"Bryan J. Smith" b.j.smith@ieee.org wrote:
??? I thought XP Pro can use LDM and striping/mirroring, just like Windows 2000 Pro ???
Just FYI, you have to use a Logical Disk Manager (LDM) Disk Label** (aka "Dynamic Disk") to use the software RAID features of Windows 2000 Pro and XP Pro (not sure about XP Home, what it offers).
This is a safety feature, as legacy BIOS/DOS Disk Labels (aka "Basic Disk" -- i.e., old Primary/Extended/Logical disk slices) can store inter-Disk Slice** dependencies/ associations.
LDM Disk Labels show up as a Disk Slice of type 42h in a legacy BIOS/DOS Disk Label.
It's the same reason why you should use a Logical Volume Management (LVM) Disk Slice when you use Linux's Software RAID, even when using the Multi Disk (MD) for your RAID. It will store Disk Slice associations, unlike a legacy BIOS/DOS Disk Label.
-- Bryan
**NOTE: I'm purposely using established UNIX terminology, instead of PC: Disk Slice ~ Partition Disk Label ~ Partition Table
Disk Labels can be encapsulated inside of Disk Slices. E.g., the "Extended" primary partition is really a new Disk Label (with "Logical" partitions) inside of a Disk Slice. Same deal with BSD Disk Labels, NT5+ (2000+) LDM Disk Labels, Linux LVM Disk Labels, etc... The legacy BIOS/DOS Disk Label has 0 storage other than the Disk Slices themselves (other than MBR and the partition table itself -- no meta-data, no journal, no geometry, etc...).