• How to converti a dynamic disk back into a standard disk

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    #480045

    I bought a new PC with Windows 7 (64) on it. I came from a good old Windows XP machine.
    I liked to create an extra volume on the disk for my data. To make the story short, I changed the standard disk into a dynamic disk and now I want to go back to a standard disk. I cannot get it fixed with Windows own Disk mangament (or I did it not in the proper way) and also not with Minitool Partition Wizard Home Edition. My disk has now 3 volumes:
    Volume Classification Type Filesystem Status Capacity Free Space

    no name Simple Dynamic NTFS ok (system) 100 MB 71 MB
    C: Simple Dynamic NTFS ok (boot,crashdump,etc) 300 GB 280 GB
    Data D: Simple Dynamic NTFS ok 1097 GB 1097 MB

    I guess I could work with this, but to be sure I would like to go back to a standard disk (in order to prevent possible future problems with this existing disk classification).
    Hopefully you can help me. Thanks.

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    • #1306733

      Try using a 3rd party partitioning app such as Partition Wizardor EaseUS Partition Magic. I have both and they work well for those chores Disk Manager cannot handle.

      • #1306750

        If you have already converted your basic partitions to dynamic, you cannot reverse the process without destroying your data.

        The dynamic structures must be deleted, then new basic partitions be built in their place.

        This Technet article refers. Scroll down through the article until you get to, the second bullet point under Additional Considerations.

        FYI, dynamic disks are normally used on systems where you want to span, stripe or mirror your data for access speed or for fault tolerance and are most often used in a RAID volume.

        • #1306848

          some partitioning utility could convert dynamic disk to basic and you also could choose the professional converter to reach the conversion from dynamic disk to basic disk. here is Aomei Dynamic Disk Converter which could easily convert…

    • #1306852

      Even if you are able to convert to basic disk without data loss, it is up to you to ensure you have your data properly backed up prior to attempting.
      No excuses for not.

      • #1306862

        Well said CLiNT.

        I might go further….the Aomei tool recommended above is very light on any kind of explanation about how it implements its volume, partition and data manipulation. However I did find this entry in the FAQ section:

          [*]Why are prompted to say some volumes will be lost after the conversion, and be required using Method 2 to convert?

        Reason:
        For spanned volume, striped volume, RAID5 and other newly created volume on dynamic disk, Dynamic Disk Converter can not convert them back to basic partition currently, because these volumes are newly created and they does not belong to the original basic disk, therefore they can not return.

        Advice:
        If there are some dynamic volumes newly created on the dynamic disk, we strongly recommended that you first using feature Method 2 which convert indirectly any dynamic volume to basic partition, then again using Method 1 is to directly convert the disk back to basic disk.

        {my highlighting}

        Note: there is no substantive discussion about what Method 1 or Method 2 is.

        By inference it is the method advised by MS in the Technet article previously referred to:

          [*]After you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, you cannot change the dynamic volumes back to partitions. Instead, you must delete all dynamic volumes on the disk and then use the Convert To Basic Disk command. If you want to keep your data, you must first back it up or move it to another volume.

        I have not used or come across the Aomei tool before, so I am open minded enough to ask if Hanmei could give us some specific examples, plus some tips on using the tool in real world scenarios.

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