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Windows System Administration: Disk Management and Encryption

In this lab, you’ll practice using Server Manager to manage disks and configure BitLocker. When you’re finished, you’ll have an encrypted drive and knowledge of partitioning, formatting, and encryption processes.

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Lab Info
Rating
(61)
Level
Beginner
Last updated
Jul 30, 2025
Duration
1h 10m

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Table of Contents
  1. Challenge

    Getting Started in the Lab Environment

    Here are the initial instructions and explanation of the lab environment. Read this while your environment is busy creating itself from nothing. Yes, this violates physics; we know. How fun!

  2. Challenge

    Partitioning and Formatting Drives

    You will use Windows Server Manager to partition and format a new drive. After creating the partition, you will format the drive with the NTFS file system and assign it a drive letter. Finally, you will verify the newly created drive in File Explorer.

  3. Challenge

    Enabling BitLocker and Configuring Recovery

    You will enable BitLocker on a newly created data drive and configure recovery options. You will choose a password as the unlock method and save the recovery key. Finally, you will encrypt the drive using BitLocker.

  4. Challenge

    Testing Encryption and Decryption

    You will test the encryption on your BitLocker-protected drive by locking and unlocking the drive. You will use both the password and the recovery key to unlock the encrypted drive. Finally, you will perform decryption to remove encryption from the drive.

  5. Challenge

    The Last Challenge

    Welcome to the final challenge! This is your last chance to experiment in the environment. Clicking Finish Lab will end this little world that flittered into existence just for you.

About the author

Matt is a DevOps engineer and solution architect with over 10 years of experience. Matt has presented at several conferences and has been a VMware vExpert since 2016.

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