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Dynamic Drive vs. NTFS, etc

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by angelsix

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OK, I think this is an easy one. My computer was just re-built, & per tech's advice now has Win XP Pro. I have two 200gb hard drives.

I was going to partition my drives, as I've always done before, but failed because these are now "dynamic". Apparently I've got a choice, though (i.e., NTFS, etc.).

Oddly, Google & I haven't been able to find anything meaningful about which choice to make as to this new (to me) format. It sounds like I can create "volumes" which will act like partitions but really aren't. Or, maybe I can & should set the drives up as "mirrors" so unless they both fail at the same time, when one fails the other will have everything ready to go.

I do not want a "dual boot" system. This is my home computer, with a wide range of software & uses incl. MS Office, EasyCD, Paperport, games. The only disadvantage I can find for dynamic formatting is that other OS's can't access the drive. What I've not found is what that will really mean to me. For example, are older games more likely to fail on a dynamic drive?

So -- points available here for
[a] direct answers that help me choose which drive formatting to use (I've not installed much software yet, so won't be too unhappy starting over if there's a good reason), and
[b] URL's for articles that help me choose.

Thanks.

2 replies

by cg it

theres basic disks and dynamic disks. here's an article from Microsoft on Basic & Dynamic Disks for Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314343

now with that out of the way. theres a matter of format. NTFS, FAT32 FAT16.
NTFS provides security for files, folders via ACLs [access control lists]. you can allow, deny, access and set what they can do e.g. read, read/write, take ownership, etc. Heres an article on NTFS. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310749&Product=winxp

Next is software RAID which is outlined in the basic vs dynamic disk link above but heres one article on RAID 5 fault tolerant which you create on dyanmic disks [not basic disks]http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=309043

Bottom line is that dynamic disks provide a far greater flexibility in usage of your drives than basic disks. HOWEVER, there is a drawback. Many of the 3rd party partitioning software programs like Partition Commander 8.0 can not work with [or don't work well with] dynamic disks.

NTFS file system [regardless of whether you use basic disk or dynamic disk] provides security for your folders and sensitive data that FAT32 does not provide. NTFS is the best way to go. NOTE: the everyone group by default has access to folders [shared folders] you create. To limit access to only those you want, remove the everyone group. here's a microsoft article on that: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307874&Product=winxp

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