Windows 2000 introduced the concept of dynamic disks. It allowed you to use basic disks or convert to dynamic to take advantage of additional features. When you first install Windows 2000/XP Professional and Windows Server 2003, all disks are initialized as basic. You then have the option of converting to dynamic without losing any of your data.

Many people want to know why they should convert to dynamic. As already mentioned, dynamic disks support additional features such as:

• Disk and volume management tasks can be performed without having to restart the computer afterwards.

• You can create volumes that span multiple disks. These are referred to as spanned volumes.
• You can extend a simple or spanned volume.
• Dynamic disks support an unlimited number (up to 2000) of volumes.
• Dynamic disks do not use a Master Boot Record (MBR). Disk layout information is stored on the last 1 MB of the disk.