What are the benefits of using dynamic disks over basic?

[Ian Roberts]

Hi

Ive been reading a little about how to create Dynamic Discs but I havent
come across anything to explain why I would want to use it over Basic disks.

Thanks for any info

Ian

 

[Rod Speed]

Ive been reading a little about how to create Dynamic Discs but I havent come
across anything to explain why I would want to use it over Basic disks.

They basically give you more capability, like being able to
span more than one physical drive into a combined logical drive.

There are however some downsides too, like if one physical
drive dies, all the data in the spanned volume is at risk, not
just the data on the single drive that has died. Obviously thats
just a nuisance if you are fully backed up etc.

Support for dynamic disks is worse with imaging software etc too.

 

[Ian Roberts]

They basically give you more capability, like being able to
span more than one physical drive into a combined logical drive.

There are however some downsides too, like if one physical
drive dies, all the data in the spanned volume is at risk, not
just the data on the single drive that has died. Obviously thats
just a nuisance if you are fully backed up etc.

Support for dynamic disks is worse with imaging software etc too.

Thanks for replying Rod

So it sounds similar to RAID to me.

I wonder... does it allow drives of different sizes to be combined and
utilise all the space? Would be great if thats possible. This would allow me
to make use of some old small drives I have lying around ie 4-9Gb each.

If I put them in an external enclosure (connected via firewire or USB) would
a dynamic setup be allowed or is that arrangement considered "removable" and
therefore not poss?

Thanks for your time.

Ian

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks for replying Rod

So it sounds similar to RAID to me.

Similar to RAID0, anyway. Not quite as bad tho because individual
files arent always split between the physical drives, so with no
backups and a single physical drive failure, you're more likely to
be able to recover at least some of the files with dynamic disks.

I wonder... does it allow drives of different sizes to be combined and utilise
all the space?

Yes. And different drive performance is completely irrelevant too.

Would be great if thats possible. This would allow me to make use of some old
small drives I have lying around ie 4-9Gb each.

Yeah, its most useful for that sort of thing.

If I put them in an external enclosure (connected via firewire or USB) would a
dynamic setup be allowed or is that arrangement considered "removable" and
therefore not poss?

Correct, it wont do that with those, essentially because
its much too easy to have one of them offline.

You could however put the drives in a seperate server and
have whatever you like connecting that to the main system.
Lan would normally be better than USB or firewire tho.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Similar to RAID0, anyway.
Nonsense.

Not quite as bad tho because individual
files arent always split between the physical drives, so with no
backups and a single physical drive failure, you're more likely to
be able to recover at least some of the files with dynamic disks.

That's just clueless rant.

Yes. And different drive performance is completely irrelevant too.


Yeah, its most useful for that sort of thing.

Depends on whether the driver allows to set them as 'fixed'.

Correct, it wont do that with those, essentially because
its much too easy to have one of them offline.

Not if they can be set 'fixed'.

 

[Rod Speed]

Some ****wit pseudokraut claiming to be
just the puerile attempt at a troll thats all it can ever manage.

 

[Odie Ferrous]

Some ****wit pseudokraut claiming to be
just the puerile attempt at a troll thats all it can ever manage.

Pseudokraut!

Ha - thanks, Speedy - that made me smile!

You have a nice day, now, you hear?


Odie

 

[Thomas Wendell]

Inline (as I understand the term you're asking for)

Thanks for replying Rod

So it sounds similar to RAID to me.

I wonder... does it allow drives of different sizes to be combined and
utilise all the space? Would be great if thats possible. This would allow me
to make use of some old small drives I have lying around ie 4-9Gb each.

Not RAID, it's JBOD (Just-a-Bunch-Of-Disks), but spanned acroos all those
disk, yes.
Yes, it allows different sized disks to be combined

If I put them in an external enclosure (connected via firewire or USB) would
a dynamic setup be allowed or is that arrangement considered "removable" and
therefore not poss?

No, as removable disks, if you take (or can take) one out, that would break
the dynamic disk..

Thanks for your time.

Ian

--
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Reply to group
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[MB]

Some disk utilities don't work with dynamic discs and in fact, even some
applications like Avid don't recommend them. So, they wind up being more
of a pain than anything else.

I'd stay away from them, they create more problems then they solve.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Some disk utilities don't work with dynamic discs and in fact, even some
applications like Avid don't recommend them. So, they wind up being
more of a pain than anything else.

I'd stay away from them,

I'd rather stay away from the (windows) utes that don't support dynamic
disks as they probably aren't programmed the way they should have been:
hardware/software independent.

 

[Joep]

I'd rather stay away from the (windows) utes that don't support dynamic
disks as they probably aren't programmed the way they should have been:
hardware/software independent.

Thank you for demonstrating once again that you do not have a clue.

 

[Lady Margaret Thatcher]

This is very timely for me. I was just about to build up a new system
with 4 x 72 GB SCSI drive, and I was planning my partition layout. I
was planning to keep the boot drive as a basic drive, so I could use
boot managers and the like. But using dynamic disks for the other
three drives give me a lot of flexibility in partition sizes. And,
yes, I do back up religiously.

But a thread like this raises yellow flags. So I have to ask:

Which utilities? What kinds of functions? AV? Spyware? Partition
resizing? Backup? Defrag?

I'd rather stay away from the (windows) utes that don't support dynamic
disks as they probably aren't programmed the way they should have been:
hardware/software independent.

It seems obvious that an improperly programmed utility would corrupt
the partition table (or whatever it is that MS uses for dynamic
disks). And corrupt the FAT or NTFS entries for a given file.
Anything else? (as though those problems aren't enough!)

 

[Lady Margaret Thatcher]

Thank you for demonstrating once again that you do not have a clue.

Joep,

Instead of flaming Folkert, why not ask him to back up his statement
with facts? We are all better served that way.

If he is clueless, then his response will demonstrate that clearly.
If his response has good information, then in fact he is anything but
clueless. I just posted a followup question, because I am about to
build up a new system and I was planning to use dynamic disks for
three of the four drives in my new system.

This group (like others also) suffers from too much personal invective
and not enough true information exchange.

Maggie

 

[Ge]

This is very timely for me. I was just about to build up a new system
with 4 x 72 GB SCSI drive, and I was planning my partition layout. I
was planning to keep the boot drive as a basic drive, so I could use
boot managers and the like. But using dynamic disks for the other
three drives give me a lot of flexibility in partition sizes.

Which utilities? What kinds of functions? AV? Spyware? Partition
resizing? Backup? Defrag?

IIRC PartitionMagic for example does not work with dynamic disks. You'd
have to check for the utilities that you use. I prefer a hardware
controller -- works with most utilities.

Gerhard

 

[Rod Speed]

Instead of flaming Folkert, why not ask him to back up his statement with
facts?

Complete waste of time with ****nert.

And he's already provided all there is on that claim anyway.

We are all better served that way.

Fraid not.

If he is clueless, then his response will demonstrate that clearly.

It's already done that.

If his response has good information,

It never does.

then in fact he is anything but clueless.

Have a look at his posts some time.

I just posted a followup question, because I am about to
build up a new system and I was planning to use dynamic
disks for three of the four drives in my new system.

This group (like others also) suffers from too much personal
invective and not enough true information exchange.

Like it or lump it.

 

[Lady Margaret Thatcher]

On 8/14/05 16:23:59, Lady Margaret Thatcher wrote:

IIRC PartitionMagic for example does not work with dynamic disks. You'd
have to check for the utilities that you use. I prefer a hardware
controller -- works with most utilities.

Gerhard,

Hardware controller for what?

You are right about Partition Magic, and pretty much all the utilities
in that class. I once did some digging around and MS has their own
utility for changing partition sizes on dynamic disks.

LMT

 

[Ge]

Hardware controller for what?

For creating JOBD or RAID configurations.

You are right about Partition Magic, and pretty much all the utilities
in that class. I once did some digging around and MS has their own
utility for changing partition sizes on dynamic disks.

Interesting... could you post a link please?

Thanks,
Gerhard

 

[Rod Speed]

Lady Margaret Thatcher wrote

For creating JOBD or RAID configurations.

Interesting... could you post a link please?

Put diskpart in the online help search for the 2K/XP family of OSs

Its a command line ute that can do that stuff.

 

[Lady Margaret Thatcher]

For creating JOBD or RAID configurations.


Interesting... could you post a link please?

Gerhard,

It was a while ago that I did this research. Here is what I came up
with doing a knowledge base search:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415/

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308424/

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;323442

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329707

And of course, most of these KB articles refer to additional article.

LMT

 

[Ge]

It was a while ago that I did this research. Here is what I came up
with doing a knowledge base search:

<links to diskpart and related info>

Thanks (also to Rod). I didn't know about diskpart -- seems they are
starting to understand that command line access to admin activities is
essential

But while it provides a command for extending partitions, it doesn't
provide a command for shrinking partitions (the other half of "changing
partition sizes"

For that, 3rd party utilities are still required.

Gerhard