Is there a way to install Windows onto Dynamic disks?

Question

I like using the Dynamic disks with striping in Windows and was wondering if I could install from a Windows ISO onto a set of striped dynamic disks.

So far in my testing, that's not possible. I get that it's a chicken 'n egg problem, but I figured the Windows ISO would have a way to do it.

The other option is hardware "fake" RAID from the motherboard. Enabling it typically slows down boot times and doesn't transfer between motherboards (like Intel and AMD) even in the RAID0 configuration. It also disables AHCI in favor of IDE mode.

In terms of maintenance, I've had issues with hardware RAID not working in Linux Mint to let me dd that data to a new drive or set of disks. Because of this, I'd like to avoid hardware RAID altogether.

Is there a way, with Windows, to install it onto Dynamic striped disks?

Answer 1

Officially, Windows supports using Dynamic disks for the system volume, but only in the "Mirror" mode, as that's the only mode supported by the minimal drivers used by the Windows bootloader (before the OS is loaded).

Yes, with the Windows ISO you can install the OS onto any kind of volume (nowadays, just dism the Install.wim image onto a formatted NTFS volume and you're done), but that won't help if the bootloader isn't going to be able to boot from it.

If you're searching for unsupported hacks so long as they're software-based, the Btrfs filesystem from Linux supports data striping and mirroring – Windows can be installed on it using the WinBtrfs driver, and the Quibble replacement bootloader from the same author supports booting Windows from Btrfs volumes.

(Regarding hardware RAID, the "It also disables AHCI in favor of IDE mode" is only true for older systems – newer ones do implement AHCI even in RAID mode.

You should never need to dd a RAID disk – good RAID systems, both software and hardware, have explicit "Replace disk" operations where the RAID controller itself transfers data to new disks, with all necessary metadata etc. It doesn't have to be the built-in fake(ish)RAID feature on your motherboard – you can get PCI-Express RAID controllers, e.g. LSI.)

Answer 2

As you said it, it's a "chicken and the egg" problem, and there's no way past this one.

Dynamic disks require more than just a driver or simple controller software. They are too dependent on too many functions of Windows to exist outside a full Windows install, which is what you need in order to install a bare-metal Windows install.

The best you can do is with a hypervisor and virtual machine, and that's a whole different thing entirely.