Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk Witout Data Loss

I think I goofed somewhere and am in need of some advice.
This Windows 8.1 home server had two identical 160GB drives that at one point were mirrored. One of the drives failed but so I added a larger replacement hard drive (Disk 0 = 160GB, Disk 1 = 250GB) and was able to recover. However now, not only
is the mirror broken, but the configuration is crazy:
Disk 0 contains 1 100MB System Reserved Parttion (System)
Disk 1 contains 1 120GB partition where the OS is installed (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump)
Since its much quicker to move 100MB vs 120GB, I was thinking I'd copy the 'System Reserved' partition on Disk 0 to Disk 1 using a third-party utility, but because both disks are Dynamic Disks, this isn't possible.
So at this point I can only think of two options:
Recreate the 'System Reserved' partition on Disk 1 (Is it as easy as running bootrec /scanos or /rebuildbcd or /fixmbr or /fixboot?) > Wipe Disk 0 > Confirm Windows 8.1 boots > Then create a new mirrored volume on Disk 0
Mirror Partition 1 (120GB) on Disk 1 (where Windows is installed) to the available space (149GB) on Disk 0 > Break the mirror > Wipe Disk 0 > Confirm Windows 8.1 boots (maybe I'll need to run bootrec with some switch here?) > Then create a new
mirrored volume on Disk 1
Thoughts?

See:
How to Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk without Data Loss?
Carey Frisch
Thanks for the reply.
I've seen that post, among others, and they all require buying an application. None of the product pages, like the one you linked indicate that a purchase is required. It wasn't until I downloaded the aplications, (and I've tried several) that
I discovered a purchase was required. Really disappointed they weren't upfront about that on the guides.
So maybe a different approach can be taken:
Disk 1 just contains the System Recovery partition - the rest of the disk is blank (not partitioned)
Create a new partition
Copy the OS data from Disk 2 to Disk 1
Update the System Recovery and/or the Boot Configuration Data file to point to the OS that's now on Disk 1
Once updated, reboot
The system should boot properly from Disk 1 and the OS should also be running from Disk 1
Convert Disk 2 to a basic disk
Once Disk 2 has been converted back to a basic disk, can I just do the opposite?
Create 2 partitions on Disk 2: one for System recovery and another for OS
Copy the System Recovery partition (partition on Disk 1) to partition 1 of Disk 2
Copy the OS partition (partition 2 on Disk 1) to partition 2 of Disk 2
Update the System Recovery and/or the Boot Configuration Data file to point to the OS that's now on Disk 2
Once updated, reboot, the system should boot properly from Disk 2 and the OS should also be running from Disk 2
Convert Disk 1 to a basic disk
This is bonkers, believe me, but I feel silly shelling out $40-$50 for a single feature of an application. If I were going to use it regularly, or even periodically, I would do it.
I'm not very comfortable with bcdedit and bootrec so I need a little help with steps 4 in both sections.

Similar Messages

How can i convert dynamic volume to basic volume of hard disk

Seriel no.-{Removed for privacy}
Product no.-QG478PA#ACJ
Product name-HP pavilion dv6 notebook pc
OS-windows 7 64 bit

i am also did this ...everything you told me i did that ...
ok i m tell you what exactly had been done.......
i have hp pavilion dv6 with licenced copy of windows 7 homme basic...i didn't like win 7 home basic so i format this with windows 7 ultimate ..at the formating time this problem occur ""BOOT MANAGER MISSING"" than i used another bootable of win 7 ultimate that was correct than after complete installation i created new partions from windows disk managment at that this problem was ocured of dynamic partions........when i create new simple volume,all basic partitions become dynamic automatically......
after this i delete partitions from disk managment than again boot the system for making partition as basic with windows bootable but i can't di this means making new partion from booting process........the option for making new partion appears deactivated at booting time with correct bootable cd........

How to convert dynamic disk into basic, with OS installed in C drive????

Hi,
I want to convert all volumes of my current hard drive (which includes OS installed in it) into basic from dynamic.
I read the tutorial of microsoft, in which they said that delete all volumes one by one and then finally convert the disk into basic.
So I deleted 2 volumes, but OS did not let me delete C drive, as windows 8 was installed in it.
So now how to convert my hard disk into basic disk from dynamic disk???

Hi,
I want to convert all volumes of my current hard drive (which includes OS installed in it) into basic from dynamic.
I read the tutorial of microsoft, in which they said that delete all volumes one by one and then finally convert the disk into basic.
So I deleted 2 volumes, but OS did not let me delete C drive, as windows 8 was installed in it.
So now how to convert my hard disk into basic disk from dynamic disk???
find another hard disk, backup and wipe the old disk, then use windows to make sure any partitions remaining are gone
windows will automatically allocate the disk as required on a new install
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How do I convert a dynamic disk back to a basic disk (how do i back up a dynamic disk)

Hi
I have "accidently" converted an internal disk to dynamic and cannot see any of my data. I want to see the data. I presume I need to convert it back to a basic disk?
on this forum and others the solution seems to be back the data on the dynamic disk up, convert it back to basic and restore the data after. Yet, the only place I can see any signs of the disk is within disk managment.
If I run Backup it dosen't see the disk.
any suggestions would be gratefully received!
I am running Win7 home dual boot with WinXp pro
Thanks, Jason

Hi,
you must backup all data and delete the volumes on it:
How to Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk
To change a dynamic disk back to a basic disk:
Back up all the data on all the volumes on the disk you want to convert to a basic disk.
Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
Click Start , and then click Control Panel .
Click Performance and Maintenance , click Administrative Tools , and then double-click
Computer Management .
In the left pane, click Disk Management .
Right-click a volume on the dynamic disk that you want to change to a basic disk, and then click
Delete Volume .
Click Yes when you are prompted to delete the volume.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each volume on the dynamic disk.
After you have deleted all the volumes on the dynamic disk, right-click the dynamic disk that you want to change to a basic disk, and then click
Convert to Basic Disk .
NOTE :You must right-click the gray area that contains the disk title on the left side of the Details pane. For example, right-click
Disk 1 .
Source:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309044
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26829-convert-dynamic-disk-basic-disk.html
The same applies to Windows 7.
André
"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code"
Want to install RSAT on Windows 7 Sp1? Check my HowTo: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=150221

Created second partition in bootcamp Windows and converted whole disk from basic to dynamic

Hi everyone. I don't post here often however I hope the following helps someone else down the road.
I currently user ML and have bootcamp installed. I needed more space on my ML partition so decided to free up space from bootcamp. Going about this completely the wrong way I booted into my bootcamp partition, ran the computer management app and shrank my boot camp partition by 8 GB. This created free unused space which I decided to format over to NTFS with a view to booting back into ML, deleting and adding to my ML partition (how wrong was I).
Prior to completing the format of the newly created free space in bootcamp I was presented with the usual 'yes' / 'no' warning dialogue saying something along the lines of 'formatting this disk from basic to dynamic will prevent any installed operating systems from booting'. I made three monumental blunders at this stage: a) not reading the dialoge box b) completely disregarding the severity of the warning in the diaglogue box c) (you guessed it) pressing 'yes'.
The moment I pressed yes it was the start of a four hour feeling of grief as I thought of the last 6 years of my life wiped from below my nose with no time machine backup.
Upon rebooting bootcamp to get into ML the reality of the situation hit home as no OSX boot, no apple logo, no boot sound, my mac is trying to boot into windows without the option key being held in or warning to present me with a BSOD.
One thought in my mind: "oh Sh*t!!!"
3.5 hours passes and much reading online, learning of linux commands, downloading of linux distros, finding out how to install software and successfully setup a bootable linux usb and I'm typing this up on my mac while I time machine my data away to a freshly formatted external drive. Many lessons learned.
This is what I did amongst the vacating of my bowels and absorption of much nicotine.
There are two pointers to this guide. I was lucky enough to have another computer at hand to conduct the research and create a bootable usb. It a windows 7 toshiba z930. So you're going to need at a minimum: another computer (windows for the guide), a usb stick 2~4GB should be ok.
1) download a linux iso, I downloaded ubuntu, you can download what ever you like, but you're going to need linux (the rest of my mini guide will use ubuntu 13.10 during examples) http://www.ubuntu.com/start-download?distro=desktop&bits=64&release=latest
2) download Universal USB Stick Installer 1.9.5.1 (from now on as UUSI) http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Universal-USB-Installer/Universal-USB-Ins taller-1.9.5.1.exe
3) plug in your usb drive. make sure there is nothing on it that you need to keep as it will be formatted and lost. also plug your mac into a router connected to the internet. this will help prevent any issues with wireless drivers when booting into ubuntu later on.
4) once the downloads are complete, run UUSI, get past the prompts until you get to the 'setup your selections page'
5) (A) select 'ubuntu' from step 1. (B) browse to your freshly downloaded ubuntu iso in step 2. (C) tick show all drives. (D) select the drive letter of your usb in step 3. tick we will format *drive letter here*. (E) depending on the size of your usb set some persistent storage - I had an 8gb usb to hand so I set 1GB, less will probably do. (F) double check your settings and click create then let the program do it's thing, it can take some time depending on the speed of your usb drive, mine took 10 mins.
6) safely remove the usb and plug it into your mac, turn the mac on and hold the option key, once the usb drive is found hit enter and select ‘try ubuntu without installing’
7) wait for the ubuntu os to load and click the settings icon from the left tool bar
8) under settings click user accounts
9) click the + symbol in the bottom left hand corner
10) select administrator from the account type box and type a name for your account then click add
11) select the account and change the password, then confirm it and click change
12) go back to the desktop and select the power off symbol in the top right hand corner and select your name from the list, this will log you out of your current session and ask you to log in under your newly created login
13) once logged in click the settings icon again from the left hand menu and under settings go to software and updates
14) in software & updates under the ubuntu software tab tick ‘community maintained free and open source software (universe)’ and ‘software restricted by copyright or legal issues (maintained)’ then click close and close the settings window. Also check at the bottom of this window under ‘installable from cd-rom/dvd’ for two entries ‘cdrom with ubuntu 13.10 ‘saucy salamander’ - uncheck on of these entries if both are the same. Not sure if this was just me or a common problem. I found that trying to do the apt-get update would run into errors at the end if one of the entries wasn't deselected.
15) hold ctrl + alt + T to bring up the terminal
16) in the terminal window type sudo passwd root then enter a password for the account
17) in the same terminal window type sudo -i and enter the password given from step 16 if requested
18) in the same terminal window type apt-get update and wait for the update to finish without errors
19) in the same terminal windows type apt-get install testdisk and wait for the installation to finish without errors
20) in the same terminal window type testdisk
21) select create log and then the drive you want to work on e.g. your main apple OS hard disk then select proceed
22) select your file system type - for my ML installation I had to select ‘EFI GPT’ I don’t know if this will be the same throughout all macs / macbooks
23) select analyse, the step should take less than a few seconds and testdisk may report back errors with the partitions or it may proceed to the ‘current partition structure’ screen. If errors are displayed proceed past them until the next screen.
24) at the ‘current partition screen’ select quick search, you will have an opportunity to backup your drive here. I won’t go through this step (never learn) as I did not complete it myself
25) after the searching has completed all the partitions on the disk should be shown. Find your OSX partition using the size reference at the bottom by pressing the up and down keys. Once you have found the partition that relates to the OSX partition that is failing to start hit the right key to make it a primary partition a ‘P’ should show to the left of the partition data. I had to make sure my EFI System and Mac HFS (155GB) partitions were marked as primary.
26) hit the enter key to continue to the next screen and use the right arrow key to select ‘write’
27) the program will warn you it will write the partition table so hit ‘Y’ and a confirmation should be displayed that this has been successful.
28) reboot the computer and remove the USB stick (i removed it at the white loading screen after the reboot, not sure if it makes any difference)
29) allow the computer longer to boot, mine took about 35 seconds to show the apple symbol whereas it normally took between 3~7 seconds before I destroyed it.
30) get into OSX and backup everything to time machine or whatever you use then it probably a good idea to kill off your bootcamp install and refresh your mac from the fresh backup.
Hope this helps someone. I couldn’t find anything conclusive on the net when I ran into problems (all my own fault really for not reading the dialogues correctly) however I used bits from multiple forums and found out parts myself especially the linux parts as I don't know the os at all . Certainly won’t be making this mistake again anytime soon.
Well I’ve had an awful night and have work in two hours but at least the last 6 years of my (now backed up) life is intact and in my hands. I’d rather lose a night of sleep than lose all my data.
Sorry if some of the stuff above is wrong as I don't do this thing on osx / linux at all really. At least it might point you in the right direction.

Hi everyone. I don't post here often however I hope the following helps someone else down the road.
I currently user ML and have bootcamp installed. I needed more space on my ML partition so decided to free up space from bootcamp. Going about this completely the wrong way I booted into my bootcamp partition, ran the computer management app and shrank my boot camp partition by 8 GB. This created free unused space which I decided to format over to NTFS with a view to booting back into ML, deleting and adding to my ML partition (how wrong was I).
Prior to completing the format of the newly created free space in bootcamp I was presented with the usual 'yes' / 'no' warning dialogue saying something along the lines of 'formatting this disk from basic to dynamic will prevent any installed operating systems from booting'. I made three monumental blunders at this stage: a) not reading the dialoge box b) completely disregarding the severity of the warning in the diaglogue box c) (you guessed it) pressing 'yes'.
The moment I pressed yes it was the start of a four hour feeling of grief as I thought of the last 6 years of my life wiped from below my nose with no time machine backup.
Upon rebooting bootcamp to get into ML the reality of the situation hit home as no OSX boot, no apple logo, no boot sound, my mac is trying to boot into windows without the option key being held in or warning to present me with a BSOD.
One thought in my mind: "oh Sh*t!!!"
3.5 hours passes and much reading online, learning of linux commands, downloading of linux distros, finding out how to install software and successfully setup a bootable linux usb and I'm typing this up on my mac while I time machine my data away to a freshly formatted external drive. Many lessons learned.
This is what I did amongst the vacating of my bowels and absorption of much nicotine.
There are two pointers to this guide. I was lucky enough to have another computer at hand to conduct the research and create a bootable usb. It a windows 7 toshiba z930. So you're going to need at a minimum: another computer (windows for the guide), a usb stick 2~4GB should be ok.
1) download a linux iso, I downloaded ubuntu, you can download what ever you like, but you're going to need linux (the rest of my mini guide will use ubuntu 13.10 during examples) http://www.ubuntu.com/start-download?distro=desktop&bits=64&release=latest
2) download Universal USB Stick Installer 1.9.5.1 (from now on as UUSI) http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Universal-USB-Installer/Universal-USB-Ins taller-1.9.5.1.exe
3) plug in your usb drive. make sure there is nothing on it that you need to keep as it will be formatted and lost. also plug your mac into a router connected to the internet. this will help prevent any issues with wireless drivers when booting into ubuntu later on.
4) once the downloads are complete, run UUSI, get past the prompts until you get to the 'setup your selections page'
5) (A) select 'ubuntu' from step 1. (B) browse to your freshly downloaded ubuntu iso in step 2. (C) tick show all drives. (D) select the drive letter of your usb in step 3. tick we will format *drive letter here*. (E) depending on the size of your usb set some persistent storage - I had an 8gb usb to hand so I set 1GB, less will probably do. (F) double check your settings and click create then let the program do it's thing, it can take some time depending on the speed of your usb drive, mine took 10 mins.
6) safely remove the usb and plug it into your mac, turn the mac on and hold the option key, once the usb drive is found hit enter and select ‘try ubuntu without installing’
7) wait for the ubuntu os to load and click the settings icon from the left tool bar
8) under settings click user accounts
9) click the + symbol in the bottom left hand corner
10) select administrator from the account type box and type a name for your account then click add
11) select the account and change the password, then confirm it and click change
12) go back to the desktop and select the power off symbol in the top right hand corner and select your name from the list, this will log you out of your current session and ask you to log in under your newly created login
13) once logged in click the settings icon again from the left hand menu and under settings go to software and updates
14) in software & updates under the ubuntu software tab tick ‘community maintained free and open source software (universe)’ and ‘software restricted by copyright or legal issues (maintained)’ then click close and close the settings window. Also check at the bottom of this window under ‘installable from cd-rom/dvd’ for two entries ‘cdrom with ubuntu 13.10 ‘saucy salamander’ - uncheck on of these entries if both are the same. Not sure if this was just me or a common problem. I found that trying to do the apt-get update would run into errors at the end if one of the entries wasn't deselected.
15) hold ctrl + alt + T to bring up the terminal
16) in the terminal window type sudo passwd root then enter a password for the account
17) in the same terminal window type sudo -i and enter the password given from step 16 if requested
18) in the same terminal window type apt-get update and wait for the update to finish without errors
19) in the same terminal windows type apt-get install testdisk and wait for the installation to finish without errors
20) in the same terminal window type testdisk
21) select create log and then the drive you want to work on e.g. your main apple OS hard disk then select proceed
22) select your file system type - for my ML installation I had to select ‘EFI GPT’ I don’t know if this will be the same throughout all macs / macbooks
23) select analyse, the step should take less than a few seconds and testdisk may report back errors with the partitions or it may proceed to the ‘current partition structure’ screen. If errors are displayed proceed past them until the next screen.
24) at the ‘current partition screen’ select quick search, you will have an opportunity to backup your drive here. I won’t go through this step (never learn) as I did not complete it myself
25) after the searching has completed all the partitions on the disk should be shown. Find your OSX partition using the size reference at the bottom by pressing the up and down keys. Once you have found the partition that relates to the OSX partition that is failing to start hit the right key to make it a primary partition a ‘P’ should show to the left of the partition data. I had to make sure my EFI System and Mac HFS (155GB) partitions were marked as primary.
26) hit the enter key to continue to the next screen and use the right arrow key to select ‘write’
27) the program will warn you it will write the partition table so hit ‘Y’ and a confirmation should be displayed that this has been successful.
28) reboot the computer and remove the USB stick (i removed it at the white loading screen after the reboot, not sure if it makes any difference)
29) allow the computer longer to boot, mine took about 35 seconds to show the apple symbol whereas it normally took between 3~7 seconds before I destroyed it.
30) get into OSX and backup everything to time machine or whatever you use then it probably a good idea to kill off your bootcamp install and refresh your mac from the fresh backup.
Hope this helps someone. I couldn’t find anything conclusive on the net when I ran into problems (all my own fault really for not reading the dialogues correctly) however I used bits from multiple forums and found out parts myself especially the linux parts as I don't know the os at all . Certainly won’t be making this mistake again anytime soon.
Well I’ve had an awful night and have work in two hours but at least the last 6 years of my (now backed up) life is intact and in my hands. I’d rather lose a night of sleep than lose all my data.
Sorry if some of the stuff above is wrong as I don't do this thing on osx / linux at all really. At least it might point you in the right direction.

What is the proper way to convert a VHD from dynamic to basic without losing data?

Hi,
What is the proper way to convert a VHD from dynamic to basic without losing data?
Our VM is running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
Thanks in advanced

Hi efebo,
"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. "
Please refer to following link:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731274.aspx
You can try to backup the dynamic volume via Windows Server Backup then restore it to a new basic VHD file ( the space is recommended to be larger than or equal to the old one ) .
Hope it helps
Best Regards
Elton Ji
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T410s Recovery Partition -- revert Dynamic disk to Basic?

This is a stupid error on my part, but while I was trying to wipe an external HDD and recover all the space, I saw an option to "Convert to Dynamic Disk", so, I clicked it. It gave me the options of Disk 0 and Disk 5 (external was on Disk 5), but I checked the boxes for both drives, not entirely understanding what the effects would be.
So, when I tried to create my recovery disks and clicked on recovery partition. Now, I'm not able to create recovery media anymore and am getting a runtime error every time the system tries to run the "recovburncd.exe" file.
When I try to open the "Lenovo_Recovery" partition, it comes up as blank. My guess is that files are hidden, but in Explorer, it shows that there are "2.29GB free of 9.76GB".
Being that I converted disk 0 from Basic to Dynamic, I'm guessing that's the root cause. Is there any way to revert this? All searches have been without success. Is there any other workaround?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You can try a recovery software, but I think you have in trouble.
IPnaSh
First Spanish Community Guru - Colaborador ad honorem

I change iMac hard disk from basic to dynamic in windows 7

I change iMac hard disk from basic to dynamic in windows 7, after restart windows I saw that there is not any OS X for selecting by press and hold "Option" key.
I don't have any backup and the original DVD from the seller. I live in Iran and here there is no any Apple seller or supporting center.
What should I do to have OS X again ?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You probably erased the hard drive by doing that. If you have got a Mid 2010 or later iMac, you can use Internet Recovery to reinstall OS X > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718 Hold Command, Option (Alt) and R keys while your computer is starting.
Then, open Disk Utility, choose your hard drive at the top of the sidebar, go to Erase tab and erase it in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". Finally, close Disk Utility and reinstall OS X.
If you have got an older Mac, call Apple to get replacement DVDs > http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57

Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation it gives me an input/output error and stops. Any tips?

Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation and after having selected both my destination and source drives, the operation begins but soon fails due to input/output error. If I try to create an image of the drive it gives me the same error message. Any help would be much appreciated.

Disk Utility only creates a image of the drive, so it's no help getting exactly what you want, which is your files. If the file structure is messed up or the drive is failing then it's no help.
If you have a external boot drive and you can't access the internal non-booting drive though the typical Finder and windows to transfer your files via drag and drop methods, then you need to install Data Rescue on the external boot drive and it will do as best as it can to recover your files. (works on non-encrypted/non-Filevaulted drives only)
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Are you sure you have hard drive failure, or that OS X isn't merely not booting?
Because if the drive is working physically, then there is a host of fixes
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/

Data loss Lacie 500GB external drive_ disk utility changed partition!

Details of problem. I have a 500GB Lacie mini hub HDD which is used with an iMac angle poise. Recently it has been playing up- unable to access folders/files etc. and since I know the PSU fails on these items (capacitors fail -5V and 12V go haywire- already fixed another one - I have a 320GB with a mac mini setup) I removed unit from the imac and connected in place of the 320GB lacie on the mac mini, using the known good PSU. The iMac is running latest 10.4 and mac mini is running latest snow leopard 10.6.1
The Lacie spun up and mounted OK and I was able to access all files folders with no issue, so since I was keen to make sure it was 'fixed' I ran disk utility. It ran and said it verified and then I realised I hadn't run repair so re-did this. Big mistake!
It did the same run and said no problems found, but it then said something like updating partition! Horrified I waited and it seemed to finish or had finished straight away. Not sure. I looked at folders and yes main 2 items in place, but nothing showing below this. ****. It got worse. I ejected and tried to reconnect and low and behold it says drive needs formatting now. Disk utility even shows this 500GB as having 2.2TB of space, which I see in other posts is another issue.
I have important data backed up elsewhere, but there are a large number of files I do not have copies of and suspect there is a way to recover these. I have since seen all the 'data loss' guest account issues and wonder if this is yet another bug in snow leopard.
Have tried running Techtool Pro 5.0.6 to see if it can see the data but its not seeing anything. Will try Diskwarrior and others, but may well shelve to see if apple gets an os update released for data loss issues.
Any thoughts on how to recover? Anyone with a similar issue? I am pretty certain this is not a failed hard drive as it sounds 100% normal. Thanks for any help or guidance.

Thanks for all the comments recieved. V.K. made me re-evaluate what I had proved or not. I was fairly certain (not 100%) that the drive mech was OK, because the psu had failed, but should have proved drive mech was actually OK. So I removed the mech (as USB abd firewire can't do SMART etc.) and hooked up to an old G4 Powermac. I then found that the SMART verified, but had forgotten the 128GB limitation on older macs. So removed and got a PC to hook it up and run latest IBM_Hitachi drive fitness and other diags. (its a Deskstar HD and I have had almost zero issue with these drives over the years.) It checks out fine, so I was correct in my initial thoughts, only the PSU was faulty.
So back to my initial suspicions that Snow Leopard or disk utility has screwed things up, maybe a bug, maybe not. And I did run verify first and it said it was OK, only when I re-ran the repair did it then do a "partition update" (or whatever it said - should have done a screen capture - searched apple but can't find listing of all mesgs avail. must be in developers site I expect). So I am back at looking at how to recover, if at all possible, but as Alsoft have said this is not something Diskwarrior can do directly. Files must still be there just partiton map is now in a ... needs to be initialised mode. Not that I will do that.
So I guess summary is possible bug/funny in 10.6 and/or disk utility.
sounds like I will be contacting Alsoft now
may read up on partition map damage first, so I get a better picture of whats involved.
Cheers and thanks for all the help/ideas.
BTW - been using macs_pcs for decades now and helping friends & family fix things as and when. This is first time needed to post on forum as always found answers to questions I had previously. Must remember the old adage of not jumping onto new technology until it has bedded down I bet if I had hooked up to the old G4 Powermac I wouldn't be in this position. Thanks again.

WAE Disk Status "Not Up To Date"

After an Upgrade Image to 4.1.3b.9, i got this command output:
NO-HOSTNAME#show disks details
Physical disk information:
disk00: Present WD-WCANY3489733 (h02 c00 i00 l00 - Int DAS-SATA)
238472MB(232.9GB)
disk01: Present WD-WCANY3489714 (h02 c00 i01 l00 - Int DAS-SATA)
238472MB(232.9GB)
Mounted file systems:
MOUNT POINT TYPE DEVICE SIZE INUSE FREE USE%
/sw internal /dev/md0 991MB 912MB 79MB 92%
/swstore internal /dev/md1 991MB 459MB 532MB 46%
/state internal /dev/md2 5951MB 168MB 5783MB 2%
/local/local1 SYSFS /dev/md4 11903MB 130MB 11773MB 1%
.../local1/spool PRINTSPOOL /dev/data1/spool 991MB 32MB 959MB 3%
/obj1 CONTENT /dev/data1/obj 101177MB 128MB 101049MB 0%
/dre1 CONTENT /dev/data1/dre 79354MB 128MB 79226MB 0%
/ackq1 internal /dev/data1/ackq 1189MB 32MB 1157MB 2%
/plz1 internal /dev/data1/plz 2379MB 65MB 2314MB 2%
Software RAID devices:
DEVICE NAME TYPE STATUS PHYSICAL DEVICES AND STATUS
/dev/md0 RAID-1 NORMAL OPERATION disk00/00[GOOD] disk01/00[GOOD]
/dev/md1 RAID-1 NORMAL OPERATION disk00/01[GOOD] disk01/01[GOOD]
/dev/md2 RAID-1 REBUILDING disk00/02[GOOD] disk01/02[!!NOT U
P TO DATE!!]
/dev/md3 RAID-1 REBUILDING disk00/03[GOOD] disk01/03[!!NOT U
P TO DATE!!]
/dev/md4 RAID-1 REBUILDING disk00/04[GOOD] disk01/04[!!NOT U
P TO DATE!!]
/dev/md5 RAID-1 REBUILDING disk00/05[GOOD] disk01/05[!!NOT U
P TO DATE!!]
*** NOTE ***
One or more RAID constituent disk partitions appear to be abnormal.
This could be because of
problem in drive's partition(s) and it is being rebuilt
Possible I/O errors on a disk drive
Please run "show alarms critical detail support"
to check any critical disk errors.
RAID-1 volumes will continue to operate on the remaining disk drive.
Please refer to the product documentation for further
information on how to handle this situation.
There are not alarms about disks...
I powered-on the appliances almost 20 mins ago... and this still continuous saying that . Is it normal ?
Best Regards,
Bruno PetrÃ³nio

ARGGGGGGGG....
Ensuring a Successful RAID Pair Rebuild
RAID pairs will rebuild on the next reboot after you use the restore factory-default command, replace or add a hard disk drive, delete disk partitions, or reinstall WAAS from the booted recovery CD-ROM.
Caution You must ensure that all RAID pairs are done rebuilding before you reboot your WAE device. If you reboot while the device is rebuilding, you risk corrupting the file system.
To view the status of the drives and check if the RAID pairs are in "NORMAL OPERATION" or in "REBUILDING" status, use the show disk details command in EXEC mode. When you see that RAID is rebuilding, you must let it complete that rebuild process. This rebuild process may take several hours. **

Dynamic VHD attached to disk management increases in size

When attaching a dynamic VHD to the disk management, the size of the VHD gets increased by some 32 MB, why does this happen ? What information does the disk management writes to the VHD. When attaching the VHD in read only mode, the Size remains the same.
VHD Spec : The VHD is created using a utility.
The VHD has a Block Size of 524288 Bytes.
Thanks,
Sajith

The block allocation table adds to the size of a dynamic disk, an expanded dynamic disk will show larger than a fixed disk of the same usable space because of this. In addition there is a hard drive header and footer almost like a header and footer
on a word document, it is always present on a dynamic disk which adds space compared to a fixed disk.
See this Microsoft document for additional information:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEYQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.microsoft.com%2Fdownload%2Ff%2Ff%2Fe%2Fffef50a5-07dd-4cf8-aaa3-442c0673a029%2FVirtual%2520Hard%2520Disk%2520Format%2520Spec_10_18_06.doc&ei=fbLrUsuHK4WCyQGsi4DICQ&usg=AFQjCNF_2gpgEA65OhmSPr8R_InwjL2TqQ&sig2=gau_qlwZonH3LJ9wYiiu6g&bvm=bv.60444564,d.aWc&cad=rja
Be kind and Mark as Answer if I helped.

Can I just close disk utility without risking data loss or drive problems?

I am using disk utility's restore to clone a hard drive to an external drive but it is taking forever (telling me 3 days) and the cancel button won't work. Can I just close disk utility without risking data loss or drive problems? Force quit? Anyone have experience with this?
- George

I spoke with a tech advisor through applecare. Theoretically the source drive should not be damaged if you quit the disk utility application while cloning your drive. More obviously, the destination volume will be unreadable and require a re-format, but in general no major damage will occur. I have quit the disk utility and restrarted, the source drive works as expected, while the desitination shows, "unreadable"
Hope this helps anyone else with a similar question.
- George

Unable to make recovery disk on in pavellion g62016 .dat file is missing in recovery drive

unable to make recovery disk on in pavellion g62016 .dat file is missing in recovery drive
can i use the .dat file of another same notebook
what is significance of ,dat file

Hello shail11. I understand that you're having some problems creating a recovery disc. Is this correct?
You can not use another .dat file. The recovery media is specific to a certain notebook, so using another computer's files will not work. If you're running into issues making a recovery media you could attempt to perform the recovery from the BIOS. Here is a document which outlines the process. ALL data not backed up before performing the recovery will be lost.
Let me know if this helps; have a great weekend!
Please click the white star under my name to give me Kudos as a way to say "Thanks!"
Click the "Accept as Solution" button if I resolve your issue.

Insufficient Disk Spave for logging historical data

I am recieving an error prompt which reads "Insufficient disk space for loggong historical data." At which point I can no longer log any data. I am using Labview version 6.1, I have deleted all data from my database at well as from my syslog folder (just in case one of them was corrupt). However the problem re-occured shortly after this was done. I also changed the location (in DSC) of where my data was being stored, and this did not work either. Any suggestions?

Greetings,
The first thing that you may want to check is to ensure you have enough disk space on the particular drive that you are logging to. This could be the direct cause if you are running out of HD space. Assuming that this isn't the case, I would check to see if you have any deadbands set up on the tags or if the deadbands are set to zero for the tags you are logging. The logging buffer could be overflowing if the tags are constantly changing and DSC is trying to log all values. Lastly, check and make sure that the tag engine is still running at the time you receive the error message. If it is, open it up by double-clicking on the icon in the system tray(in the bottom, right-hand corner of Windows, by your time) and make sure that "log data" is still c
hecked. Hopefully the solution will present itself by checking these things. Have a good day.

Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk Witout Data Loss

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