Windows 2000 Computer Manager

The Computer Manager program can be started in one of two ways. If your Task Manager is configured to have administrative tools displayed in the start menu do the following:

1. Click on the "Start" button on the lower left.
2. Select "Administrative Tools".
3. Select "Computer Management".

If Administrative Tools is not in the start menu do the following:

1. Click on the "Start" button on the lower left.
2. Select "Control Panel".
3. Select "Administrative Tools".
4. Select "Computer Management".

The following dialog box will appear.

This dialog box is broken down into the following three areas:

• System Tools - Includes:
  • Event Viewer
  • System Information
  • Performance Logs and Alerts
  • Shared Folders
  • Device Manager
  • Local Users and Groups
• Storage - Includes:
  • Disk Management
  • Disk Defragmenter
  • Logical Drives
  • Removable Storage
• Services and Applications - Includes:
  • WMI Control
  • Services
  • Indexing Service

Disk Management

By selecting a drive in the right pane, and clicking on the "Action" menu, the following options are available:

• Refresh
• Rescan Disks
• Restore Basic Disk Configuration... - Used to restore disk configuration that was previously stored on a floppy
• Upgrade to Dynamic Disk - Dynamic disks have dynamic mounting capability to add additional local, remote partitions, directories to a disk drive. These are called dynamic volumes. This is new with the Windows 2000 operating system and is not supported by any other operating systems. Any volume that is on more than one hard drive must be created with dynamic disks. A disk can only be converted from dynamic to basic by first deleting all the volumes in the dynamic disk. Requires NTFS file system.
• All Tasks - Subselections:
  • Open
  • Explore
  • Change Drive Letter and Path - Allows drive letters to be modified. Be careful when doing this since installed programs may not work right if drive letters are changed.
  • Format
  • Delete Logical Drive
  • Properties
• Help - Provides help about the Computer Management dialog box.

By right clicking on the drive and selecting "Properties", the Disk Properties dialog box will appear. There are four tabs which are shown below.

The "Disk Cleanup" button allows you to remove files from your trash bin for that drive. It also removes unused entries of cataloged files in the content indexer.

The disk can be checked for errors, files on the disk may be backed up, or the disk may be defragmented.

By selecting the appropriate disk, and selecting properties, the disk driver properties may be viewed. The disk drivers may be re-installed here, including the floppy disk.

Sharing permissions may be set here.