Dynamic to Basic Disk Conversion to do recovery (have bad registries)

Hay there,

I use HP Probook 4530s with Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium x86.

I installed the HP Protect Tools, but it made my registry bad and I am unable to delete them. As a result my laptop is slow now and takes a lot of time on Welcome screen when powered on.

So, I needed to do recovery to get the registries good again.

I tried to get support at HP Forums. A person there said that my disks are Dynamic and I need to change them to Basic to get the recovery. (See Screenshot Attached)
But I am not sure how to get started? I don't want to loose my data.
I have the following Drives in my computer: http://i.imgur.com/FzzRs2n.png
I heard that I will have to delete the H drive to be able to make the partitions basic.
Note: I did not change the partitions to dynamic. I just saw it now. The laptop came as it is when I bought it. This is the first time I am having problem with my laptop.

I have HP_Recovery Drive, but no recovery disks. My warranty is expired, so I can't take help from their customer care.

I recommend you to read this thread (at least the last page), so that you exactly know my problem.

I will really appreciate if anyone will come up with any solution for me.
I have my windows product key, etc as well.
Kind Regards!

Keep in mind that the HP preinstall is the worst possible install of Win7 one can have, larded with bloatware and duplicate utiltiies which interfere with better versions built into Win7. Most tech enthusiasts won't even run that install but instead Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 . Until then you'll never even experience Win7's native perfect performance.

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 H 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

Hello there,

Thank you for the quick reply. I really don't know how it got converted to Dynamic, I never done that.

Also,
"Back up the files on H 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."
In your above sentence, I didn't understand the line that I have made bold.
I will backup the data on H, but I don't understand what won't boot?

1. I will not lose the data on C drive if I'll be using Partition Wizard CD Version? I will only be losing the data on the H drive.. Correct?

2. Should I have to just convert the C drive as Basic or One by one other drives as well.. Like D drive and E drive (that is HP_Recovery).

3. After this I will be able to do the recovery?

I will really appreciate if you will answer my questions as I have never done it before and don't have much info about it.

Kind Regards

Disk Mgmt says you have 150+ gb of data on H. Since a Dynamic disk can stop booting Win7 at any time, if this happens before you can copy your data out then you'll need to rescue the data some way. I gave you a method to do that using the Win7 disk to Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console. Another method is by booting Paragon Rescue Kit Free Edition 11.0 Free CD..

I would also back up the data on C just in case, although it should remain intact during conversion.

May I ask why you would ignore a clear warning NOT to convert a Win7 drive to Dynamic? Are you also aware that your files should be backed up at all times anyway since the hard drive could fail at any time?

gregrocker said:

I gave you a method to do that using the Win7 disk to Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console. Another method is by booting Paragon Rescue Kit Free Edition 11.0 Free CD..

Click to expand...

I don't have Windows Installation DVD/USB since the windows came built-in the hp computer.

So, I will try doing it with Paragon Rescue kit.

Surely, I will backup all my data now.

May I ask why you would ignore a clear warning NOT to convert a Win7 drive to Dynamic? Are you also aware that your files should be backed up at all times anyway since the hard drive could fail at any time?

Click to expand...

As I mentioned earlier, trust me, I never played with the Disk Management on my computer. They are as are provided by the HP, I really don't know how it happened. Its really shocking for me.

My PC became slow and booting became slow after I installed the HP Protect Tools and still unable to remove it as it altered my registry, that's why I need to do the recovery. May be thats the reason my drives got converted to dynamic?

HP Factory Recovery is the worst possible install one can have, larded with bloatware and useless duplicate utilities that interfere with better versions built into Win7. For this reason most tech enthusiasts choose to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which steps will show you how to get and keep a perfect install.

The installer is also provided in Step 1 along with tool to burn to DVD or write to flash stick in Step 2.

Did you notice when you ran Recovery if your HP model has a minimal Recovery, which is very close to a Clean Reinstall? If so and you didn't choose it I would do it over choosing that.

THere isn't any way I know of that HP Recovery would convert your HD to Dynamic.