What else could mirroring mean other than synchronizing two partitions of two different hdds (software-based, of course)?
I can't do that. I had to have it serviced, so it's going to take a week. But I don't think there's going to be any difference, anyway, as I deleted it all and they probably going to return another one.
You have no issue with MS as everything did exactly as it's expected to perform, you asked it to mirror partitions across HDD/partitions and it did exactly what it is supposed to do, create Dynamic disks, there's no one to blame except yourself.
Now do as Greg suggests to clean up the mess you created.
Mirroring is type 1 Raid (RAID1), a special way to safeguard data by replicating it on two synchronized disks which both have to be present - if one fails, a replacement disk will have the failed disk replicated onto it by the RAID software.
It is not the same as copying the disk, cloning the disk or creating a disk image, any of which would have done what you wanted.
Last edited by fafhrd; 28 Mar 2011 at 15:48. Reason: typo
@fafhrd
I really don't see what's wrong with real-time backup which I can get with mirroring. Why should I be cloning, copying or whatever if windows mirroring did the trick the best why? How else could I have achieved this?
Last edited by quas; 28 Mar 2011 at 17:44.
You didn't get real-time backup, though - you got a non-bootable system, it seems.
How can I put his in understandable terms - you wanted a copy of the files, you should have copied the files.
If you had wanted to backup the system, you should have used a backup program.
Alternatives to backups are disk clones - exact sector for sector reproductions of the original.
Disk images contain all the essential stuff, but some, like windows image (.wim) format are clever enough to leave out all the metadata, which can be reproduced by the system once reinstated.
Mirroring, I described previously. It is not what you should have used, and your results, sadly, prove that.
So what you're saying is that windows mirroring is bad in any case? And implicitly dynamic disks? (With which, indeed, I've been having problems since I came across them - can't install linux, for instance)
Yes!
You will need to wipe them so they become unallocated space and then they can be recreated as Basic disks after you have backed-up the data you need to save to external media; Greg gave you the non-destructive method earlier.
Here is additional information below.
After you have copied out or made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media, use Step One of this tutorial at the first link below to do a wipe (secure erase) to the entire Hard Disk Drive / Solid State Drive.
Either way, running the "clean all" then creating and formatting the partition(s) using diskpart will get you the best possible space to do a clean install of Windows 7 to; you can always extend the Windows partition to include the remaining unallocated space on the HDD / SSD or create additional Primary partitions or an Extended partition after the installation completes if you choose.
- Then if you do not want to create the new Windows 7 "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #2 to create, format and mark Active a single 100GB partition to do the installation to.
- If you do want to create the "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #3 to create, format and mark Active the System Reserved partition and then create and format the 100GB partition to do the installation to.
SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation
DISKPART : At PC Startup
Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version
I would not say "bad" - just inappropriate, or even "wrong" for your situation.
If you want to read about RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) and Dynamic Disks as opposed to simple basic disks, what they are and why they are used, I would suggest that you let Google be your guide.
Follow the advice of the wise members here (not necessarily blindly, ask if you do not understand why, if sometimes you may receive conflicting advice), and you will not go far wrong.
Good luck! :)
I've plugged in both my hdds into another win 7 computer, but none of them can be seen by win 7. in disk management it says 'dynamic disk' (together with an exclamation point) and under it it says 'foreign'. So how should I proceed? turn to basic disk safely? Do you think the data is at all recoverable?
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