Windows Vista Security: Praxisorientierte Sicherheit für Profis

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Chapter 19: Managing Disks and Drives

Converting a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk

Windows Vista allows you to convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk. Moving from a

basic disk to a dynamic disk is considered an upgrade. When you upgrade to a

dynamic disk, partitions become volumes of the appropriate type.

To upgrade successfully to a dynamic disk, keep the following caveats in mind:

• There must be at least 1 MB of free space at the end of the disk. Disk Manage-

ment reserves this free space automatically, but other disk management tools

might not.

• Drives that use sector sizes larger than 512 bytes can’t be converted. If the drive

has large sector sizes, you’ll need to reformat before upgrading.

• Devices with removable media or removable storage can’t be converted. In most

cases, these devices can be configured only as basic drives with primary partitions.

• Disks with the system, boot, or both partitions can’t be converted if they are part

of a spanned or striped volume. You’ll need to stop the spanning or striping

before you perform the conversion.

You can convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk by completing the following steps:

1. In Disk Management, right-click the disk designator for the basic disk that you

want to convert in the Graphical view and then select Convert to Dynamic Disk.

2. In the Convert to Dynamic Disk dialog box, the disk you selected is listed, as

shown in Figure 19-4.

3. If the disk you are converting has no formatted volumes, the disk is automati-

cally selected for conversion and clicking OK converts the disk. You do not need

to follow the remaining steps.

Figure 19-4. Converting the disk