Logical Disk Manager

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The Logical Disk Manager (LDM) is an implementation of a logical volume manager for Microsoft Windows NT, developed by Microsoft and Veritas Software. It was introduced with the Windows 2000 operating system, and is supported in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Windows 11. The MMC-based Disk Management snap-in (diskmgmt.msc) hosts the Logical Disk Manager. On Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, Microsoft deprecated LDM in favor of Storage Spaces.^[1]

Logical Disk Manager enables disk volumes to be dynamic, in contrast to the standard basic volume format. Basic volumes and dynamic volumes differ in their ability to extend storage beyond one physical disk. Basic partitions are restricted to a fixed size on one physical disk. Dynamic volumes can be enlarged to include more free space - either from the same disk or another physical disk. (For more information on the difference, see Basic and dynamic disks and volumes, below.)