Difference between Basic Disk and Dynamic Disk

Basic Disk:
A basic disk is a type of hard drive configuration, available with the Windows operating system. To manage all partitions and data on the hard disk, normal partition tables or logical drives are used. They are the storage types most often used with Windows. It can contain up to four primary partitions, or three primary partitions and an extended partition with multiple logical drives. 

Operations to be performed:

• Create and delete primary and extended partitions.
• Create and delete logical drives within an extended partition.
• Format a partition and mark it as active.

Dynamic Disk:
A disk that has been initialized for dynamic storage is called a dynamic disk. It gives more flexibility than a basic disk because it does not use a partition table to keep track of all partitions. The partition can be extended with dynamic disk configuration. It uses dynamic volumes to manage data. 

Operations to be performed:

• Create and delete simple, spanned, stripped, mirrored, and RAID-5 volumes.
• Extend a simple or spanned volume.
• Repair mirrored or RAID-5 volumes.
• Reactivate a missing or offline disk.

Let’s see the Difference Between Basic Disk and Dynamic Disk: 

S. NO.	BASIC DISK	DYNAMIC DISK
1	Basic disk uses normal partition tables found in MS-DOS and Windows to manage all partitions on the hard disk.	In dynamic disk, a hard drive is divided into dynamic volumes.
2	Each hard drive can hold up to 3 or 4 partitions and there is one secondary-extended partition.	In dynamic disk, there are not limited for primary and secondary-extended partitions
3	In basic disk, there are two styles of partition in basic disk:  1. MBR partition  2. GPT partition	In dynamic disk, there is no partition and it contains simple volumes, spanned volumes, stripped volumes, mirrored volumes, and RAID-5 volumes.
4	A basic disk can be easily converted to a dynamic disk without losing any data.	Dynamic disk to a Basic disk conversion require deletion of all volumes on the dynamic disk.
5	In basic disk, already created partition cannot be changed or modified.	While in dynamic disk, volumes can be extended.
6	It supports multi-boot configuration.	It does not support multi-boot configuration.
7	They are compatible with older operating system.	They are supported by windows 2000 and above.
8	It supports boot loaders.	It does not support boot loaders.
9	All disks are basic disks.	You have to create a new disk as dynamic disk or by converting basic disk to dynamic disk.
10	Data is managed using partitions.	Volumes are used rather than partitions in the case of a dynamic disk.
11	Operations to be done only on basic disk- The primary and extended partitions can be created. The logical drives within an extended partition can be created. The primary and extended partitions can be deleted. The logical drives within an extended partition can be deleted. Format and activate a partition.	Operations to be done only on dynamic disk- Simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, and RAID-5 volumes can be created and deleted. Reactivate a lost or inactive disc. Extending a spanned or simple volume. Repairing RAID-5 or mirrored volumes. Removing a mirror from a mirrored volume or divide it into two volumes.