Understanding different disk types, partitions, volumes and file systems in Windows

Although I use windows for long time, I never understood what exactly those different disk types mean, basic and dynamic. What is volume and how is it different from partition? What is file system exactly?

All of this now seems very complicated. Different sources on the internet explain the disk management concepts differently.

Could you please recommend a comprehensive book, article, tutorial or any other resource to read so I can eventually understand all about disks in windows environment?

Thank you in advance.

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Comments

Flemeth

Exam Ref 70-410: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 By: Craig ZackerAnd dont worry , they are not overly complicated concepts .

Balantine

Heh... this can be a rabbit hole... I'd recommend looking up introductory forensics texts too.

jso

On windows 2012, if you want something trippy, you can make a VHD in computer management, mount it, create a storage pool, allocate it, create a volume, create a drive, mount it and then make a VHD on that drive and continue until infinity.

You can also make it more complicated by using a mirror in the storage pool as well as a mirror on the dynamic disk set.