I'm considering setting up a dual-boot system for the first time for many years. My plan for the system is to set it up as follows:
- SSD for both system partitions
- 2 identical hard disks, split into three partitions each:
- 1 Windows mirrored disk for important data
- 1 Windows striped disk for software that's too big to fit on the SSD
- 1 Linux mirrored disk for important data on the Linux side
Obviously from a Windows perspective, this means I'll need to use dynamic disks. My understanding is that while the original dynamic disk format is supported by the Linux kernel (with CONFIG_LDM_PARTITION enabled, which probably means I will have to recompile as it appears most distributions do not include this by default) the format changed with Windows 7 (I believe the LDM database is now placed inside a GPT partition, rather than being used on a raw disk) and that Linux does not support this updated format.
Given this, my question amounts to the following:
1) Is this information still correct? The latest information I have on what the kernel does and does not support is over 5 years old, and I do not know if undocumented improvements have been made.
2) If this is correct, can the problem be worked around by converting the disks to dynamic volumes using either Windows XP or the Linux "ldmtool" package prior to installing them in the Windows 7 system?
3) In any case, will I be able to access the mirrored and striped Windows volumes appropriately from the Linux system?
ldmtool
does. But I don't see any documentation as to whether it supports the newer GPT-formatted disks.