Dell 745N Accessing the Disk Management Tool, Initializing a Disk, Reactivating Dynamic Disks

Accessing the Disk Management Tool

1.Log in to the NAS Manager as an administrator.

2.Click the Disks tab.

3.Click Disks to manage disks.

4.When the Remote Desktop session launches, log in as an administrator.

NOTE: The NAS Manager default administrator user name is administrator and the default password is powervault.

5.When the Computer Management screen displays, click on Disk Management to manage disks.

Initializing a Disk

When you create a virtual disk and perform a rescan in a hardware-RAID or external storage configuration or when a new disk is discovered on a system with a software-RAID configuration, the disk appears with a Disk Type of Unsigned Disk. The unsigned disk cannot be used until it is initialized.

To initialize a disk, right-click the unsigned disk. A menu displays showing the Initialize Disk command. (The Initialize Disk command appears only if a disk does not have a signature on it.) Select this command to write a signature on the disk.

After a signature is written on a disk, the disk displays as a Basic Disk. You can create partitions on the basic disk, or you can upgrade the disk to dynamic to create volumes on it.

NOTICE: In hardware-RAID configurations, the operating system disk must remain a basic disk. However, you can upgrade all data disks to dynamic during creation by using the Windows Disk Management tool.

Upgrading a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk

Because only dynamic disks can be used for online volume extension, it is recommended that you use the Disk Management tool to upgrade all data disks on your system to dynamic. The upgrade includes new disks, which are added to the system as basic disks.

NOTICE: In hardware-RAID configurations, the operating system disk must remain a basic disk.

To upgrade a basic disk to a dynamic disk, perform the following steps:

1.Right-click the disk you want to upgrade, and then click Convert to Dynamic Disk.

2.When the Convert to Dynamic Disk window appears, select the disks to upgrade and click OK.

3.When the Disks to Convert window appears, select the disks that you want to convert to dynamic and click Convert.

NOTE: After a disk is upgraded to dynamic it cannot be reverted back to basic unless all volumes on that disk are removed. Dell strongly recommends that you do not revert a disk back to basic after data volumes are present.

Reactivating Dynamic Disks

A dynamic disk might appear as a missing disk when it is corrupted, powered down, or disconnected. You can reactivate a dynamic disk to bring it back online by performing the following steps:

1.Right-click the disk marked Missing or Offline dynamic disk.

2.Click Reactivate Disk on the menu.

Mark the disk as Online after the disk is reactivated.