About Dynamic Volumes

Dynamic volumes

Dynamic volumes are a new feature of Windows 2000 and can only be created on dynamic disks. With dynamic disks, you are no longer restricted to four volumes per disk.

There are five types of dynamic volumes: simple, spanned, mirrored, striped, and RAID-5. Only computers running Windows 2000 can access dynamic volumes. You should create basic volumes, such as partitions or logical drives, on basic disks if you want computers running Windows NT 4.0 or earlier, Windows 98 or earlier, or MS-DOS to access these volumes.

 Note

• Dynamic volumes are not supported on portable computers.
• Mirrored and RAID-5 volumes are available only on computers running Windows 2000 Server. You can, however, use a computer running Windows 2000 Professional to create mirrored and RAID-5 volumes on a remote computer running Windows 2000 Server.

There are five types of dynamic volumes: simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, and RAID-5. Mirrored and RAID-5 volumes are fault tolerant and are available only on computers running Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, or the Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems. You can, however, use a computer running Windows XP Professional to remotely create mirrored and RAID-5 volumes on these operating systems

Simple volumes

A simple volume is made up of disk space on a single physical disk. It can consist of a single region on a disk or multiple regions on the same disk that are linked together. You can extend a simple volume within the same disk or onto additional disks. If you extend a simple volume across multiple disks, it becomes a spanned volume <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script>

• You can create simple volumes on dynamic disks only.
• You can extend a simple volume within the same disk. You can also extend a simple volume onto additional dynamic disks to create a spanned volume <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script> Any volume you extend must be formatted using NTFS. You cannot extend volumes formatted using FAT <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script> or FAT32 <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script>
• Simple volumes are not fault tolerant <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script>
• Simple volumes cannot contain partitions or logical drives <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script> , nor can they be accessed by MS-DOS or Windows operating systems other than Windows 2000. You should create partitions instead of dynamic volumes <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script> if this computer also runs Windows NT 4.0 or earlier, Windows 98 or earlier, or MS-DOS .

  Striped volumes

  A striped volume stores data in stripes on two or more physical disks. Data in a striped volume is allocated alternately and evenly (in stripes) to the disks of the striped volume. Striped volumes substantially improve the speed of access to your hard disk.

  In Windows NT 4.0 and earlier, a striped volume was known as a stripe set

• You need at least two dynamic disks to create a striped volume. You can create a striped volume onto a maximum of 32 disks.
• Striped volumes are not fault tolerant <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script> and cannot be extended or mirrored.

  Spanned volumes

  A spanned volume is made up of disk space on more than one physical disk. You can add more space to a spanned volume by extending it at any time.

  In Windows NT 4.0 and earlier, a spanned volume was known as a volume set.

• You can create spanned volumes on dynamic disks only.
  You need at least two dynamic disks to create a spanned volume.
  You can extend a spanned volume onto a maximum of 32 dynamic disks.
  Spanned volumes cannot be mirrored or striped.
  Spanned volumes are not fault tolerant
  

  Mirrored volumes

  A mirrored volume is a fault-tolerant <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script> volume that duplicates your data on two physical disks. It provides data redundancy by using a copy (mirror) of the volume to duplicate the information contained in the volume. The mirror is located on a different disk. If one of the physical disks fails, the data on the failed disk becomes unavailable, but the system continues to operate using the unaffected disk. A mirrored volume is slower than a RAID-5 volume in read operations but faster in write operations.

  In Windows NT 4.0 and earlier, a mirrored volume was known as a mirror set.

   Note

  • Mirrored volumes are available only on computers running Windows 2000 Server. You can, however, use a computer running Windows 2000 Professional to create mirrored volumes on a remote computer running Windows 2000 Server.
• You can create mirrored volumes only on computers running Windows 2000 Server.
• You need at least two dynamic disks to create a mirrored volume.
• Mirrored volumes are fault tolerant <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script>
• Mirrored volumes cannot be extended or striped.
• The same drive letter is used for both copies (mirrors) of a mirrored volume

• RAID-5 volumes

  A RAID-5 volume is a fault-tolerant <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script> volume with data and parity <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script> striped intermittently across three or more physical disks. If a portion of a physical disk fails, you can recreate the data that was on the failed portion from the remaining data and parity. RAID-5 volumes are a good solution for data redundancy in a computer environment in which most activity consists of reading data.

  In Windows NT 4.0 and earlier, a RAID-5 volume was known as a stripe set with parity.

   Note

  • RAID-5 volumes are available only on computers running Windows 2000 Server. You can, however, use a computer running Windows 2000 Professional to create RAID-5 volumes on a remote computer running Windows 2000 Server.
• You can create RAID-5 volumes only on computers running Windows 2000 Server.
• You need at least three dynamic disks to create a RAID-5 volume. A RAID-5 volume can span a maximum of 32 disks.
• RAID-5 volumes provide fault tolerance <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script> at a cost of only one additional disk for the volume. This means that if you use three 10-GB disks to create a RAID-5 volume, the volume will have a 20-GB capacity. The remaining 10-GB is used for parity <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> if ("function"==typeof(adjPopup)) adjPopup() </script> .
• RAID-5 volumes cannot be extended or mirrored.

• Note In Microsoft Windows XP and in Microsoft Windows 2000, you cannot use Diskpart.exe to extend a simple volume on a Dynamic disk that was originally created on a Basic disk. You can extend only simple volumes that were created after the disk was upgraded to Dynamic disk. If you try to extend a simple volume on a Dynamic disk that was originally created on a Basic disk, you receive the following error message. This restriction was removed in Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

  Diskpart failed to extend the volume.
  Please make sure the volume is valid for extending