Lesson 02
Configuring Disks and
Device Drivers
Module Overview
• Partitioning Disks in Windows® 7
• Managing Disk Volumes
• Maintaining Disks in Windows 7
• Installing and Configuring Device Drivers
Lesson 1: Partitioning Disks in Windows 7
• What Is an MBR Disk?
• What Is a GPT Disk?
• Disk Management Tools
What Is an MBR Disk?
• Is created when the disk is partitioned
• Contains a four partition entry table
• Is on the first sector of the hard disk
• Limits the number & size of partitions
What Is a GPT Disk?
• Supports more partitions
• Supports larger partitions
• Enhances reliability
• Supports boot disks on 64-bit Windows
operating systems, UEFI systems
Disk Management Tools
Demonstration: Converting an MBR Partition to a
GPT Partition
In this demonstration, you will see how to:
• Convert a Disk to GPT by using Diskpart.exe
• Convert Disk 3 to GPT by using Disk
Management
• Verify the Disk Type
10 min
Lesson 2: Managing Disk Volumes
• What Is a Simple Volume?
• What Are Spanned and Striped Volumes?
• Purpose of Resizing a Volume
What Is a Simple Volume?
Can be extended on same disk
Not fault tolerant
Volume I/O performance the same as Disk
I/O performance
Can be extended across disks creating a
spanned volume
What Are Spanned and Striped Volumes?
Spanned Striped
• Requires dynamic disks • Requires multiple dynamic disks
Spanned
• Space allocated from multiple • Allocated space from each disk must
A spanned
dynamic disks volume joins areas be of unallocated space
identical
disks into a single logical disk.
• Up to 32 disks can be combined • Up to 32 disks can be combined into
into single spanned volume single striped volume
• No fault tolerance • No fault tolerance
Striped
A striped volume
• No performance improvement
compared to simple volumes
maps stripes
• Well
file
of
suited for data
isolating the paging
cyclically across the disks.
• Can shrink or extend • Provides for faster throughput
Purpose of Resizing a Volume
Shrink simple and spanned dynamic disks to:
• Extend the simple volume on the same disk
• Extend a simple volume to include unallocated space
on other disks on the same computer
Before shrinking:
• Defragment the disk
• Reduce shadow copy disk space consumption
• Ensure that no page files are stored on the volume to
be shrunk
Lesson 3: Maintaining Disks in Windows 7
• What Is Disk Fragmentation?
• Defragmenting a Disk
• What Are Disk Quotas?
What Is Disk Fragmentation?
Disk fragmentation can:
• Consist of both fragmented files and fragmented free space
• Lead to poor performance of the disk subsystem
Defragmenting a Disk
Rearrange data and reunite fragmented files
Scheduled to run automatically by default
C:> Can be run from the command-line
What Are Disk Quotas?
Disk quotas help you:
• Track and restrict disk
consumption
• Proactively monitor
available space
• Determine who is
consuming available
space
• Plan for storage capacity
increases
Lesson 4: Installing and Configuring Device
Drivers
• Overview of Device Drivers in Windows 7
• Installing Devices and Drivers
• Device Driver Management Tools
• Options for Updating Drivers
• Managing Signed Drivers
• Discussion: Options for Recovering from a Driver Problem
Overview of Device Drivers in Windows 7
A driver is a small software program that allows a
hardware device to communicate with a computer.
• Drivers developed for the 32-bit versions do not work with
the 64-bit versions, and vice versa.
• Device drivers that ship with Windows 7 have a Microsoft
digital signature.
• The driver store is the driver repository.
• Device metadata packages contain device experience XML
documents that represent:
• The properties of the device
• The device functions
• Applications and services that support the device.
Installing Devices and Drivers
Improve end-user device driver installation by:
Staging driver packages in the protected driver store
Add to the Driver Store by using the Plug-and-
Play utility (Pnputil.exe) at a Command Prompt
Configuring client computers to automatically search
a specified list of folders
Search folders specified by the DevicePath registry entry
Device Driver Management Tools
Devices
Device
Device and
DevicePrinters
Stage™
ManagerDevices and Printers
Manager Device Stage
•Provides a place
•Provides
•Helps to with
users
install and a way
manage devices
to access
update devices
drivers and
for
advanced
hardware options for
devices,
managing
•Devices change them
the hardware
that display in
settings
this location
•Devices are for those
usually
in use are shown
external devices,
devices
on the and
taskbarthat
with a
troubleshoot
you connect or
photo-realistic problems
icon
disconnect
•Usefrom the Manager
Device
computer to through
manage adevices
port or network
only on a local
connection
computer
Options for Updating Drivers
Dynamic Update
• Works with Windows Update to download critical fixes
and device drivers required for the setup process
Windows Update™
• Delivers software updates and drivers, and provides
automatic updating options
Manufacturer’s media or Web site
• Use the media or browse to the device manufacturer’s
Web site to obtain an updated driver
Device Manager
• Updates the driver software for the device manually
Compatibility Report
• Use this report to load a new or updated driver during an
upgrade
Managing Signed Drivers
Benefits of signing and staging driver packages
• Improved security
• Reduced support costs
• Better user experience
Maintaining signed drivers
• Use Sigverif.exe to check for unsigned device drivers
• Use a Command Prompt to run the driverquery
command with the /si switch to obtain a basic list of
signed and unsigned device drivers
• Use Group Policy to deploy certificates to client
computers
Discussion: Options for Recovering from a Driver
Problem
1. How often have new devices and their associated
drivers introduced reliability problems on
computers that you manage?
2. What are possible ways of recovering from a
driver problem? Describe a situation in which you
might use each recovery method to resolve a
driver problem.
15 min
Questions?
