User`s guide
35  Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2010 
Recovering dynamic volumes 
A dynamic volume can be recovered  
  over any type of existing volume 
  to unallocated space of a disk group 
  to unallocated space of a basic disk. 
Recovery over an existing volume 
When a dynamic volume is recovered over an existing volume, either basic or dynamic, the target 
volume’s data is overwritten with the backup content. The type of target volume (basic, 
simple/spanned, striped, mirrored, RAID 0+1, RAID 5) will not change. The target volume size has 
to be enough to accommodate the backup content. 
Recovery to disk group unallocated space 
When a dynamic volume is recovered to disk group unallocated space, both the type and the 
content of the resulting volume are recovered. The unallocated space size has to be enough to 
accommodate the backup content. The way unallocated space is distributed among the disks is 
also important. 
Example 
Striped volumes consume equal portions of space on each disk. 
Assume you are going to recover a 30GB striped volume to a disk group consisting of two 
disks. Each disk has volumes and a certain amount of unallocated space. The total size of 
unallocated space is 40GB. The recovery will always result in a striped volume if the 
unallocated space is distributed evenly among the disks (20GB and 20GB). 
If one of the disks has 10GB and the other has 30GB of unallocated space, then the recovery 
result depends on the size of the data being recovered.  
  If the data size is less than 20GB, then one disk can hold, say, 10GB; the other will hold the 
remaining 10GB. This way, a striped volume will be created on both disks and 20GB on the 
second disk will remain unallocated. 
  If the data size is more than 20GB, the data cannot be distributed evenly between the two 
disks, but can fit into a single simple volume. A simple volume accommodating all the data 
will be created on the second disk. The first disk will remain untouched. 
Backed up (source): 
Recovered to:  Dynamic volume  Basic MBR volume  Basic GPT volume 
Dynamic volume 
Dynamic volume 
Type as of the 
target 
Dynamic volume 
Type as of the 
target 
Dynamic volume 
Type as of the 
target 
Unallocated space (disk group) 
Dynamic volume 
Type as of the 
source 
Dynamic volume 
Simple 
N/A 
Basic MBR volume 
Basic MBR volume  Basic MBR volume  Basic MBR volume 
Basic GPT volume 
Basic GPT volume  Basic GPT volume  Basic GPT volume 
Unallocated space (basic MBR disk) 
Basic MBR volume  Basic MBR volume  Basic MBR volume 










