Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows support both basic and dynamic disk. Once your disk has been converted to dynamic, your computer will no longer use partitions. Instead, dynamic disks use volumes. A dynamic disk supports the following types of volumes:

• Simple volumes

• Spanned volumes
• Mirrored volumes
• Striped volumes
• RAID-5 volumes

Windows XP does not support mirrored volumes or RAID-5 volumes. However, you can use the Disk Management console on a computer running Windows XP to create a mirrored or RAID-5 volume on a remote computer that does support these volume types.

You can create a new simple volume or spanned volume by completing the steps below:

1. Click Start and click Run.

2. Type mmc and click OK.
3. Click Add/Remove Snap-in from the File menu.
4. Click Add. Select Disk Management, click Add then Finish, and click Close.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Disk Management (Local) in the left pane.
7. Right click unallocated space on the dynamic disk and click New Volume. Alternatively, click unallocated space on one of the dynamic disks to create a spanned volume.
8. Click Next.
9. Select the type of volume to create: Simple volume or Spanned volume.
10. Click Next.
11. Verify that the disk or disks on which you want the volume are selected. Click Next.
12. Type in the size of the volume. Click Next.
13. Assign a drive letter to the volume and click Next.
14. 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. Click Next.
15. Click Finish.