Dynamic and basic disk issues

[isuldi]

Hey all,

I'm setting up my first dual-boot system with Kubuntu from Windows 7 Pro x64 and Disk Management is only offering me the option of creating simple, spanned, striped, mirrored or RAID-5 volumes instead of primary partitions. My understanding was that those options only showed up on dynamic disks, and that dynamic disks didn't allow more than one OS. Got any advice?

As a sidenote, I'm looking Disk Management and I've got a 300 MB partition for "BDEDrive". Does this have something to do with Bitlocker? If so, why would it be on my Professional OS?

[Geek-9pm]

Welcome to CH.

Dynamic Disks a re a great feature  of the Windows OS.
However, I don't recall any compelling reason for a home user to use this approach. IT people have need for it.

You are asking two or three questions at once.

Could we focus on on issue?
How about 'Install Windows 7 64 bit on RAID hardware?'
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/problems-installing-windows-7-ultimate-64-bit-with/72414fe1-261f-4796-9b9f-e001375241bc
AND
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/need-steps-to-configure-raid-1-in-windows-7-os/3ec151ee-213c-4d04-a0f4-1d8c7eb6c1f3

If you have enough memory and a fast CPU, then, In my opinion, you would do well to install a Linux distro in a VM (Virtural Machine) after the Windows 7 64 bit install is finished.
Linux in a VM can perform useful work, but a bit short of high performance games.

[isuldi]

Sounds good, I'll do that instead. Sorry if I was unclear about the situation, I've got Windows 7 installed just fine. I'm still seeing a partition called "BDEDrive", though, and I'm a little confused what it is. Google tells be it's associated with Bitlock encryption, but i'm not using Enterprise or Ultimate.

[Geek-9pm]

Sounds good, I'll do that instead. Sorry if I was unclear about the situation, I've got Windows 7 installed just fine. I'm still seeing a partition called "BDEDrive", though, and I'm a little confused what it is. Google tells be it's associated with Bitlock encryption, but i'm not using Enterprise or Ultimate.

It is not just you.  Let's just say that Windows 7 is effortlessly sophisticated. Does that makes senses?  Well look at this:

What are system partitions and boot partitions?

System partitions and boot partitions are names for partitions (or volumes) on a hard disk that Windows uses when starting. These terms can be confusing because the system partition actually contains the files used to boot Windows 7, while the boot partition contains the system files. Understanding these concepts is important if your computer is configured in one of the following ways:

    Your computer has more than one operating system installed (often called a dual-boot or multiboot configuration). For more information, see Install more than one operating system (multiboot).

    Your computer is set up to run BitLocker Drive Encryption. For more information, see Help protect your files using  BitLocker Drive Encryption.

The system partition contains the hardware-related files and the Boot folder that tell a computer where to look to start Windows. By default, Windows 7 creates a separate system partition when it's installed from scratch (as opposed to upgraded from a previous version of Windows) on an unpartitioned hard drive. This partition is 100 MB in size.

Source: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-are-system-partitions-and-boot-partitions
Also look at:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Install-more-than-one-operating-system-multiboot
It is not odd at all for Windows 7 to have two partitions that it needs. The addition partition might  not be for the user, just for the internal stuff of the OS. This can vary by how the Windows 7 was s installed.