Dell PowerVault DP500 - Manual (Page 31)

RAID and Disk Management
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Disk Management
Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition with SP2 features the Disk
Management utility, which enables you to configure your storage devices and
the logical volumes contained in your system. The Disk Management utility
displays storage configuration in list and graphical views. The list view shows
a list of all the physical devices and their properties. The graphical view shows
your storage as logical volumes. Each view provides menus of commands for
configuring and managing your system storage.
This section describes how to use the Windows Disk Management tool to
manage basic and dynamic volumes.
Initializing a Disk
When you create a virtual disk and perform a rescan in a hardware RAID or
external storage configuration or when a new disk is discovered on a system with a
software RAID configuration, the disk appears with the statement Disk Type
of Unsigned Disk. An unsigned disk cannot be used until it is initialized.
To initialize a disk, right-click the unsigned disk. A menu displays showing
the Initialize Disk command. (The Initialize Disk command appears only if
a disk does not include a signature.) Select this command to write a signature
on the disk.
After a signature is written on a disk, the disk displays as a Basic Disk. You
can create partitions on the basic disk, or you can upgrade the disk from basic
to dynamic and create volumes on the disk.
NOTE:
In hardware RAID configurations, the operating system disk must remain a
basic disk. However, you can upgrade all data disks to dynamic during creation by
using the Windows Disk Management utility.
Upgrading a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk
You can only use dynamic disks for online volume extension. Hence, Dell
recommends that you use the Disk Management utility to upgrade all data
disks on your system to dynamic. The upgrade includes new disks, which have
been added to the system as basic disks.
NOTE:
In hardware RAID configurations, the operating system disk must remain a
basic disk.
NOTE:
Software RAID installed on a hardware RAID system is not supported.