User`s guide

Sector

The smallest information unit on a disk (p. 84) that is transferred in a single read or write operation.

Usually, a sector is 512 bytes in size.

Simple volume

A volume (p. 93) that consists of disk space from a single dynamic disk (p. 85).

Physically, a simple volume can occupy more than one region of disk space, which can be logically

perceived as a single contiguous region.

When you extend a simple volume to another disk, the volume becomes a spanned volume (p. 92).

When you add a mirror to a simple volume, the volume becomes a mirrored volume (p. 90).

Spanned volume

A volume that consists of disk space from two or more dynamic disks (p. 85), in portions that do not

need to be equally-sized.

A spanned volume can reside on up to 32 disks.

Unlike mirrored (p. 90) and RAID-5 (p. 91) volumes, spanned volumes are not fault-tolerant. Unlike

striped volumes (p. 92), spanned volumes do not provide faster data access.

Stripe

Each of the several equally-sized portions of disk space that make up a striped volume (p. 92) or a

RAID-5 volume (p. 91).

Each stripe occupies a separate hard disk.

A striped volume consists of two or more stripes. A RAID-5 volume consists of three or more stripes.

Striped volume

A volume that resides on two or more dynamic disks and whose data is evenly distributed across

equally-sized portions of disk space (called stripes) on those disks.

Access to data on striped volumes is usually faster than on other types of dynamic volumes, because

it can be performed simultaneously on multiple hard disks.

Unlike a mirrored volume (p. 90), a striped volume does not contain redundant information, so it is

not fault-tolerant.

A striped volume is also known as a RAID-0 volume.

Swap file

A file (p. 86) that is used by an operating system to store data that does not fit in the physical

memory of the machine.