Dead Men Walking

dMw Chit Chat => The Beer Bar => Technology Section => Topic started by: Penfold on November 15, 2013, 10:52:08 AM

Title: Basic vs Dynamic Disks
Post by: Penfold on November 15, 2013, 10:52:08 AM
My new laptop has a SSD and a HDD.

Both arrived and are formatted to Basic Disks. I was considering converting them to Dynamic Disks as I seem to recall this was worth doing.

Is this right and is there an issue with converting disks from basic to dynamic. Any downside or upside to doing that?

Thanks
Title: Basic vs Dynamic Disks
Post by: TeaLeaf on November 15, 2013, 11:39:54 AM
Quote from: Penfold;378134I was considering converting them to Dynamic Disks as I seem to recall this was worth doing.
Why?   I'm not an expert on this but why would you want to span a dynamic volume over an SSD and a mechanical drive?    For my level of knowledge I'd stick to basic volumes unless you have a specific need for dynamic volumes.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363785(v=vs.85).aspx

Someone else with more knowledge than me will no doubt be along in a while to educate me as to why dynamic drives are more beneficial!
Title: Basic vs Dynamic Disks
Post by: kregoron on November 15, 2013, 12:10:32 PM
Quote from: TeaLeaf;378135Why?   I'm not an expert on this but why would you want to span a dynamic volume over an SSD and a mechanical drive?    For my level of knowledge I'd stick to basic volumes unless you have a specific need for dynamic volumes.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363785(v=vs.85).aspx

Someone else with more knowledge than me will no doubt be along in a while to educate me as to why dynamic drives are more beneficial!

Correct, only reason to run dynamic is to create OS level raid/spans. which i doubt your interested in, or anyone else should be for that matter.
Title: Basic vs Dynamic Disks
Post by: Tutonic on November 15, 2013, 12:30:31 PM
Microsoft textbooks will tell you that Dynamic Disks are great, but the reality is that they just leave you vulnerable to more issues and don't really bring any benefit.
Title: Basic vs Dynamic Disks
Post by: Penfold on November 27, 2013, 02:18:41 PM
Thanks.

For some reason Acronis isn't liking backing up the disks I have - anyone else suggest something similar I can try?

Thanks.
Title: Basic vs Dynamic Disks
Post by: Tutonic on November 27, 2013, 03:33:19 PM
Quote from: Penfold;378505Thanks.

For some reason Acronis isn't liking backing up the disks I have - anyone else suggest something similar I can try?

Thanks.

Paragon Backup (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/) is pretty good, and there's a free version available.