The Disk Management console is the main interface for managing basic and dynamic disks. Once you open the console, you will see a graphical display of all the disks installed on your computer as well as the volumes configured.

Management tasks can include creating and extending volumes, formatting volumes, changing drives letters, importing disks, and so on. The following sections will discuss how these management tasks can be performed under Vista

Creating and Extending Volumes
The main type of volume on a dynamic disk is a simple volume. You can create a new simple volume or spanned volume within the Disk Management console by completing the steps below:

In Vista, you can create a new simple volume by completing the steps below:

1. Open Disk Management.
2. Right click unallocated space on the dynamic disk and click New Simple Volume.
3. Click Next.
4. Type in the size of the volume and click Next.
5. Assign a drive letter to the volume and click Next.
6. Specify the formatting options. If you choose to format the partition, type in a name for the volume in the Volume Label field and select the file system you want to use.
7. Click Next.
8. Review your selections and click Finish.

New in Vista is the ability to shrink a volume. This means you can reclaim unused space from a volume and then create a new volume from that free space.

To shrink a volume:

1. Open Disk Management.
2. Right click the volume you want to shrink and click Shrink Volume from the context menu.
3. Enter the amount in MB to shrink the partition.
4. Click Shrink.

Once the operation is complete, the free space that you reclaimed will appear as unallocated space within Disk Management.

As with Windows XP, Vista also lets you extend a volume. Before outlining the steps there is a VERY important point to keep in mind. A primary partition becomes a simple volume when the disk is converted to dynamic. However, if an existing simple volume was created before the disk was converted to dynamic it cannot be extended. A simple volume can only be extended if the simple volume was created after the disk was converted to dynamic. So when you are considering extending an existing volume, remember that a simple volume that was originally a primary partition cannot be extended and you cannot extend the system or boot volume.

To extend a simple volume:

1. Within the Disk Management console, right click the simple volume that you want to extend and click Extend Volume.
2. Select the disk that the volume will be extended to and click Add.
3. Specify the amount of space to add to the volume. Click Next.
4. Click Finish.

[tags]dynamic disk, vista, windows[/tags]