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Dynamic Disk, extendable or not??

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Cooter

Programmer
Feb 2, 1999
5
US
I hope one of y'all can straighten me out.&nbsp;&nbsp;W2KPro boot drive is and has been the first partition (4.88G) and is NTFS.&nbsp;&nbsp;It is also very crowded.&nbsp;&nbsp;I spoke to some folks over the weekend, and they indicated if I would change it to a Dynamic Disk, I could simply extend the volume.&nbsp;&nbsp;I did so, but then when I attempted to extend the volume I received a message indicating since the selected volume was originally created on a &quot;basic disk&quot; it cannot be extended.&nbsp;&nbsp;The message goes on to explain that only volumes originally created on dynamic disks can be extended.<br><br>My questions are these:<br><br>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;Do I have a damaged or defective W2K installation causing this, or is this one of Mr. Gates jokes, allowing me to make a non reversable change from whatever a &quot;basic disk&quot; is, to dynamic disk, and then not allowing me to use a basic function of this dynamic disk?<br><br>2.&nbsp;&nbsp;After hearing horror stories re: SP1, I'm a little hesitant to apply it to a working system, unless needed.&nbsp;&nbsp;I'm sure SP1 is not a bug fix as MS OSes have no bugs, but wonder if any added &quot;features&quot; in SP1 may allow me to extend the volume.<br><br>3.&nbsp;&nbsp;If there are no solid fixes for this &quot;feature&quot;, are there any worksarounds, preferably with native W2K software, but maybe Partition Magic?&nbsp;&nbsp;I don't know if PM can do Dynamic Disks.<br><br>Thank You,<br>Jim
 
&quot;I'm sure SP1 is not a bug fix as MS OSes have no bugs&quot;<br><br>I would <b>STRONGLY</b> disagree with the fact that MS OSes have no bugs. Every bug fix, fixes existing bugs, and creates more to deal with :} hehe. <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.com>kb244@kb244.com</a><br><a href= </a><br>Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)<br>
 
Yep..! But still, I've upgraded to SP1 and it works great. I had to re-install the TCP/IP, that's it.. but it fix a lot of things that you don't even see..!! Trust me.. I strongly suggest that you upgrade. And like everything else, like Karl said: Every bug fix, fixes existing bugs, and creates more to deal with. That's right, but at least, you would have corrected the existing and known bugs..<br><br>I suggest that you GHOST your HD on CD's or a little HD..! I did..! <p>Ben_Cool ;)<br><a href=mailto:ben_cool@hotmail.com>ben_cool@hotmail.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>
 
I still upgrade regardless, because the new bugs are usally easier to get around, unlike the original bugs that can be a pain in the ***. I remeber an old Win95 bug that always accessed your floppy whenever trying to start a program , turned out the system always looked at the PIF before running a program, and if you had one pointing to the A: it would look there. Microsoft Windows has always had bugs, so I would never say &quot;as MS OSes have no bugs&quot;. In any case the new bugs are minimal especially on NT based system (Win9x is where most of the real horror stories exist)<br><br> <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.com>kb244@kb244.com</a><br><a href= </a><br>Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)<br>
 
Micro$oft Operating $y$tem$ have no bug$ - HA!&nbsp;&nbsp;Gotta love it!<br><br>Anyway - Dynamic volumes can be extended if you have a disk with unused space.&nbsp;&nbsp;The limitations are that it cannot be a system volume (i.e. your c: drive).&nbsp;&nbsp;I have not seen microsoft give any explanation for this, but I'm sure there is a reason.<br><br>Now, there is a way, kinda, around this.&nbsp;&nbsp;The empty space you were going to use for expanding your system drive - instead of expanding, format it as it's own drive.&nbsp;&nbsp;Instead of giving it a drive letter, mount it in an NTFS folder on your C: drive.&nbsp;&nbsp;This is done in the same screen where you change drive letters within Disk Management.<br><br>The only other option I see is a partition management program such as Partition Magic.&nbsp;&nbsp;Partition Magic DOES NOT support Dynamic volumes, nor are there any public plans to support them.&nbsp;&nbsp;Such a shame, I think that product will soon become extinct.<br>The only way to use Partition Magic is to NOT upgrade your system volume to Dynamic (watch out, you cannot change back to Basic), use partition magic on the basic partition, then upgrade it to Dynamic if wanted.&nbsp;&nbsp;I assume you already upgraded, so this is out.<br><br>My best recommendation is to mount the unused space into a folder on your C: drive, and manage files into the folder.<br><br>Good Luck!<br>Please pass on how this works so we all know if I am giving out faulty information again!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src= <p> Anonymous God<br><a href=mailto: anongod@hotmail.com> anongod@hotmail.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>"Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.
 
anongod,<br><br>Thanks.&nbsp;&nbsp;Did create a partition of the remaining space on the now dynamic disk, format it NTFS, and mount it, without assigning it a drive letter.&nbsp;&nbsp;It worked fine, as I was able to make/remove directories, as well as move files on and off the &quot;drive&quot;, but the Office 2000 Premium installer couldn't &quot;see&quot; the drive, to install on it.&nbsp;&nbsp;Everything is unhidden on this machine.<br><br>The plan was to uninstall Office from C: and reinstall on D: to gain 192 Meg of breathing space.&nbsp;&nbsp;Smaller packages to follow.&nbsp;&nbsp;Since the installer couldn't see the drive, I reconfigured it with the next consecutive drive letter and simply installed Office on G:.&nbsp;&nbsp;All is well.&nbsp;&nbsp;Thanks.<br><br>Another one of Bills' &quot;features&quot; raised its ugly head.&nbsp;&nbsp;Like I said above, the Office install consumed 192 Meg of real estate on C:.&nbsp;&nbsp;I uninstalled it from C:, and installed it on D: where it took up 196 Meg.&nbsp;&nbsp;Thats cool.&nbsp;&nbsp;In this day and age, what's 4 Meg.&nbsp;&nbsp;Also, it left 440K in 2 folders, 3 files on C:.&nbsp;&nbsp;Still cool.&nbsp;&nbsp;Hey, Bill wants it that way.<br><br>Uncool is after the uninstall of 192 Meg of &quot;stuff&quot; and a reboot, the free space on C: did not increase at all.&nbsp;&nbsp;Office is verified as gone from C:, and present on D: but 192 Meg of Bills' &quot;stuff&quot; is taking up space on **MY** C: partition and Bill won't give it back.<br><br>Not in Temp, or Recycle.&nbsp;&nbsp;I have confidence I can find where and how he hid it, and subsequently hammer it, but why should I have to?<br><br>Thanks again.<br><br>bye ... jrc
 
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