What is Dyanmic Disk?

[Wesmosis]

plz guyz I'm freaking out

I bought last couple of weeks a Samsung HDD 160 GBs , 7200 RPM

& I partioned it into 20 & 140

Then I formatted it via Disk Manager of windows xp , something happen and the DM formatted it into Dynamic Disk! I thought it's ok and doesn't matter

the 20 partition is working fine,

But then the 140 partition keep doing strange things, Like I couldn't copy/move some folder or files from it, crashes, but I paste files into it normally

also in disk manager, I found my HDD at risk! what the hell does that mean? is it going to die? ,

here is the pic to clarify what's my prob:

Edited July 27, 2005 by Wesmosis

[EchoNoise]

Off the top of my head, i think a dynamic disk are merged hdd's... hmm

[oneless]

to solve this problem :

right click on this disk in disk management ,

and choose there import foreign disk

or somethink like that .

Edited July 27, 2005 by oneless

[MHz]

You may need to run CHKDSK on those at risk drives to sort your problem. If the drives are on your new HDD, then you may have a faulty drive?

What are Dynamic disks?

Dynamic disks and volumes

Dynamic disks provide features that basic disks do not, such as the ability to create volumes that span multiple disks (spanned and striped volumes), and the ability to create fault tolerant volumes (mirrored and RAID-5 volumes). All volumes on dynamic disks are known as dynamic volumes.

There are five types of dynamic volumes: simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, and RAID-5. Mirrored and RAID-5 volumes are fault tolerant and are available only on computers running Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, or Windows XP. However, you can use a computer running Windows XP Professional to create mirrored and RAID-5 volumes on these operating systems.

Regardless of whether the dynamic disk uses the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition style, you can create up to 2,000 dynamic volumes per disk group, although the recommended number of dynamic volumes is 32 or less per disk.

For information about managing dynamic volumes, see Manage dynamic volumes.

Limitations of dynamic disks and dynamic volumes

When using dynamic volumes, the following limitations apply:

When installing Windows XP Professional. If a dynamic volume is created from unallocated space on a dynamic disk, you cannot install Windows XP Professional on that volume. However, you can extend the volume (if it is a simple or spanned volume). This setup limitation occurs because Windows XP Professional Setup recognizes only dynamic volumes that have an entry in the partition table.

Portable computers. Dynamic disks are not supported on portable computers, removable disks, detachable disks that use Universal Serial Bus (USB) or IEEE 1394 (also called FireWire) interfaces, or on disks connected to shared SCSI buses. If you are using a portable computer and right-click a disk in the graphical or list view in Disk Management, you will not see the option to convert the disk to dynamic.

Dual-boot computers. Dynamic volumes (and the data they contain) cannot be accessed by, or created on, computers running MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows XP Home Edition that are configured to dual-boot with Windows XP Professional or Windows XP. If you want computers running these operating systems to be able to access the data, store the data on basic volumes instead. For information about basic volumes, see Basic disks and volumes.

When extending a volume. If a basic volume is converted to dynamic (by converting a basic disk to dynamic), it may or may not have an entry in the partition table depending on whether that volume was a system or boot partition. If the converted volume was a system or boot partition it retains an entry in the partition table. You can install Windows XP Professional on the volume, but you cannot extend it. If the converted volume was not a system or boot volume it does not have an entry in the partition table. You cannot install Windows XP Professional on the volume, but you can extend it.

On Windows 2000, volumes converted from partitions have an entry in the partition table. On Windows XP Professional, volumes converted from partitions do not have an entry in the partition table unless the partitions were system or boot partitions. In Disk Management, you can see if a volume has an entry in the partition table by right-clicking the volume. If Extend Volume is disabled, the volume has an entry in the partition table.

You can install Windows XP Professional only on simple and mirrored dynamic volumes, and these volumes must have entries in the partition table (which means that these volumes were system or boot volumes).

[kti^]

Perhaps you should use scandisk on the disk where DM reports errors?

Where basic have partitions and logical drives, dynamic disks have only dynamic volumes configured as. simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, or RAID 5.

*edit*

Heh, redundant

*edit*

Edited July 27, 2005 by kti^

[chilifrei64]

Basically dynamic disks are used for Software like RAID systems.

As long as it is not a system partition just convert it back to a basic disk

[Rayza]

It seems that XP thinks this drive is part of a RAID and the only reason it's "at risk" is because the O/S can't find the mirror, so like Chili says, just convert it back to a basic disk....

[Wesmosis]

thanx so much guyz for the response

@Oneless

I can't find what you are talking about

@Mhz

I tried Defragmentation with PerfectDisk, but I'll try ScanDisk

@Chilli , @Rayaza

That's sounds good! how? Fdisk or just Partition Magic or Paragon by MiniPE2-XT?

[chilifrei64]

You should be able to just right click where it says "Disk2" and say convert to basic disk

[Marsden]

Converting Basic disks to Dynamic is one way only without data loss. Converting Dynamic back to Basic will reformat the drive and all data will be lost.

In XP there is no "scandisk." It is chkdsk and you want to use it with the /R option.

[chilifrei64]

You can convert Dynamic back to basic easily within microsoft management console AS LONG AS the partition you are trying to convert is NOT a system partition. Then yes.. data loss will occure

If it is not a system partition then you shouldnt lose your data.

EDIT: I just tested my theory.. You will have to move your data off of those disks or your data WILL be lost. You have to delete the Dynamic Volume you created which will remove all partitions on the Dynamic volume. This is if you use Microsoft Disk Manager

What I was thinking of was when I used this program:

http://www.partition-manager.com/comparison.htm

You want professional edition... This was what I used.

On my virtural machine i attempted the DISKPROBE.exe method and this did work..

http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1806

I am not taking responsibility for lost information for this one though

Edited July 27, 2005 by chilifrei64

[Wesmosis]

thanx guyz again

and you really helped me out

everything went fine, and I want to share my little trip in my (My HDD at risk!):

read here to know the diferrent between Basic disk and Dynamic disk ( note that winXP HOME edition doesn't support Dyanamic disk ) :

http://www.petri.co.il/difference_between_...p_2000_2003.htm

Read here to know how to convert Dynamic disk to Basic disk :

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...;309044&sd=tech

I did exactly what Microsoft Support said, Man! I moved about a Hundered giga of My Files! I was so bored! LOL

but then I reformated it into (Cool) BASIC

However guyz, what do you recommend me about Partitioning my Samsung 160 GBs, 7200 RPM , Not System HDD? I bet you all are using NTFS, aren't ya? LOL

In other words, I need the: Safest, Fastest,Not Problematic HDD!

Edited July 27, 2005 by Wesmosis

[kti^]

However guyz, what do you recommend me about Partitioning my Samsung 160 GBs, 7200 RPM , Not System HDD? I bet you all are using NTFS, aren't ya? LOL

In other words, I need the: Safest, Fastest,Not Problematic HDD!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Glad everything worked out for ya

As for the question, if You don't need more than one partition, I would just format the drive as one big NTFS partition

[Wesmosis]

I would just format the drive as one big NTFS partition

Wow! , that's really a very good idea!

but man, I'm afraid when you put all your eggs in one basket, isn't that risky? LOL

[kti^]

Wow! , that's really a very good idea!

but man, I'm afraid when you put all your eggs in one basket, isn't that risky? LOL

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Heh, well I have never had a HDD breakdown so I'm happily walking on sunshine with little or no backup of all my data

But if you are concerned with the risks of hard drive failure, partitioning won't help. If the disk crashes all partitions will be gone... If the case is corrupt partion(s) there are tools to fix and/or save the data..

And if you really want to be on the safe side, buy another disk just like it and set them up as dynamic disks in mirror mode

Edited July 28, 2005 by kti^