Windows 7: Restoring a New Partition

Option 3 was added in response to my post 85 to the tutorial. I suggested 2 non destructive options.Brink ran with the second which relies on the partition recovery facility which I believe is still present in the free version.
My first approach used the partition type ID edit capability which the free Partition Wizard still retains. The OS looks at the MBR's partition type ID byte to determine if the partition is dynamic (0x42) or basic (0x07).

It was my understanding that you could boot to a logical partition as long as you had the system reserved partition
System Reserved : Multi Boot from Logical Partitions

The free Partition Wizard no longer supports converting a Dynamic to a Basic disk.

click to enlarge

Which again is why I have the change type ID option. It is a current Partition Wizard option. Details in the post link I provided.

You guys really threw lots of info at me on the last posts. So it there a consensus that the free Partition Magic will not do the job and allow me to use the bootable CD to convert Dynamic back to Basic?

If I understand correctly, the Tutorial on how to Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk is destructive so I'd lose everything on the HD?

mjf, yes, the old C: is the new C: plus the unallocated. My original image included the system reserved partition at the front. What exactly is in that system partition in the front?

I'm not sure what to do right now. Any idea what program to use to do an image of dynamic drives? Maybe that would solve the issue overall.

gregrocker, I read the post about re-install windows 7, does it include a way to re-install when you don't have an original CD?

Thanks again!

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Do you have your Recovery Disks?

Do you have a friend with Windows 7 from whom you can borrow the DVD long enough to extract ISO using ImgBurn then unlock all versions if necessary to reinstall your licensed version with Product Key on COA sticker?

Yes you can convert dynamic to basic using the current Partition Wizard using the steps I outlined. (It's not original see the references).

The tutorial is not destructive if option 3 is followed. But like any technique it can fail and a backup in case of failure is essential.

A clean install would be an option but my last option in your situation. Some people push it all the time. (I sense an email coming your way).

I concur that converting is preferable which is why I first recommended it. However now that we learn the PW free edition doesn't contain Conversion Dynamic>Basic any longer, I am not aware of any method that safely converts without risk of data destruction.

Michael: does the PW free edition support the method you outline in the Tutorial's comments? Have you tested this in the same scenario without data loss? Just asking.

I cannot personally verify it works but people report it does work by doing the changes with a Hex editor. Any way will have a risk and the OP needs to have full backups.
If you look at the OP's screenshot from diskmanagement and BFK's from PW. PW only shows the whole of the dynamic disk not the components. I now feel the changes will require a Hex editor. It's easy for me to say it's easy, but I think it may freak out the uninitiated.

Now the good news courtesy of Jonathan King who gave the following link in the tutorial thread. It's an older version of PW which should do the conversion automatically.
Jonathan King link to V4.2

1) download the zip and extract
2) run the installer
3) start the application
4) select the disk and go to "Disk" drop down menu
5) select "convert dynamic disk to basic"
6) apply

It should be run from the desktop. Again do at your own risk.

Great work Michael and thanks Jonathan.

Was going to PM him to send over my PW 4.2 download via TeamViewer. Even better to have a link.

Be sure to back up your files.

Thanks guys for the effort to help me out. It's funny it was so simple to create another partition and the disk to change from Basic to Dynamic but yet it's so hard to go back.

I think I'll do a full backup and try the PW 4.2 version ans see what happens. The other option I thought would be to do the Tutorial method and then just use my original ghost image and start where I was before this.

Anyway, thanks again and I'll keep you posted!