can access the storage.
  • Direct-attached storage (DAS): Refers to HDDs in an enclosure with its own power supply.
  • Network-attached storage (NAS): Used for file sharing via standard network protocols.
  • Storage area network (SAN): Uses technologies such as Fibre Channel and iSCSI for fast data access.

Disk Storage Properties

• Physical disk properties include: capacity, physical speed, and interface.
• Formatting a disk initializes it with a file system for organizing and storing data.
• Partitioning divides a disk into logical units, each of which can be formatted.
• Boot volume holds the Windows folder, while the system volume contains files for loading the Windows OS.
• The Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning method limits disk capacity to 2 TB.
• GUID Partitioning Table (GPT) supports disks up to 18 exabytes.
• A simple volume is located on a single disk, whether it's basic or dynamic.
• A mirrored volume (RAID 1) duplicates data on two disks for fault tolerance.
• RAID 5 combines striping and parity information for data recovery in case of disk failure.

File Systems

• NTFS (New Technology File System) is the primary file system used on Windows Servers.
• Windows Server 2012/R2 supports FAT, NTFS, and ReFS.
• FAT32 restricts file size to 4 GB.
• ReFS is primarily used for large file-sharing applications with Storage Spaces.