Many people who take Exam 70-290 Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment come across questions about disk management. One topic in particular that often appears is importing foreign disks. So let’s take a look at what you need to know.

First of all, a dynamic disk will have a status of foreign when it is moved from one computer to another. You will be unable to access any data on the disk until it is imported into the computer’s system configuration.

Note: Windows XP Home Editions does not support dynamic disks. If the computer is dual booted and contains a dynamic disk, the status of that disk may be marked as foreign under XP Home.

If you have moved a dynamic disk from one computer to another, you can use the steps below to import it. The steps below assume that you have already physically added the foreign disk to the computer.

1. Click Start and click Run.

2. Type mmc and click OK.
3. Click Add/Remove Snap-in from the File menu.
4. Click Add. Select Disk Management, click Add then Finish, and click Close.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Disk Management (Local) in the left pane.
7. From the Action menu, click Rescan Disks.
8. Right click the disk marked as Foreign and click Import Foreign Disks.
9. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.

You should now be able to access the data that is stored on the new disk. Remember for the exam that any time you remove or add a physical type to a computer you have to open the Disk Management console and select the Rescan Disks option from the Action menu. And on that note, you should now be able to tackle any disk management related exam questions that come your way.