Can I have both Windows dynamic disk partition and some other non-Windows partition on the same disk?

Posted by haimg on Super User See other posts from Super User or by haimg
Published on 2012-08-31T02:56:27Z Indexed on 2012/08/31 3:40 UTC
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When a basic Windows disk is converted to dynamic, Windows creates a partition that span the whole disk with the type of "Windows LVM" and manages its dynamic partitions within this space. So even if there is still free space on this disk, it is not visible to any other OS besides Windows. This happens with MBR and GPT disks both.

I would like to share a Windows dynamic disk with some other OS. I have to have dynamic disks because I use Windows SoftRaid (mirrors). So, my questions are:

  • Is there any way to "force" Windows to take up less then the whole disk when it converts a basic disk to dynamic?
  • Will Windows tolerate having some other non-Windows partition on its dynamic disk?

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