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Disk vs Volume — Understanding Windows Storage


Before using DiskPart, it is critical to understand the difference between a disk and a volume. Most recovery mistakes happen because these concepts are confused.

What Is a Disk?

A disk is a physical or virtual storage device. It is the entire container of storage capacity.

Examples of disks:

  • Physical hard drive (HDD)
  • Solid State Drive (SSD / NVMe)
  • RAID virtual disk
  • VM virtual disk (VMDK / VHDX)
  • SAN storage LUN

Windows labels disks numerically:

Disk 0
Disk 1
Disk 2

A disk has no usable filesystem until it is partitioned. It is raw storage.

What Is a Volume?

A volume is a formatted section of a disk. It is the usable storage space that Windows can read and write.

Volumes:

  • Have a filesystem (NTFS, ReFS, FAT32)
  • Can receive a drive letter
  • Contain files and folders
  • Host the Windows operating system

Users interact with volumes, not disks.

Disk Structure Example

A single disk may contain multiple partitions and volumes:

Disk Partition Volume Purpose
Disk 0 EFI System (hidden) Bootloader
Disk 0 Microsoft Reserved (hidden) System use
Disk 0 Main NTFS C: Windows OS
Disk 0 Data NTFS D: User files

Disk = entire drive
Volumes = usable sections inside the drive

Why This Matters in Recovery

  • Drive letters change in recovery mode
  • Windows may not mount volumes automatically
  • You must identify the OS volume manually
  • DiskPart shows the real storage structure

Viewing Disks with DiskPart

diskpart
list disk

Shows all physical disks detected by the system.

Viewing Volumes

list volume

Displays all mounted volumes and their drive letters.

Key Concept Summary

  • A disk is the entire storage device
  • A volume is a formatted section of that disk
  • One disk can contain multiple volumes
  • Windows operates on volumes, not raw disks
  • Recovery requires locating the correct volume

Important Warning

⚠ Commands like clean erase entire disks. They do not erase just a volume — they destroy the disk’s partition table.

Always confirm disk identity before destructive actions.

Mental Model

Disk = entire pizza
Volumes = slices of pizza

You can’t eat the whole disk at once. You eat slices (volumes).

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