Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Creating a Spanned Volume

You can extend storage space on an existing volume to a new disk by creating a spanned volume. This is essentially a volume that spans two or more disks and enables you to add space without the need to specify a new drive letter. Note that the spanned volume is even less fault tolerant than a simple volume; if any one disk fails, all data is lost from all disks and must be restored from backup. To create a spanned volume, right-click the desired volume and choose Extend Volume. From the Extend Volume Wizard, select the available disk(s) and complete the steps in this wizard, as previously described.

Creating a Mirrored Volume

A mirrored volume contains two disks, each of which is an identical copy of the other, thereby providing fault tolerance at the expense of requiring twice the amount of disk space. You can use a mirrored volume to provide fault tolerance for the system and boot volumes, as well as any data volumes.

Creating a mirrored volume is similar to that of creating a striped volume. Use the following procedure:

1. In Disk Management, right-click any one disk to be made part of the striped volume and choose New Mirrored Volume.
2. Steps displayed by the New Mirrored Volume Wizard are similar to those of the New Striped Volume Wizard outlined in the previous procedure. When you have completed the procedure, the mirrored volume appears in the Disk Management display.