Converting Dynamic drive to Basic drive without data loss.

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  1. Posts : 10
    Windows 7 64
       #1

    Converting Dynamic drive to Basic drive without data loss.


    I recently installed an SSD in my system, as I was clearing off my secondary disk I messed something up on it. My secondary drive is a 1tb WD Black that had 3 partitions. It had the 100mb System Reserved, a 75gb partition that contained my Windows 7 install and all necessary drivers, and the remaining 856gb was a Data partition that contained everything else (games, pics, music, files...)

    I went through my Windows partition and got everything out of it that I needed. When it came to the System partition, i figured I didnt need it anymore so I deleted the volume and extended the 856gb partition. This turned the drive into a Dynamic drive. When I saw this it didnt look right to me so I tried to me so I deleted the 100mb volume again.

    This is where everything went wrong. The file system is gone and both the 100mb and 856gb volumes are unusable. Disk Management says they are unformatted and are RAW.



    I have tried a bunch of different programs, partition managers, recovery programs, lots of them. Im not really sure what Im doing though, Im not sure the steps that I need to take to fix this.

    I think I need to convert it back to a Basic drive, then rebuild the MBR. Ive never had hard drive issues like this so its all brand new territory for me.

    My original post about this issue was on another forum and can be found here with more pictures and steps that I have taken.
    Deleted NTFS file system, need to restore
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 71,975
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #2

    Hell Reverse, and welcome to Seven Forums.

    You might see if you may be able to use OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO in the tutorial below to be able to convert the disk from dynamic back to basic without losing any data.

    Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk

    Hope this helps for now, :)
    Shawn
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 10
    Windows 7 64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    With Partition Wizard 4.2 I get an error





    When I use EaseUS Partition Manager, the only Operations available for that disk are "Surface Test" and "View Properties" If I click on the F: partition, the only option available for it is "Delete Volume"

      My Computer


  4. Posts : 71,975
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #4

    You might see if you may be able to recovery the data on the RAW F: partition using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free. It'll allow you up to 1 GB recovery free.

    Instructions: Raw Recovery: Recover files from Raw Partitions, Hard Disk Drive, Memory card, SD Card. Raw File System Recovery Software.

    If successful in recovering all of your data off of it, then you could just clean Disk 2 to start over with it.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 10
    Windows 7 64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    I tried that on Saturday, it came up with something like 80 partitions and I could only look at 4 at a time. It took something like 4 hours to search the drive and most of what showed up on the few that I looked at was from the Windows drive. I guess I need to rerun it and make it search only the F drive.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 71,975
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #6

    Yeah, only searching the F drive will help narrow it down and hopefully save you some time.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 10
    Windows 7 64
    Thread Starter
       #7

    If you delete one volume from a dynamic disk, does it delete the entire disk? When this all started, I deleted the 100mb partition after it was changed to dynamic. This caused the issues.


    Update-
    I was able to convert it from dynamic to basic disk by using a Hex editor.
    Last edited by Reverse; 22 Apr 2013 at 20:42.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 71,975
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #8

    Good. Were you able to recover your files?
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 10
    Windows 7 64
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Working on that now. Some of the recovery tools Ive tried say "Cannot read boot sector" and do nothing. Ive tried rebuilding the MBR.



    This is where Im at now.
      My Computer


  10. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #10

    I would also try a live Linux CD or stick. Linux is less fuzzy for reading disks.
      My Computer


 
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