220-1201 Practice Test 10 — 10 Questions

Question 1

A user wants to upgrade their laptop from a traditional HDD to an SSD for faster boot times. They have a SATA III interface available. Which type of SSD should you recommend for the best performance without requiring an adapter?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

2.5-inch SATA SSD. A 2.5-inch SATA SSD is the direct replacement for a laptop HDD, using the same interface and form factor. NVMe M.2 drives require an M.2 slot, which this laptop may not have. mSATA is less common and not standard in most laptops.

Answer

NVMe M.2 SSD

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mSATA SSD

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External USB SSD

Question 2

A customer complains that their external USB 3.0 hard drive is only transferring files at USB 2.0 speeds (about 30-40 MB/s). They have confirmed the drive supports USB 3.0. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The USB cable is only rated for USB 2.0.. If a USB 3.0 device is plugged into a USB 2.0 port or a cable that only supports USB 2.0, it will fall back to slower speeds. The cable or port is the most common bottleneck. Driver issues are less likely, and the drive itself is not faulty.

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The external drive is failing and needs to be replaced.

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The drive is formatted with FAT32, which limits transfer speeds.

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The computer's USB drivers are outdated.

Question 3

A user complains that their computer with a 256 GB NVMe SSD is running out of storage space. They want to add more internal storage but only have one M.2 slot. What is the best solution to expand capacity without sacrificing performance?

Accepted Answer

Replace the NVMe SSD with a larger capacity NVMe SSD.. Replacing the existing NVMe SSD with a larger capacity model is the most direct way to increase internal storage while maintaining NVMe performance. Adding a SATA SSD via a 2.5-inch bay is also viable but slower. External drives are not internal.

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Install a SATA SSD in an available 2.5-inch drive bay.

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Use an external USB SSD for additional storage.

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Add a second M.2 drive using a PCIe adapter card.

Question 4

A technician is setting up a new RAID 0 array with two 500 GB SSDs for a gaming PC. After installation, the system shows only 500 GB of usable space. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The RAID controller is set to RAID 1 instead of RAID 0.. RAID 0 stripes data across both drives, providing combined capacity (1 TB). If only 500 GB is shown, the array may be configured as RAID 1 (mirroring) or not properly set up. The drives themselves are unlikely to be faulty.

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One of the SSDs is not detected by the system.

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The SSDs are different brands and incompatible.

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The operating system does not support RAID 0.

Question 5

A customer complains that their external USB hard drive is not recognized when plugged into any port on their laptop. The drive spins up and its LED lights up. The drive works fine on another computer. What is the most likely issue?

Accepted Answer

The laptop is missing or has corrupted USB mass storage drivers.. This question tests basic USB troubleshooting. The drive spins up and lights up, indicating power is reaching it, but it is not recognized. This often points to a driver issue on the laptop. The other options are less likely because the drive works on another computer and the LED is on.

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The USB port is physically damaged.

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The external drive's enclosure has a faulty controller board.

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The USB cable is defective.

Question 6

A technician is building a high-performance workstation for video editing. The user needs fast read/write speeds for large 4K video files and wants the OS and applications on the same drive. The motherboard has one M.2 slot (PCIe 4.0 x4) and four SATA III ports. Which storage configuration should the technician recommend?

Accepted Answer

Install one M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD for both OS and video files.. This question tests understanding of NVMe versus SATA performance. For video editing, extremely fast sequential read/write speeds are critical. An M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 drive offers speeds up to 7,000 MB/s, far exceeding SATA SSDs (about 550 MB/s). The correct answer is to use the M.2 slot for a single fast drive.

Answer

Install one SATA III SSD for the OS and one SATA III HDD for video files.

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Install two SATA III SSDs in a RAID 0 array for the OS and video files.

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Install one M.2 SATA SSD for the OS and one SATA III HDD for video files.

Question 7

A user reports that their laptop's 1TB hard drive is making a clicking sound and the system is running very slowly. The technician runs a diagnostic and finds multiple bad sectors. What should the technician do first?

Accepted Answer

Back up all important data to an external drive or cloud storage.. This question tests understanding of hard drive failure symptoms and proper troubleshooting steps. A clicking sound (often called the 'click of death') and bad sectors indicate imminent mechanical failure. The priority is to back up data immediately before the drive fails completely. Replacing the drive is necessary, but data backup comes first.

Answer

Run a surface scan to mark bad sectors and continue using the drive.

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Replace the hard drive immediately and reinstall the operating system.

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Update the hard drive firmware to fix the clicking noise.

Question 8

A technician is tasked with upgrading a desktop computer that has a 500GB SATA SSD and a 2TB SATA HDD. The motherboard has one M.2 slot (PCIe 3.0 x4) and four SATA III ports. The user wants faster boot times and application loading. Which upgrade will provide the most noticeable performance improvement?

Accepted Answer

Install an M.2 NVMe SSD and migrate the OS and applications to it.. This question tests understanding of storage performance hierarchy. The existing SATA SSD is already fast for boot and applications, but an M.2 NVMe SSD is significantly faster (3-5x). Replacing the HDD with another SSD would not improve boot times as much, and adding RAM does not directly affect storage speed.

Answer

Replace the 2TB HDD with a 2TB SATA SSD.

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Add more RAM to the system.

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Replace the 500GB SATA SSD with a larger SATA SSD.

Question 9

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop that will not boot from a brand new M.2 NVMe SSD. The drive is detected in the BIOS/UEFI, but the system skips it and tries to boot from other devices. The technician has already verified that the drive is properly seated and the BIOS is up to date. What should the technician check next?

Accepted Answer

Check if the boot mode is set to UEFI and the drive is partitioned with GPT.. This question tests advanced knowledge of UEFI boot settings. When an NVMe drive is detected but not bootable, the issue is often that the drive is not partitioned with a GUID Partition Table (GPT) or that the system is in legacy BIOS (CSM) mode. NVMe drives require UEFI boot mode and a GPT partition table to boot.

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Check if the SATA controller is set to AHCI mode.

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Check if the M.2 slot is configured to use SATA or PCIe lanes in the BIOS.

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Check if the drive has been initialized with a Master Boot Record (MBR).

Question 10

A client wants to upgrade their desktop PC with a new, faster processor. They have purchased a CPU that is listed as compatible with the motherboard's socket type. After installation, the system powers on but displays a blank screen. What is the most likely issue?

Accepted Answer

The motherboard BIOS needs an update. Even if the CPU fits the socket, the motherboard's BIOS/UEFI may require an update to support a newer CPU model. This is a common scenario where the hardware is physically compatible but the firmware is outdated. The system powers on but fails to post because the BIOS does not recognize the CPU.

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The CPU is not seated properly

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The RAM is incompatible with the new CPU

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The power supply is insufficient