Dell PowerVault 775N (Rackmount NAS Appliance) - Manual (Page 36)

Like disks, volumes can be basic or dynamic. Basic volumes refer to all volumes that are not on dynamic disks. Dynamic
volumes are logical volumes created from dynamic disks.
It is recommended that you create all data volumes on dynamic disks. Only the operating system drive should remain basic
because of system recovery limitations.
Checking Partition or Volume Properties
1. Right-click the partition or volume to be checked.
2. Select Properties from the context menu.
The Properties window displays.
3. Check the properties for your volume.
Formatting a Partition or Volume
1. Right-click the volume or partition you want to format, and then click Format.
2. When a message warns that all data on the partition will be lost and asks if you want to format the disk, click Yes.
3. Select NTFS as the file system type.
NOTE: Your NAS system supports only NTFS partitions. Formatting all partitions as NTFS allows for advanced
features only available under that file system.
4. Enter a label for the volume.
The label appears on the Array Manager console. If a name has been selected, this name appears in the Name field.
You can change the name by typing a different name.
5. Enter an allocation size or use the default, which is automatically selected.
NOTE: If you use NTFS file system file compression on the source volume, you cannot use an allocation unit size
larger than 4 KB. Defragmenting a source volume with shadow copies causes the difference file, which contains
all changed data, to grow. If the difference file grows beyond the allocated space, you might lose previous
versions of some files. Having a large NTFS file cluster size decreases the growth of the difference file.
6. Select the file system type and formatting options:
Perform a quick format — This option formats the volume or partition without scanning for bad sectors in the
volume or partition. Check this box to use this format method.
NOTE: To decrease the time it takes to format your disk, use the Quick Format option.
Enable file and folder compression — This option can be used only if you selected NTFS format. Check this
box to use this format method.
7. Click OK to begin formatting.