Hello

Can anyone tell me why my Disk Manager shows disks that are absent? I put a
screen shot here:
http://www.vca-asia.net/DiskManager.jpg
It is in Japanese, I know, but Disk 0 and Disk 2 are basic disks, disk 1 is
a dynamic disk and the disk that is absent (shown at the bottom) is a
dynamic disk.

The background is that I have a removable caddy into which I swap two backup
drives about. One of the backup drives is a basic disk, the other a dynamic.
Currently the caddy is occupied with the FAT32 basic disk, 'VCA Backup'. I
am not all that clear on dynamic disks, although I have read most of the
Microsoft information. It seems that the big advantage is that some things
can be changed without rebooting. Still it does not give a hot swap
facility, which is the big benefit that I would like.

Anyway, if anyone can throw any light onto why Disk Manager is displaying
the missing dynamic drive, I would be very grateful as I think that it might
improve my understanding of dynamic drives generally.

TIA

Michael

Dynamic disks are mainly used in software fault tolerant configurations,
where Windows is supposed to handle the loss of one disk, for instance when
a disk fails in a RAID1 or RAID5 configuration. When this happens, you
should be able to insert a new empty disk, and get Windows to rebuild the
information that was on the disk that failed. This is why Disk Management
shows the missing dynamic disk, it still remembers that there was a disk
that failed for some reason.

Generally, the advice from MS is not to use dynamic disks if you don't need
to. This is especially true for removable disks, and the possibility to
upgrade external or removable hard disks to dynamic is normally disabled.

Best regards

Bjorn
--
Bjorn Landemoo - (E-Mail Removed) - http://landemoo.com/
Microsoft MVP - Windows Server Networking

"Michael" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hello
>
>Can anyone tell me why my Disk Manager shows disks that are absent? I put a
>screen shot here:
>http://www.vca-asia.net/DiskManager.jpg
>It is in Japanese, I know, but Disk 0 and Disk 2 are basic disks, disk 1 is
>a dynamic disk and the disk that is absent (shown at the bottom) is a
>dynamic disk.
>
>The background is that I have a removable caddy into which I swap two backup
>drives about. One of the backup drives is a basic disk, the other a dynamic.
>Currently the caddy is occupied with the FAT32 basic disk, 'VCA Backup'. I
>am not all that clear on dynamic disks, although I have read most of the
>Microsoft information. It seems that the big advantage is that some things
>can be changed without rebooting. Still it does not give a hot swap
>facility, which is the big benefit that I would like.
>
>Anyway, if anyone can throw any light onto why Disk Manager is displaying
>the missing dynamic drive, I would be very grateful as I think that it might
>improve my understanding of dynamic drives generally.
>
>TIA

Bjorn

This reply was very helpful to me. Thank you for taking the time and trouble
to write such a comprehensive answer.

Michael

"Bjorn Landemoo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Michael
>
> Dynamic disks are mainly used in software fault tolerant configurations,
> where Windows is supposed to handle the loss of one disk, for instance
when
> a disk fails in a RAID1 or RAID5 configuration. When this happens, you
> should be able to insert a new empty disk, and get Windows to rebuild the
> information that was on the disk that failed. This is why Disk Management
> shows the missing dynamic disk, it still remembers that there was a disk
> that failed for some reason.
<SNIP>

Michael

You're welcome.

Best regards

Bjorn
--
Bjorn Landemoo - (E-Mail Removed) - http://landemoo.com/
Microsoft MVP - Windows Server Networking

"Michael" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Bjorn
>
>This reply was very helpful to me. Thank you for taking the time and trouble
>to write such a comprehensive answer.
>
>Michael
>
>"Bjorn Landemoo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Michael
>>
>> Dynamic disks are mainly used in software fault tolerant configurations,
>> where Windows is supposed to handle the loss of one disk, for instance
>when
>> a disk fails in a RAID1 or RAID5 configuration. When this happens, you
>> should be able to insert a new empty disk, and get Windows to rebuild the
>> information that was on the disk that failed. This is why Disk Management
>> shows the missing dynamic disk, it still remembers that there was a disk
>> that failed for some reason.
><SNIP>
>