dynamic disks created in XP

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Guest

what will happen with them after I have wiped XP and installed Vista?
Currently I have two spanned volumes with a LOT of data on them
 
what will happen with them after I have wiped XP and installed Vista?
Currently I have two spanned volumes with a LOT of data on them
Click to expand...

And you have some backups of that data, right?
 
In theory, as long as you don't touch the volumes during setup, then they
should continue to work just fine. If, as you say, one set is a backup of
the other, then I'd pull one set out before installing Vista just to be sure
of not accidentally damaging it.

Maybe setup a dual boot scenario to begin with to ensure your data remains
intact and accessable.
 
i will be setting up a dual boot scenario anyway (I posted another Q about
this), but it will be windows 2003 and vista so the dynamic disks will have
to be visible in both OS's
 
one spanned volume is actually a copy of the other
Click to expand...

So that would be a big "NO". Well, I suggest you do a real backup before
you do anything that mucks around with the disks, like installing a new
OS.
 
what will happen with them after I have wiped XP and installed Vista?
Currently I have two spanned volumes with a LOT of data on them
Click to expand...

Make sure you have a usable backup. If you format any partition on
the system you can loose access to any dynamic partition since Windows
stores the info it needs to access a dynamic partition on other
partitions. Make sure you have a usable backup.

Stephen
--
 
ok, well i've installed windows 2003 and vista on separate partitions while
the dynamic disks have been disconnected during the installation.
now the thing is, I have successfully imported these dynamic disks into
windows 2003, but vista still refuses to do this.
Disk mgmt console sees that the disks are dynamic and "offline", using
diskpart to bring them online gives me the error that "onlining objects in
the pack associated with the disk" failed.
what can I do to have the dynamic disks visible within vista AND w2003 ?
 
I've found the solution thx to msfn.org:
1. Vista only supports Dynamic drives in Business and Ultimate - not Home
Premium. I upgraded from XP Pro to Home Premium. Try to find out where
Microsoft tells you that Premium doesn't support dynamic drives - I couldn't.
Microsoft wanted me to upgrade to Ultimate for an additional $ 169 . . . I
didn't want to.

2. It turns out that unless you are really using the features of dynamic
drives you can easily switch them back to basic (so Vista can see them)
without data loss.

The instructions are right here (forget the ad):

http://thelazyadmin.com/index.php?/archive...asic-Disks.html

The trick is to find diskprobe.exe. I took it out of the support cabinet on
my old Windows 2000 disk. If you are running Vista you can not download it
from Microsoft. Best bet is to pull it off an old windows disk.

It worked perfectly and was really really simple. Be sure to 'run as
administrator' when you run the software.

I hope this saves everyone lots of time (and money).
 
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