There exist two concepts: basic volume and dynamic volume. The former exists on basic disk while the latter exists on dynamic disk. Certainly, simple volume is a typical type of dynamic volume. If users use dynamic disk on their computer, they may need to create simple volume in Windows. Considering that users may not be familiar with dynamic disk, we will offer a simple introduction of it to users first.
Both basic disk and dynamic disk belong to hard disk. The biggest difference between these two disk types lies in the support for operating systems. Almost all Windows operating systems and even DOS support basic disk. However, for dynamic disk, not all Windows OS can support it. And DOS doesn’t support it at all. Dynamic disk includes several different volume types, namely simple volume, spanned volume, stripped volume, mirrored volume and Raid-5 volume. Therefore, in addition to creating simple volume in dynamic disk, users can also create other four （types of）volumes according to their needs.
No matter users use basic disk or dynamic disk, they can use a variety of file systems including FAT and NTFS. And users can easily convert a basic disk to dynamic with the help of Disk Management (please backup data in the certain basic disk before converting to avoid data loss). However, Windows built-in small tool can’t help users convert dynamic disk to basic. If users want to convert a dynamic disk to a basic disk, they had better use the third party tool, such as MiniTool Partition Wizard.
We will tell users something about simple volume after they knew dynamic disk. When users have only one dynamic disk on their computer, they can just create simple volume in Windows. Simple volume is similar to partition in basic disk, but it doesn’t have limitation in space and numbers. When the simple volume is short of free space, users can enlarge its space by expanding volume. And this operation will not cause data loss at all. This is a typical advantage of simple volume.
Every coin has two sides. Simple volume also has its own disadvantages. Since dynamic disk can’t be supported by DOS, then simple volume created on it can’t be supported either. The computer installed DOS has no means of creating or accessing simple volume (and data contained in it).
After users had basic understanding of dynamic disk and simple volume, they can start to read the following two ways to create simple volume in Windows.
Creating Simple Volume in Windows with Disk Management
- Users should right click “My Computer” and choose “Manage” to get in the interface of “Computer Management”.
- Click “Disk Management” to show disk list.
- Right click the certain dynamic disk (or unallocated space in it) and choose “New Volume”.
- Users should click “Next” in the pop-up window of “New Volume Wizard”.
- Select the amount of space in MB and click “Next”.
- Users should assign a drive letter to the new simple volume and click “Next”.
- Choose a file system and click “Next”.
- Click “Finish” to carry out all operations.
Create Simple Volume with Partition Magic
- Open MiniTool partition magic software, right click the certain dynamic disk and choose “Create Volume”.
Note: MiniTool Partition Wizard Free doesn’t support the function of “Create Volume”. So, users need to choose other editions to achieve creating volume.
- Click “Next” to continue.
- Choose “Add” and click “Next”.
- Specify the size and location of the new volume and click “Finish”.
- Click “Apply” after returning to the main interface of the partition magic.
This article not only offers users an introduction to simple volume in dynamic disk, but also shows them how to create simple volume. If users use dynamic disk in their computer, they can start to create new volume right now.