I need convert dynamic disk to basic

I screwed up my hard drive using Disk Management in Windows 7 because i accidentally converted my entire hard drive basic to dynamic. I tried tweaking it around to regain the Basic state, but failed.
Now I can't even boot Windows. Is there a way for me to delete the entire dynamic disk, convert to basic, and start over with the Windows installation in DOS mode?

Sure, boot on your windows 7 media.
When it comes to the screen where you can chose which disk to install to, press shift + F10 to get a commando prompt.
In the commando prompt type diskpart
in diskpart do the following:
1. Type "List disk" All disk on your machine will get listed and have a number.
2. Remember the disk number of the disk
3. Type "Select Disk x" where x is the number of the disk
4. Type "Clean" this will ERASE the disk
5. Type " Create partition pri"
6. Type "Format fs=NTFS Quick"
7. Type "Active"
Now you can Close the commando prompt and do a refresh on the disk selection page and chose the disk to install Windows 7 to.

Similar Messages

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.

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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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.

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

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 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

How can I make an invalid dynamic disk Array available to the OS again

Hello Storage Pros
The setup
I have a Promise VTrak E610f head unit with 2 VTrak 610j expansion units attached to it together giving me over 27 TB of usable storage space.
At the hardware level I slip the storage into 6 parts containing 7
1TB disks and had the parts configured into 6 RAID 6 arrays. In the end; each of the 6 arrays gives me 4.6TB of usable storage space.
On the OS level, I have the storage attached to 2 servers: Windows server 2008 and windows server 2008 R2 over a Qlogic fiber channel switch. Each of the 6 arrays are viewable as basic disks of 4,6Tb which I went on to configure as a single RAID 0
spanned volume of 27TB and for that all the disks had to be converted to dynamic.
The problem
Now comes the problem: On my first attempt to do a firmware update on the VTrak E610f storage; all the volumes were rendered foreign and I had to import them to be able to use them. Although the import was successful, I lost all the set NTFS permissions
and SMB share and I had to manually reconfigure them. Upon doing so The OS registered some inconsistencies in the storage and recommended that I ran chkdsk. Since the storage is that big I reluctantly complied and restarted the server.
The first server was restarted BUT chkdsk did not commence as scheduled, the server powered right up. After logging in to inspect; I discovered - to my surprise, that the disks were now shown as invalid in Disk Manager and were no longer visible to
the OS. Assuming that maybe a restart of the other server and the storage would set things right, I went ahead to do so but to no avail. After rebooting the entire system (including the storage), the other server also displayed the disks as invalid and were
no longer visible to the OS as well.
My question is; how can I make the disk available again from this ‘invalid’ state without losing data?
What I tried but did not help:
Taking the disks offline and then online again did not work, after the disks were online again, they still appeared as invalid.
Reactivating the disks threw an error “operation not allowed on an invalid disk pack”
Calling support of the storage manufacturer: they did not find anything wrong with the system, after 5 hours we had to stop.
I fear converting the array from dynamic to basic will destroy all the data.
HxD is showing no errors in the disks
If there is any expert out there with helpful tips; your assistance will be greatly appreciate.
Cheers
John

Hello Shoan
Thanks a lot for your response and tips. Sorry I could not get back to you in good time for I had to run some of the tests you provided, it took some time to
thoroughly re-test the system.
The summary
The initial firmware upgrade attempt forced 3 disks offline and the other 3 became foreign. I had to re-import them to have access again. after re-importing
the disks I realized all NTFS permissions and SMB shares of the folders on the disks had disappeared, but at least the disk was visible and accessible at that point - but not fault free. It was recommened that I let chkdsk run. However rebooting the
system to allow chkdsk to run did not result in chkdsk running, instead chkdsk did not run and after restart, the OS showed the disks as invalid. And that is still the case now.
Response to your questions:
Yes the storage array was (and is still) connected to another server 2008 R2 server when the problem occurred. The second server is also displaying the same problem: the disks are shown as invalid.
The loss of SMB shares and NTFS permissions occurred after the initial firmware upgrade attempt, some disks (3 out of 6 of them) were forcibly offlined and the other 3 were, suddenly, marked as foreign. In the end, and to have access to the disks
I had to online the offlined 3 disks and then reimport the rest of them. From the way I understand it, if the upgrade was not the cause, then at least it was the trigger.
In as far as converting disks from dynamic to basic, I was not in luck so far:
Three of the companies I have contacted (recommended by promise Technology technician) so far only work with smaller disks like 2TB, 27 TB like I have is so
far too big.
I’m not sure converting the disks to basic will help much though, since that would break the single 27 TB volume which the OS was working with into 6 individual
disks of 4.6 TB. Will I be able to get the data back that was written to just one volume from those 6 individual and unrelated disks?
Above all, I have connected the RAID storage system to a newly installed Server 2008 R2, the disks are also shown as invalid.
I have spent more than 17 hours in remote sessions with a Promise Technology technician trying the resolve the issue. From the technician’s side all seems in place with the exception
that the disks are invalid in the OS.
I have contacted Microsoft Customer Support service with the issue. Given that Microsoft did not manufacture the storage unit, can they help at this point – or am I better off
putting my hopes else?
Your help is always appreciated and again, thanks for your response and advice.
JohnV

Installing Windows 7 on a dynamic disk

Hi,
Here's my situation, I have two hard drives, the first has three partitions, a primary partition for Windows XP, a second partition that I want to install Windows 7 on, and a third partition with 8MB of space which is some kind of recovery partition by the manufacturer. The second hard drive is for data and games.
So I tried to install Windows 7 on the second partition, I booted into the DVD and click advanced installation, the second hard drive and the second partition are marked as dynamic and when I click on them it says that I can't install Windows 7. When I click on the primary partition that has Windows XP the continue button is activated again.
My question is, can I convert the dynamic disk to a basic disk without losing any data on the Windows XP partition? I don't care about data on the second partition since I was going to install Windows 7 on it anyway.
Also, is there anyway to install Windows 7 without converting since I'm looking for the least amount of headache.

In Windows Vista/2008 and Windows 7, in order to guarantee data’s security, their installation program dose not allow operating system is installed on dynamic disk. To convert the dynamic disk to a basic disk and avoid data having been lost, you could try to use Dynamic Disk Converter, it's able to convert back to basic disk without losing any data. Also here is a article: http://strangelyperfect.tv/6415/how-to-convert-a-dynamic-disk-to-basic-disk-in-windows-7/

Does Exchange 2007 support dynamic disk

We have Exchange 2007 SP3 installed on Windows 2008 Std edition. it is a virtual machine.
We have disk space issue on couple of drives. We are planning to expand the disk.
All the disk are in BASIC mode. I want to know does Exxhange 2007 support Dynamic disk and does it allows to convert BASIC disk to dynamic disk and extend the drive. Please suggest.
Thanks
Srinivas

Yes, it is supported to have mailbox database on Dynamic Disk (except it is single copy cluster)
Partition Design - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb738145(v=EXCHG.80).aspx
However I won't convert the disk from basic to dynamic while database is on the drive. Suggest you to dismount the DB, move it to a temp location, convert the disk, move the database back and mount the DBs...

What are basic and dynamic disks?

Basic disks and dynamic disks are two types of hard disk configurations in Windows. Most personal
computers are configured as basic disks, which are the simplest to manage. Dynamic disks can make use of multiple hard disks within a computer to duplicate data for increased performance and reliability.
A basic disk uses primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives to organize
data. A formatted partition is also called a volume (the terms volume and partition are often used interchangeably). In this version of Windows, basic disks can have either four primary partitions or three primary
and one extended partition. The extended partition can contain an unlimited number of logical drives. The partitions on a basic disk cannot share or split data with other partitions. Each partition on a basic disk is a separate entity on the disk.
Convert basic disk to dynamic disk: MiniTool Partition Wizard
Dynamic disks can contain an unlimited number of dynamic volumes that function like the primary partitions used on basic disks. The main difference between basic disks and dynamic disks is that dynamic disks are
able to split or share data among two or more dynamic hard disks on a computer. For example, a single dynamic volume may actually be made up of storage space on two separate hard disks. Also, dynamic disks can duplicate data among two or more hard disks to
guard against the chance of a single disk failing. This capability requires more hard disks, but improves reliability.

Hi Miningsu,
The scope of this forum is to answer General queries related to File & Storage Services pertaining to Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 / R2 and 2012 / R2 operating systems.
This is not where you can give training to people. Kindly Co operate.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/9ce53966-49bb-48fe-b195-2652ad8d09d9/purpose-of-this-forum-server-general-please-read-before-posting-?forum=winservergen
Regards,
Rafic
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Windows 2008 R2, converting to dynamic disk questions

Hello,
   I have a Windows 2008 R2 server and I want to convert the drive into a dynamic disk for mirroring. The disk currently is divided into two partitions. The C: partition which is System,Boot, Page File, etc. and the D: partition which
is data. The questions I have are:
    Can a disk with multiple partitions be created without data loss or anything?
    I know you have to reboot, but how long does it usually take to do the reboot/conversion before the server is back up?
    I want to mirror the drive to a 2nd identical disk in the server, and am planning to use Computer Management. Do I have to partition the second drive first, or will the process do it automatically?
    The server is a dedicated server that is provided by a hosting company, so I would be doing it through Remote Desktop. Can it be done that way?
Thanks.

Hi,
You can convert the drive into a dynamic disk within both local logon session and remote desktop session. The system requires reboot twice to make the conversion take into effect. You do not have to partition the second drive.
For more detailed information, please refer to the articles below:
Dynamic disks and volumes
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc757696(v=ws.10).aspx
Create and test a mirrored system or boot volume
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738132(v=ws.10).aspx
Regards,
Mandy
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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

Has anyone managed to get a 3TB dynamic disk on Windows 2003 Server?

I just got a pair of new 3TB disks that I wanted to put on my Windows 2003 server enterprise x64 system, SP2, all updates installed.
When I first tried to convert to dynamic, I got the error "The operation did not complete" as described in this KB article
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826823
It says there is a patch, but there is not one for x64, just x86 and ia64
I found another technet discussion here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverfiles/thread/cb62238c-b3d0-4989-b45a-ae6de6701a7b?stoAI=10
However its best suggestion is to use a product from AOMIE, but I tried that and it didn't even recognize the disk. It also suggests that one needs a better version of diskpart.exe and to try to the 32 bit version. Anyone have any experience
with that?
I also tried creating moving the disk to Windows 7 x64, making it dynamic there, but when I move the disk back to 2K3 it does not recognize it, and goes back to a 2TB partition. I also saw something about needing a 512 block size for 2K3, but W7 does
not allow anything smaller than 1K.

Hi,
During my research, if found the following artcle which also mentioned a 3TB disk should be supported in Windows 2003 SP1:
Has anyone managed to get a 3TB dynamic disk on Windows 2003 Server?
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverfiles/thread/a720ae72-0c04-44dd-94c0-2e6aecce530e
So I contact the author about this issue. He said it could be caused if your hard disk is a 512e drive as the 3TB drives on the market today are normally 512e drives.
However manufacturers stopping identifying this, and if the controller is old, FSUtil will not able to identify a 512 drive but recognized it as a normal 512n drive.
Thus please provide the drive model so we could search on manufacturer's website for exact information.
Also please paste the screenshot in your reply which Satish mentioned if available.
In addition, here is an article Robert provided:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/what-would-microsoft-support-do/support-advanced-format-hard-drives-141584

HP m6 notebook Dynamic disk - difficult to make a backup image

Hi, my 6month old m6 died (corrupt boot record and/or partiton table). I had to restore from my pile of 5 DVDs (worked!).
Whilst I have a data backup strategy I'd like to be able to image the disk (or just system and C: partitions) to enable faster recovery.
The problem is many (all?) imagaing software only appears to work with Basic disks. So my questions are,
1. why does HP give us a Dynamic disk
2. can I easily convert to Basic disk to make disk imaging easier. Thanks.

Are you sure that you didn't change the partition(volume) type to dynamic yourself?
Each one of the HP loaners I have had have arrived with the partition types set as Basic. When I use the recovery manager to experiment with the product, each time it returns the deleted volumes to basic, not dynamic.
Converting a volume from dynamic to basic will wipe the data. That is why it recommended to back up the data before converting the volume.
Best regards,
erico
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I need convert dynamic disk to basic

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