Dynamic and Basic Partitions?!?!

Hi everyone. I am trying to Dual Boot Windows 7 and Windows 8. I have the Windows 8 boot DVD already and when I tried to boot everything went well except when I said I wanted a custom installation and I want to install on my partition that I have created and it said that it was dynamic and it could not install Windows 8 on it. Is there any way to convert the 105 GB dynamic partition I have in my hard drive to be a basic partition. When I open My Computer, this is what I have in my Hard Disk Drives Section:

Local Disk (C:) : 372 GB free of 471 GB

Recovery (D:) : 1.73 GB free of 15.7 GB

HP_TOOLS (E:) : 1.09 GB free of 3.95 GB

Windows 8 (M:) : 104 GB free of 104 GB (This is the partition that I have created.)




Somebody please help. Thank You.

maxwell505 welcome to SevenForums

Take a look at the tutorial below

Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk

VistaKing said:

maxwell505 welcome to SevenForums

Take a look at the tutorial below

Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk

Ok so lets say I use step 3 on here. I don't want to even touch my Windows 7 disk space. I only want to install Windows 8 on that particular partition(labeled as Windows 8). Is that what step 3 in the link you provided will help me accomplish?

Dynamic isn't a partition it a Drive .

Do you have more than one drive?

gregrocker said:

The problem is that you converted your HD to Dynamic which is only meant to be used to span a partition across multiple HD's. Apparently you didn't see the warning message when you added a partition.

You can only have four Primary partitions or 3 Primary and unlimited Logical. Had you asked us we would have advised you that to keep HP Recovery and Diagnostics tools (OEM) partitions bootable you'd need to convert C to Logical to add another adjacent partition.

The solution to reconvert to Basic non-destructively is to boot free Partition Wizard CD version 4.2 which is the last one which offers this as a free feature: pw422.zip ISO - Windows Live.

Download the ISO, rightclick to burn it to CD using Windows Image Burner, or use ImgBurn.

Back up the files on partition which tipped disk to Dynamic which will need to be deleted before disk will convert back to Basic. If it won't boot you can Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console.

Boot CD, follow these video steps: How to convert dynamic disk to basic disk with Partition Wizard?

After conversion to Basic, set C to Logical then create a new adjacent Logical partition for Win8:
How to set partition as Primary or Logical.
Partition Wizard Create Partition Video Help

If you need further help post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image - Windows 7 Help Forums and describe what you want to do.

Ok. I kind of understand what you are saying to do.One thing I dont understand is that you said "Back up the files on H which will need to be deleted before disk will convert back to Basic."
What is "H" as you are saying in the sentence above?

You really need to post a picture of your disk management because you have more than just the 4 partitions you listed in your first post. There is at least a system partition but because this does not have a drive letter, it does not show up in Computer.

Before you can go any further, you have to reduce the number of primary partitions to three - and that after we get rid of your dynamics. But without a peak at your disk management it is difficult to advise the best strategy.

whs said:

You really need to post a picture of your disk management because you have more than just the 4 partitions you listed in your first post. There is at least a system partition but because this does not have a drive letter, it does not show up in Computer.

Before you can go any further, you have to reduce the number of primary partitions to three - and that after we get rid of your dynamics. But without a peak at your disk management it is difficult to advise the best strategy.

Can you please show me how to reduce my primary partitions to 3.

Here is what you do:

1. Download the pw422 .iso as was said before

2. Burn this ,iso to CD

3. Boot your system with that CD - you may have to change the BIOS boot sequence

4. Delete that M partition you created for Windows 8

5. Reconvert the remaining 4 dynamic partitions to primary partitions (you are still in pw422)

6. Convert the C partition to a Logical partition - the controls are in Partition tab > Modify (still in pw422)

Now you have 3 primary partitions and 1 logical (extended) partition. Now you can reboot your Windows 7 and create more partitions with Disk Management. Windows 8 you can install in a logical partition because the bootmgr will go into your System partition.

maxell505 said:

Ok. I kind of understand what you are saying to do.One thing I dont understand is that you said "Back up the files on H which will need to be deleted before disk will convert back to Basic."
What is "H" as you are saying in the sentence above?

That's why I messaged you to refresh the thread, as I was adapting another post I'd made and needed to edit for your exact situation, and posted before I noticed that reference. Follow my post now as it's written.

I am sorry you missed my message saying to refresh your browser so the post would be correct.