convert to dynamic disk-Bad? good?

[twildd]

Advice needed,
I have an old maxtor drive (media drive not a boot drive) from a computer that was running W2k and I want to be able to access the family photos on it. the only way a computer tech was able to see the info on the drive was to convert his drive to "Dynamic" He then was able to "import a foreign disk" to see the files. I went home, installed the drive in an enclosure and got the warning : convert to dynamic:
[highlight]you will not be able to start other installed operating systems from any volume on the disk[/highlight]

Is this a bad thing? what are the upside/downsides? will I be unable to upgrade my OS in the future?

Will I be compromising programs currently on that disk?

Any help is welcome
Thanks in advance!
Tom

[Rob Pomeroy]

Sounds like the process tinkers with the MBR (master boot record).  That will only (I guess) affect the old drive.  You'll still be able to retrieve all your data.

I'm basing this opinion on the error message you're getting - I have never personally done this however.