RE: Dynamic vs Basic Partitions

Walter,

I thought I was golden with that program but I actually came across a
computer that show LDM information for a basic disk. When I run it on other
comps it gives me the no LDM database for all the basic disks but this one
server does have LDM info on the basic disk. Not sure how that is possible
but I am going to need a different solution. I know it is possible because I
have other programs that run and only show basic disks on the comp.

Thanks again!

"Walter Wang [MSFT]" wrote:

Hi,

Dyanamic disks are partitioned using Logical Disk Manager (LDM)
partitioning. The LDM subsystem in Windows, which consists of user-mode and
device driver components, oversees dynamic disks. LDM maintains one unified
database that stores partitioning information for all the dynamic disks on
a system--including multipartition-volume configuration.

As far as I know, there're no API for calling LDM service.

The LDM database resides in a 1-MB reserved space at the end of each
dynamic disk. Unfortunately this database's format is not officially
documented.

Sysinternals.com has a freeware called ldmdump.exe
(http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/LdmDump.html) which can display the
database content.

For a basic disk, the output will be:


Logical Disk Manager Configuration Dump v1.03
Copyright (C) 2000-2002 Mark Russinovich

Disk does not have LDM database.

For a dynamic disk, the output will be:

Logical Disk Manager Configuration Dump v1.03
Copyright (C) 2000-2002 Mark Russinovich

PRIVATE HEAD:
Signature : PRIVHEAD
Version : 2.11
Disk Id : 49448001-f838-447d-836d-85002666e401
Host Id : 1b77da20-c717-11d0-a5be-00a0c91db73c
Disk Group Id : 158f43d4-430b-4c1e-b6ad-43254e9c27d8
Disk Group Name : Sha-wawang-v5Dg0
Logical disk start : 3F
Logical disk size : 9C25FE (4996 MB)
Configuration start: 9C3520
Configuration size : 800 (1 MB)
Number of TOCs : 1
TOC size : 7FE (1023 KB)
Number of Configs : 1
Config size : 5AC (726 KB)
Number of Logs : 1
Log size : DC (110 KB)

...

So as a workaround, you may use this tool to output the information and
check for string "Disk does not have LDM database" to determine whether or
not this is a basic disk.

Please reply to let me know whether or not you need further information.
Thanks.

Sincerely,
Walter Wang (wawang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

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