Using Dynamic Disks for spanning (what happens if one fails)

[igiddyuup]

Hi, First I'm new here. So sorry if this is in the wrong category. I also searched around and didn't see an exact answer to my question.

My set up: Windows 7 Ultimate. OS is not on a hard drive I want to span.

I have a few hard drives full of Movies. And currently I have to go to each hard drive to find the one I want. I want to be able to list all my movie hard drives as one drive thus they will all be in one place and easy to sort through. My understanding is since I don't a a piece of hard ware to enable raid I can use Windows Dynamic Disks to enable spanning.

What I want to do:
Enable dynamic disk spanning over 3 - 1.5 tb hard drives. Again none of these drives contain the OS.

So my questions are:
1. When converting a basic disk to a dynamic disk is there a way to keep the data?

I saw ways to keep the data going from dynamic to basic, but not the way I want to go. I don't really have a place big enough to back up all three at once, but I could back up one at a time if that would help. Not sure if all three need to be converted / added at the same time.

2. If one of the three hard drives fail will I lose all the data on all three disks or just the data on the one drive that failed?

If I would lose all the data, I'm not sure it would be worth doing it at all...

Is there any other way of doing this?

Thanks. I hope I gave enough background.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

It's your call, but I would not want to entrust my data to a complexity such as dynamic disks. Would you still do it if you thought it had 1 chance in 100 of causing you major grief?

I'd just use a spreadsheet if necessary to keep track of the movies.

You might look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_disk

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc758035(WS.10).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363785(VS.85).aspx

I found this blurb on the net. Make of it what you will:

"Although dynamic volumes can be used for expanding volumes it is
not recommended for permanent use. It is usually used as a temporary measure
on a server until downtime can be scheduled and a larger drive installed."

 

[igiddyuup]

I looked over your links. I didn't see anything explaining if one hard drive in the spanned dynamic disks goes bad if you lose everything. That is my main concern.

I tried keeping a spreadsheet, but its a hassle, i'm just trying to make things more simple for myself.