94 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2010
A disk can store more than one volume. Some volumes, such as spanned volumes (p. 92), can reside
on more than one disk.
Volume label
An optional name that can be assigned to a volume (p. 93) to simplify its identification by the user.
The length of a volume label depends on the volume’s file system (p. 87). For example, the NTFS file
system allows volume labels of up to 32 characters.
Some file systems, such as FAT16 and FAT32, do not allow certain characters in a volume label—for
example, a colon (:) or a quotation mark (").
Volume letter
A letter, such as C, that a Windows operating system assigns to a volume to locate files and folders
that are stored on it.
A volume letter is usually assigned when you format the volume. It can be assigned, changed, or
removed later without affecting the volume’s data.
A volume letter is also called a drive letter.
Volume type
The type of volume, which is determined by the volume structure and by the type of disk on which
the volume resides.
The following is the list of volume types with short descriptions:
Basic volume (p. 82): A volume on a basic disk. Can be one of the following types:
Primary volume (p. 91): Can store information needed to start the machine or an operating
system
Logical volume (p. 88): Usually stores user files and operation system data
Dynamic volume (p. 86): A volume on one or more dynamic disks. Can be one of the following
types:
Simple volume (p. 92): Occupies a single disk.
Spanned volume (p. 92): Occupies two or more disks in arbitrarily-sized portions.
Striped volume (p. 92): Occupies two or more disks in equally-sized portions. Can provide
faster data access.
Mirrored volume (p. 90): Occupies two disks in two identical portions (mirrors). Fault-
tolerant.
RAID-5 volume (p. 91): Occupies three or more disks in equally-sized portions. Fault-tolerant.
