User guide

3.5 Backup and recovery of dynamic volumes

(Windows)

This section explains in brief how to back up and recover dynamic volumes (p. 234) using Acronis

Backup & Recovery 11.

A dynamic volume is a volume located on dynamic disks (p. 233), or more exactly, on a disk group (p.

233). Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 supports the following dynamic volume types/RAID levels:

 simple/spanned

 striped (RAID 0)

 mirrored (RAID 1)

 a mirror of stripes (RAID 0+1)

 RAID-5.

Backing up dynamic volumes

Dynamic volumes are backed up in the same way as basic volumes. When creating a backup plan

through the GUI, all types of volumes are available for selection as Items to back up. When using the

command line, specify the dynamic volumes with the DYN prefix.

Command line examples

acrocmd backup disk --volume=DYN1,DYN2 --loc=\\srv1\backups

--credentials=netuser1,pass1 --arc=dyn1_2_arc

This will back up volumes DYN1 and DYN2 to a network shared folder.

acrocmd backup disk --volume=DYN --loc=\\srv1\backups

--credentials=netuser1,pass1 --arc=alldyn_arc

This will back up all dynamic volumes of the local machine to a network shared folder.

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.

 To a disk which has not been initialized.

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 recovering a dynamic volume to disk group unallocated space, the software preserves the

volume's original type and size. If the disk group configuration does not allow for the original

volume type, the volume will be recovered as a simple or spanned volume. If this volume does

not fit the unallocated space, the volume will be resized by decreasing its free space.

Examples of when the disk group configuration does not allow the original type of the volume