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🖥️ File & Storage Management + Sharing & Permissions (Windows Server Core)

🎯 Goal

Learn how to manage disks, volumes, and shared folders in Windows Server Core,
set correct permissions, and recover if something goes wrong.

📚 Why This is Important

A SysAdmin must:

  • Manage server storage without breaking data.
  • Share folders securely with correct access.
  • Restrict users so only authorized people can access files.
  • Recover quickly if a command fails or is misconfigured.

📋 Step-by-Step Guide

1️⃣ Check Available Disks

Get-Disk

Purpose: Lists all connected physical disks.

Expected Output: Disk Number Operational Status (Online / Offline) Partition Style (RAW, MBR, GPT) Size

Example: Number Friendly Name OperationalStatus Size PartitionStyle 0 Virtual HD Online 60 GB MBR 1 Virtual HD Online 20 GB RAW

Possible Errors & Fixes:

Access is denied → Run PowerShell as Administrator. No disks found → Attach another virtual disk in Hyper-V/VMware and re-run.

2️⃣ Initialize a New Disk

Initialize-Disk -Number 1 -PartitionStyle MBR

Purpose: Prepares the disk for use.

Expected Output: PartitionStyle changes from RAW to MBR (or GPT). Possible Errors & Fixes: The disk is already initialized → Skip to Step 3. Disk number not found → Check disk number with:

Get-Disk

3️⃣ Create a New Partition

New-Partition -DiskNumber 1 -UseMaximumSize -AssignDriveLetter

Purpose: Creates a partition and assigns a drive letter.

Expected Output: Drive letter assigned automatically (e.g., E:). Possible Errors & Fixes: Not enough space → Disk already partitioned. Remove partitions:

Get-Partition -DiskNumber 1 | Remove-Partition

Access denied → Run as Administrator.

4️⃣ Format the Partition

Format-Volume -DriveLetter E -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel "DataDisk"

Purpose: Formats partition with NTFS.

Expected Output: Formatting progress bar → Drive ready for use.

Possible Errors & Fixes:

The volume is in use → Close files/folders using it. Invalid drive letter → Check available letters:

Get-Volume

5️⃣ Create a Shared Folder

New-Item -Path "E:\HR_Data" -ItemType Directory
New-SmbShare -Name "HRShare" -Path "E:\HR_Data" -FullAccess "HRGroup"

Purpose:

Creates folder E:\HR_Data Shares it as \ServerName\HRShare for HRGroup Possible Errors & Fixes: Access denied → Run as Administrator. Group HRGroup not found → Create the group:

net localgroup HRGroup /add

6️⃣ Set NTFS Permissions

icacls "E:\HR_Data" /grant "HRGroup:(OI)(CI)F"

Purpose:

(OI) Object Inherit → Files inherit permissions (CI) Container Inherit → Folders inherit permissions (F) Full control

Expected Output:

processed file: E:\HR_Data Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

Possible Errors & Fixes:

No mapping between account names and security IDs → Group name is wrong. Access denied → Run as Administrator.

Check permissions:

icacls "E:\HR_Data"

7️⃣ Restrict Other Users

icacls "E:\HR_Data" /remove "Domain Users"

Purpose: Removes default access for all domain users. Possible Errors & Fixes: Name incorrect → Check current permissions:

icacls "E:\HR_Data"

8️⃣ Test from a Client

From another PC:

\\ServerName\HRShare

Expected Results:

HR user → ✅ Access and edit files Non-HR user → ❌ Access denied If HR user cannot access: net user /domain gpupdate /force