| Feature | Basic Disk (MBR) | Dynamic Disk | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | 2 TB | Depends on partition style (MBR: 2TB, GPT: larger). | | Max Partitions | 4 Primary partitions (or 3 Primary + 1 Extended). | Up to 2,000 volumes (practically unlimited). | | Software RAID | Not supported. | Supported (RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5). | | Spanning Volumes | Not supported. | Supported (Combine Drive D: and E: into one large Drive F:). | | Data Safety | High. Standard partition tables are easily read by recovery tools. | Lower. Uses a hidden database (LDM). If the LDM database corrupts, data is very hard to recover. | | Portability | High. Can be moved between computers easily. | Low. Often requires "Import Foreign Disk" when moved to another PC. | | OS Support | All OSs (Windows, Mac, Linux). | Windows only. |
This is the standard storage type used by Windows.
: Limited to addressing a maximum of 2 TB of storage space.
Buy a hardware RAID card or use your motherboard’s RAID BIOS. Microsoft’s software RAID is slow and unreliable. If Windows corrupts, your mirrored data becomes very difficult to recover.
| Feature | Basic Disk (MBR) | Dynamic Disk | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | 2 TB | Depends on partition style (MBR: 2TB, GPT: larger). | | Max Partitions | 4 Primary partitions (or 3 Primary + 1 Extended). | Up to 2,000 volumes (practically unlimited). | | Software RAID | Not supported. | Supported (RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5). | | Spanning Volumes | Not supported. | Supported (Combine Drive D: and E: into one large Drive F:). | | Data Safety | High. Standard partition tables are easily read by recovery tools. | Lower. Uses a hidden database (LDM). If the LDM database corrupts, data is very hard to recover. | | Portability | High. Can be moved between computers easily. | Low. Often requires "Import Foreign Disk" when moved to another PC. | | OS Support | All OSs (Windows, Mac, Linux). | Windows only. |
This is the standard storage type used by Windows. convert to dynamic disk vs mbr
: Limited to addressing a maximum of 2 TB of storage space. | Feature | Basic Disk (MBR) | Dynamic
Buy a hardware RAID card or use your motherboard’s RAID BIOS. Microsoft’s software RAID is slow and unreliable. If Windows corrupts, your mirrored data becomes very difficult to recover. | | Software RAID | Not supported