Typically, a basic disk can consist of extended (subsequent division into logical disks) and primary partitions. Itanium-based computers also support basic disks, but you can choose either partition style (MBR or GPT) for each basic disk. In simple terms, a basic drive is any new drive or OS drive.Īs soon as such a disk is inserted into the computer, it must partition it (with your permission), and after that, it is impossible to change (expand or reduce) the disk without formation. The basic disk uses the MBR partition style as much as GUID (in the newer versions of Windows OS). In any case, if you need to, it is possible to convert the basic disk into a dynamic disk or vice versa. Dynamic disks also support MBR and GPT partitions. GPT partition: In dynamic disk, there is no partition and it contains simple volumes, spanned volumes, stripped volumes, mirrored volumes, and RAID-5 volumes. This ensures fault tolerance for the disk. In dynamic disk, there are not limited for primary and secondary-extended partitions 3: In basic disk, there are two styles of partition in basic disk: 1. In this case, information is recorded on one disk, and everything that does not fit is written on another. That is, it divides the disk not into partitions, but into volumes.įor example, a spanned volume can reside on multiple physical disks. A dynamic disk enables the user to create simple, compound, striped, mirrored, and RAID 5 volumes. A dynamic disk is a technology that differs from a basic disk in several respects, but it mostly functions the same.