How-To Geek

hello all,

i have an interesting question along with an issue.

We recently increased the storage space on a raid 5 configuration at work. We extended the partition to the increased space using disk management (windows server 2003).

the volume is formatted as a mbr/dynamic partition. when we extended the partition, it created what looks like 2 partitions sharing the same drive letter.

my argument is the volume is partitioned as a dynamic disk, windows basically created another volume and extended the original volume to it, giving it the same drive letter. sort of like when you setup a storage pool in disk manager.

i explained that if we convert the partition to a basic disk, it would look like 1 partition instead of 2. although it doesn't really matter as its a hardware raid, data will still be written to the whole disk.

my co worker disagrees, anyone have any input?

honestly im not sure why it was setup as dynamic, ether way, my reasoning why the drives are split is because the disk is setup as dynamic. converting it back to basic would eliminate that split partition look.

My boss just doesn't like the fact that it "looks" split, despite me telling him that it really doesnt matter.

3 disks, honestly i dont believe they know why its setup as dynamic ether... does it really matter? i mean dynamic is really only good for splitting a large storage partition into pieces...

this is not the case for us, whatever the reasoning, its irrelevant. i just wanted to prove to my coworker that the drive looks "split" because its setup as dynamic. He thinks its some other issue, like a windows bug or something. which it is not.

My manager was ready to blow away the partition and reformat so it "looks" like one partition instead of two with the same drive letter.