When you attach a “raw” disk to
Windows 8, the operating system recognizes the disk, launches a wizard,
and asks you to prepare the disk so that you can use it. A disk can be
a hard drive, a USB thumbdrive, a solid-state drive, or many other
storage devices. When you prepare a storage device for use, you create
a partition (literally a part of a drive) and then place a volume in
that partition. More correctly, you create a logical volume. If you use the entire drive for your partition and have one volume within it, the terms volume and partition
are synonymous. These terms are often interchanged, but they are not
identical. Most manufacturers ship storage devices to you with one
partition on it—that is, if they bother to partition and format the
drive for you at all.
You can create multiple partitions on a
storage device. When you do, each partition acts as if it were its own
storage device. You can subdivide partitions into more than one volume.
On one physical drive, Windows allows you to create up to four primary
partitions: three with a single volume each, and one extended partition
that can contain multiple volumes.
When you format a volume, Windows marks the
drive into areas that have addresses and writes a file system that
keeps track of what data is stored at which addresses in the first
addressable sections, which contain the master boot record. Newer
systems use a scheme called a globally unique identifier partition
table, which is supported by the new Unified Extensible Firmware
Interface (UEFI) BIOS now coming into common use. A BIOS, or Basic
Input Output System, is the instructions used by your computer’s
chipset to boot and to communicate with memory, peripherals, and other
devices.
For a hard drive with optical platters, the
operation writes concentric rings and creates slices by writing
magnetic diameter lines. The arc-shaped slices are called sectors, and individual areas within the sectors are called clusters.
Windows 8 installs the NTFS (New Technology File System) onto hard
drives. Older and smaller systems like thumbdrives use different file
systems, such as FAT32 (file access table). DVDs and CDs use a file
system called CDFS and have different methods for addressing storage.
To create and format a new partition or volume
1. Press 
+X or right-click the lower-left corner of the display, and select Management > Disk Management .
Select Disk Management to create partitions and volumes and to format disks.
If your account is not an
Administrator account, you will be prompted to elevate your privileges.
Windows 8 connects to the virtual disk service, displays all of your
disks, and finds their states .
Notice that the size (length) of the disks in the graphical view is not
to scale with their rated capacities. Disk Management is a Microsoft
Management Console snap-in, and Computer Management is an application
container called a framework .
2. Tap and hold, or right-click, an unallocated space, and select New Simple Volume from the context menu .
Select the New Simple Volume command to create a new volume and format
it. If a drive has never been used, its state will show as Raw; if the
volume has been deleted and the area of the disk is formatted but has
no file system, its state will show as Unallocated.
The New Simple Volume Wizard appears
The New Simple Volume Wizard
3. Click Next.
4. In the Specify Volume Size screen , enter the size of the volume you want to create, or accept the disk’s maximum size. Tap or click Next.
You can enter a value for the new volume size up to the maximum size of
the unallocated space; any space you don’t use remains unallocated.
5. In the Assign Drive Letter Or Path screen , give the volume a letter label or have the volume contents displayed within a shortcut folder at the path you specify.
Assigning a drive letter or mount point (path)
You can also choose not to assign a
drive letter or path; you can do so later, in the Disk Management
utility. Drive letters must be unique, and it is typical (though not
required) to use C: for your boot or system drive and D: for your DVD
or optical drive. Once upon a time, A: and B: drives were often used
for floppy disks.
6. In the Format Partition screen ,
select the file system, the type, and the volume properties, or select
Do Not Format This Volume. Tap or click Next to proceed to the review
screen.
Set the format types and properties using the Format Partition screen of the wizard.
Usually, you will want to keep the
default NTFS system and default allocation size. The Volume Label field
controls what you see displayed as a title for the volume in Internet
Explorer. Selecting the Perform A Quick Format check box writes a file
system but does not reformat your volume. Enabling file and folder
compression will give you some additional storage at the cost of
reduced performance.
If you chose the quick format option,
then formatting your drive will take a few seconds to a minute. If you
chose to perform a full format (by deselecting the Perform A Quick
Format check box), then it will take from minutes to hours to create
the volume, depending on your drive size and the power of your CPU.
7. Review your selections on the Completing The New Simple Volume Wizard screen ; then click Finish to create the volume.
The final screen of the wizard lets you review your selections before creating the volume.
