220-1102 Disk Management initializes new hard drives. Practice Question
A technician needs to create a new partition on a secondary hard drive in Windows 10. Which tool should the technician use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse Device Manager with Disk Management because both are administrative tools, but Device Manager only handles drivers and hardware configuration, not disk partitioning.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Disk Management
Disk Management is the correct tool because it provides a graphical interface to initialize, partition, and format secondary hard drives in Windows 10. It allows the technician to create new partitions by right-clicking unallocated space and selecting 'New Simple Volume', which guides through the partition creation process. This tool is specifically designed for disk-related administrative tasks, unlike the other options.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Disk Management
Why this is correct
Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) is the correct built-in Windows 10 utility for partitioning a secondary hard drive. It allows you to initialize the disk (MBR or GPT), create new simple volumes, assign drive letters, and format partitions with a file system. You can open it by right-clicking the Start button or running 'diskmgmt.msc'.
- ✗
Device Manager
Why it's wrong here
Device Manager is designed to manage hardware devices, their drivers, and resource assignments like IRQ or I/O ports. It does not expose any disk partitioning functionality, as partitions are logical storage constructs on a disk, not hardware components. Attempting to create a partition there is impossible; the tool's interface has no relevant option.
- ✗
File Explorer
Why it's wrong here
File Explorer provides a graphical view of existing drives and partitions and allows basic operations like opening, copying, or formatting a volume via right-click. However, it cannot create a new partition on a secondary hard drive; the context menu offers no 'New Partition' or 'Create Volume' option. Partition creation requires a dedicated disk management tool.
- ✗
System Configuration
Why it's wrong here
System Configuration (msconfig) is a troubleshooting utility for controlling boot options, system services, and startup programs. It has no disk management capabilities and cannot create partitions. While it may appear in the administrative tools context, its scope is limited to system startup configuration, not storage geometry.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Linux Package Management: apt and yum
Key term
Windows
Windows is a family of operating systems developed by Microsoft that manages computer hardware and software, providing a graphical user interface for users to interact with their devices.
Key term
Disk Management
Disk Management is a system utility that lets you manage hard drives and other storage devices, including partitioning, formatting, and assigning drive letters.
About these practice questions
One of 925 original 220-1102 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1102 exam.