Dynamic Disk

[Ron Martin]

In Windows 2000 you could convert basic disk to dynamic
disk on a laptop/notebook computer by "hacking" the
registry. This does not seem to work on Windows 2003.

(HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\dmload\Start)
value was changed from 4 to 0 and conversion worked. Not
so on Windows 2003.

Solution anyone?

Thanks

Ron Martin, MCSE

 

[Jeff Patterson [MSFT]]

Ron,

The following registry value is queried to determine whether or not the
system supports Dynamic Disks:


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\IDConfigDB\CurrentDockIn
fo\

DockingState:REG_DWORD: 1

A value of 0x1 indicates that Dynamic disks are not supported. If you change
this value to 0, you should be able to upgrade the Disk to Dynamic as long
as Dmload is set to boot (value of 0).

If you're wanting to convert this disk to Dynamic so you can extend a data
volume, I would recommend leaving the disk as basic, and use Diskpart.exe to
extend the volume:

325590 How to Use Diskpart.exe to Extend a Data Volume
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=325590

Jeff Patterson
Microsoft Support