Dynamic volumes

[TripleEight]

I'm planning to convert my disks into dynamic volumes but have a few queries. I
would be very grateful if someone could answer my little problem.

Say if i am using a simple extended/spanned dynamic volume over several disks
with the another basic volume (2 partitions in total - with Windows XP Pro
installed and operating on the basic volume/disk), *would I be able to reuse
this spanned volume if I formatted the basic disk and reinstalled Windows?*

Thanks!

 

[Steve N.]

I'm planning to convert my disks into dynamic volumes but have a few
queries. I would be very grateful if someone could answer my little
problem.

Say if i am using a simple extended/spanned dynamic volume over several
disks with the another basic volume (2 partitions in total - with
Windows XP Pro installed and operating on the basic volume/disk), *would
I be able to reuse this spanned volume if I formatted the basic disk and
reinstalled Windows?*

Thanks!

No. You cannot span a volume accross basic disks.

Steve

 

[TripleEight]

No. You cannot span a volume accross basic disks.

Steve

I meant span *dynamic volumes* across *dynamic disks* as one partition. Sorry, I
should have clarified it more. Here's my set up.

3 hard disks: A, B and C.

A is a basic disk.

B and C are dynamic disks.

Windows XP Pro is installed on A.

B and C are personal storage space.

Say one day Windows screws up and I decided to reinstall Windows, hence format
disk A, would I be able to get this newly installed Windows (XP Pro) to remount
the dynamic volume from B and C? So in other words, are dynamic volumes per-user
dependant and are not transferrable?

Thanks.

 

[Steve N.]

I meant span *dynamic volumes* across *dynamic disks* as one partition.
Sorry, I should have clarified it more. Here's my set up.

3 hard disks: A, B and C.

A is a basic disk.

B and C are dynamic disks.

Windows XP Pro is installed on A.

B and C are personal storage space.

Say one day Windows screws up and I decided to reinstall Windows, hence
format disk A, would I be able to get this newly installed Windows (XP
Pro) to remount the dynamic volume from B and C? So in other words, are
dynamic volumes per-user dependant and are not transferrable?

Thanks.

Thanks for the clarification.

A new install of XP should be able to recognize and access dynamic disks
without issue. And no, it's not user dependent, but that is not to say
there may not be folders and files on the dynamic disk that may not be
accessible from a new install of the OS due to ownership conditions, but
that is another issue entirely.

Steve

 

[TripleEight]

And no, it's not user dependent, but that is not to say there may not be
folders and files on the dynamic disk that may not be accessible from a new
install of the OS due to ownership conditions, but that is another issue
entirely.

Steve

So just like a basic disk where certain privatized folders are inaccessible.
That's expected. Thanks for the info! This gives me confidence as i'm finalizing
my decision on whether to use dynamic disks on a long term.

One more little query. Dynamic disks obviously are slower than a basic one since
after all the RAID controller is software based and not hardware. How much
slower do you think this software controller is compared to the hardware,
assuming that they are running on a fast computer with large amounts of memory.

Many thanks!

 

[Leif Nordmand Andersen]

Hi TripleEight

Say one day Windows screws up and I decided to reinstall Windows, hence format
disk A, would I be able to get this newly installed Windows (XP Pro) to remount
the dynamic volume from B and C? So in other words, are dynamic volumes per-user
dependant and are not transferrable?

I've had 3 disks 250+250+160 GB disks running as dynamic disks i one
array as my Z: drive - containing my music for about a year.

I have tried to take out all three disks and borrowed them to a
friend. He had no trouble mounting and reading the disks. Nor did I
when I later reinserted them into my own computer.

But due to the risk of loosing ALL data of all drives once one drive
fails, I have decided to get 5 250GB's and activate raid 5 in Windows
XP (not official, it's a hack) and run with a bit of security. I have
tried the hack and ran 3 disks as raid 5 and it works really well and
is fine for file storage/file server.

Concerning speed ... I have not noticed any speed decrese.

Regards Leif.

 

[Michael Stevens]

In

Hi TripleEight


I've had 3 disks 250+250+160 GB disks running as dynamic disks i one
array as my Z: drive - containing my music for about a year.

I have tried to take out all three disks and borrowed them to a
friend. He had no trouble mounting and reading the disks. Nor did I
when I later reinserted them into my own computer.

But due to the risk of loosing ALL data of all drives once one drive
fails, I have decided to get 5 250GB's and activate raid 5 in Windows
XP (not official, it's a hack) and run with a bit of security. I have
tried the hack and ran 3 disks as raid 5 and it works really well and
is fine for file storage/file server.

Concerning speed ... I have not noticed any speed decrese.

Regards Leif.

Thanks for the information.

--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[TripleEight]

Hi TripleEight


I've had 3 disks 250+250+160 GB disks running as dynamic disks i one
array as my Z: drive - containing my music for about a year.

I have tried to take out all three disks and borrowed them to a
friend. He had no trouble mounting and reading the disks. Nor did I
when I later reinserted them into my own computer.

But due to the risk of loosing ALL data of all drives once one drive
fails, I have decided to get 5 250GB's and activate raid 5 in Windows
XP (not official, it's a hack) and run with a bit of security. I have
tried the hack and ran 3 disks as raid 5 and it works really well and
is fine for file storage/file server.

Concerning speed ... I have not noticed any speed decrese.

Regards Leif.

Thanks a lot! It's good to hear that it has been done and there were no
problems.

So, if I reinstalled Windows will I have to mount them using the Disk Management
utility or does Windows automatically detect and mount the volume?

Thanks.

 

[Steve N.]

So just like a basic disk where certain privatized folders are
inaccessible. That's expected. Thanks for the info! This gives me
confidence as i'm finalizing my decision on whether to use dynamic disks
on a long term.

One more little query. Dynamic disks obviously are slower than a basic
one since after all the RAID controller is software based and not
hardware. How much slower do you think this software controller is
compared to the hardware, assuming that they are running on a fast
computer with large amounts of memory.

Many thanks!

I'll leave that for someone who actively uses dynamic disks to answer.
From the little I've experienced with them I've seen no difference in
performance vs. basic disks at all. Software RAID is another area I have
no experience with, sorry.

Steve

 

[Leif Nordmand Andersen]

Hi TripleEight

So, if I reinstalled Windows will I have to mount them using the Disk Management
utility or does Windows automatically detect and mount the volume?

No - or at least it didn't on my friends computer. He went into disk
management. You have to right click on one of the dynamic links and
choose 'ACTIVATE', if all the nessary disks are present, then it gets
activated and is accessible without any reboot. From then on it was
accessible on every reboot.

Regards Leif.