Changing a Dynamic Disk back to Basic

aggixx · 01 Sep 2010

I was changing some partitions in the Disk Management tool in Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management, and I accidently changed my boot drive to a dynamic disk (I thought it would only change the volume to dynamic, not the whole disk). According to Windows 7, the OS can't boot if it's on a dynamic disk, so I need to change it back. Did some research and found that the only way to do this is to clear all partitions from the drive. So here's where am I at:

It seems that I need to move all of my data to Disk 1, so that I can revert the other two drives to Basic and then move the necessary data back. I've got the space to do this, so I was wondering: How does the process of moving (or copying) the OS's files go? And am I going about this the right way?

Thanks

aggixx · 01 Sep 2010

Bump, just burning time until I find an answer, as I don't want to shut off my computer in it's current state.

aggixx · 01 Sep 2010

After looking in more detail, it seems that pre-existing OS installations on a drive that was changed to dynamic, are still bootable?

Is this correct? Would love some confirmation before possibly messing up my computer.

nickiler · 01 Sep 2010

Disk management has a nice GUI which may fool you into clicking around.

A good rule of thumb is to stay away from disk altering processes. Period. These tools are for experts only. You have a 90% chance of damaging your OS.

I call it crash and burn.

Just my two cents,

Nick

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

huffman · 02 Sep 2010

I had that same problem when I first installed Win7. For weeks I searched for a way to change Dynamic back to Basic. I never found one and ended up using Win XP install disk to repartition the hard drive then reinstalled Win 7. This changed everything to basic and solved the problem even though it was worth it in the end.

aggixx · 24 Sep 2010

Sorry to necro, but I thought I should update for potential future readers.

Turns out you can boot off of a dynamic disk, IF and ONLY IF the operating system was installed onto it when it was still a basic disk. So, I'm still running it as dynamic, not a single boot problem.

This turns out to be a bonus for me because I wanted to form a new partition in the unallocated space, but the space was split by the primary partition. Dynamic allows you to do this, so I've got my drives set up like I wanted them.

Screenshot attached for completeness I guess. E: is the split partition I was talking about, C: is the OS partition.