Partitions & Logical Drives

[tgar]

What are the relative advantages of creating multiple logical drives in Array Configuration Manager, and one partition per logical drive (in Disk Management)....vs.... create one logical drive in Array Configuration Manager, and multiple partitions (in Disk Management) on that drive?

Question came up because I lost a partition on a logical drive with multiple partitions.

Is it more than a philosophical question, or does each configuration offer unique advantages? Either way, you wind up with an equal number of "drive letters."

[~sesh · Accepted solution]

The configuration choice is upto what you are comfortable with.

However, configuring 1 logical drive for each partition you want would be a safer option in my opinion. Assuming that the logical drive doesn't have any redundancy, even if you lose a logical drive, you lose only 1 partition.

In the same context, if you create 1 big logical drive & create many partitions on it, a logical drive failure can cause all partitions to fail. Furthermore,errors with Windows Logical Volume Manager (LVM) can also cause issues with the partition availability.

I have seen some situations where LVM errors in event log cause the partition to go offline. I would say, whenever you have the opportunity, create logical drives with the Array Controller, that way you have different RAID levels for your logical drives (and their Windows Partitions).

Hope this suffices.

[~sesh]

The other thing that you can consider is, which you are more comfortable with. Windows Disk Manager or Array Configuration Utility; but definitely there are some pros for having multiple logical drives (as explained above).