Windows 7 - HDD gone dynamic, can't format or change back to basic

(Windows 7 Ultimate x32, SP1)

I have an old 40GB drive split into 3 partitions (none are boot). After a recent crash the drive had a mechanical failure- the actuator was sticking or something- but after a few taps it started again and seems to be ok. No loss of data and fully accessible but windows keeps telling me it has a "problem" and I need to back it up. Backups consistently fail. DM is now showing it as a Dynamic drive with one of the partitions split into multiple simple volumes.
I did a C&P of all the files to an external drive and deleted everything on the partition then tried to format, but that failed because "the partition is in use". Most options in DM are unavailable. Tried to use Partition Wizard to convert from Dynamic to basic but that failed as well.
I hate to toss 40 gigs of storage, any ideas on how to get it back to normal operations?

Five primary partitions in a single HDD caused it . Use Partition Wizard Bootable CD to convert at least one of the first three (you know the contents and their importance) partition to logical . It will be back to a basic disk.

If still not, follow the tutorial Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk .

did you backup all files on disk 1?
If so start:
diskpart
select disk 1
list partitions (be sure this is the right disk!)
clean

now reboot. create partitions using diskmanagement ans assign drive letter. now restore all your files

You only hit the "the partition is in use" error when doing something under Windows.
A Boot disk such as Partition Wizard Boot CD should delete/format or whatever you wish

Partition Wizard "does not support Dynamic Disk". DM does not give me the option to delete the volume and diskpart gives me a service error "not allowed on the disk containing the current boot", .etc. on both delete volume and clean all commands. Again, this is not a boot drive and there are no system files on it.

disable pagefile on G,D,F. Reboot and try again.

Who says ?

That was the case unless you bought the enterprise variants.
Right now I have free of charge both the Boot CD version and the Live Windows version of
MiniTool Partition Wizard 7.0
This now is happy to deal with my GPT drive.

see
Free Partition Magic alternative. Free Partition Manager Software for Windows 7/VISTA/XP/2000 and Windows Server 2003/2008/2000.
fourth tick reads
Create, delete and format dynamic volume. New!

that did it- thanks Was able to reformat the bad partition and convert back to basic disk. Still getting the "windows detected a hard disk problem" error, but I'll have to deal with that later.

alan10: I downloaded the home version from Arc's link, it gave me that error. The old 2.4 version worked fine though after I sorted the other issue.

Much appreciation folks!