What is the different between Dynamic Disk and Basic Disk 1

[jackps]

Dear all
I had a Win2k server set up in my office, now i want to create a software RAID, which is mirror, for a moment both my HDD are running Basic Disk, and i found out that win2k won't let me create the Mirror if the hdd are in Basic Disk Format, now before i convert them to Dynamic disk, i want to know what should i keep my eyes on?
Can anyone please give me a hand on this?

Thx alot & Best Regards

jack

 

[OzDog]

Jack,

The conversion is simple as, and I've never seen any problems. The only troubles are:
1. If you move the disk set into another machine, it won't appear straight away, rather it will appear as a foreign disk in the Disk Management section of Computer Management MMC. To use the drive it must be imported (right-click -> import)
Note - I've only done this with single disks or Hardware RAID, not Software RAID.
2. Dynamic Disks can never be converted back to Basic (read - re-format to convert).
3. Software such as Ghost, Partition Magic etc don't work on Dynamic Disks.

Dynamic disks offer no advantages that i can see, except for software fault tolerance, and software FT is pretty bad at the best of times. I would make every effort possible to get a hardware controller for the purpose, otherwise make sure your backups are reliable.

Cheers,
Sam

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[ricpinto]

If your server is "live" then take a time off first and read this link before you do something regretable.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/server/help/dm_upgrade.htm