220-1102 Operating Systems Practice Question
A technician needs to install Windows 10 on a new computer with an empty hard drive. The technician boots from the installation media. At the 'Where do you want to install Windows?' screen, the drive is listed as 'Unallocated Space'. Which action should the technician take to proceed with a standard installation?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often think they need to load a driver (Option B) because the drive is unallocated, but the drive is already detected; the 'Load driver' option is only necessary when the drive does not appear at all in the list.
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
✓
Click 'New' and create a single partition, then select it and click 'Next'
When installing Windows 10 on a new computer with an empty hard drive, the drive appears as 'Unallocated Space' because it has no partition table. Clicking 'New' creates a partition, which automatically generates the necessary system-reserved partitions (e.g., System Reserved, MSR) and formats the volume as NTFS. After creating the partition, selecting it and clicking 'Next' allows the installer to proceed with copying files and completing the standard installation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Click 'New' and create a single partition, then select it and click 'Next'
Why this is correct
Selecting the unallocated space and clicking 'New' opens a dialog to specify the partition size. Windows Setup will create the primary partition and, on UEFI systems, automatically generate the required EFI System Partition (ESP) and Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition. After Windows creates the partition, the drive will show as 'Partition 1' (and possibly additional hidden partitions); select the primary partition and click 'Next' to begin the installation. This is the proper procedure because the disk is empty and needs at least one partition to hold the Windows files.
- ✗
Click 'Load driver' to install the storage controller driver
Why it's wrong here
The 'Load driver' option is used when the installation media does not detect the disk due to a missing driver. Since the disk appears as unallocated space, it is detected and no driver is needed.
- ✗
Click 'Delete' to remove the unallocated space
Why it's wrong here
The 'Delete' option is only actionable when a partition already exists on the disk; its purpose is to remove an existing partition, freeing up space. Since the hard drive is completely empty, all you see is 'Unallocated Space', which is not a partition and therefore cannot be deleted. Clicking 'Delete' would be disabled (grayed out) in this situation, and even if it were enabled, deleting unallocated space is a meaningless operation because there is no data or partition structure to remove.
- ✗
Click 'Format' to prepare the drive
Why it's wrong here
Formatting is a function applied to an existing partition to create a file system (such as NTFS), but it cannot be performed on unallocated space because no partition exists to format. In Windows Setup, the 'Format' button is only enabled when you have selected an existing partition; it is grayed out when 'Unallocated Space' is selected. To format the drive correctly, you must first use 'New' to create a partition, which automatically formats it in the background during the installation process. Thus, attempting to click 'Format' on unallocated space will have no effect.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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macOS System Preferences and Settings
Key term
NTFS
NTFS (New Technology File System) is a file system used by Windows to organize and control how data is stored, retrieved, and secured on a hard drive or SSD.
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.
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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.