How to Convert Dynamic Disk Back to Basic Disk under Windows XP/2000/2003/2008/Vista/Windows 7?

Why to convert basic disks to dynamic disks?

Windows 2000 introduces the concept of dynamic disks. It allows you to use basic disks or convert to dynamic to take advantage of additional features. When you first install Windows 2000/XP Professional, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2000/2003/2008, all disks are initialized as basic. You can easily convert a basic disk to dynamic disk using 'Convert to Dynamic Disk' option from the Disk Management without losing any data and get additional features as follows:

• Disk and volume management tasks are performed without having to restart the computer afterwards.
• Create volumes that span multiple disks.
• Extend a simple or spanned volume.
• Dynamic disks support an unlimited number (up to 2000) of volumes.
• Dynamic disks do not use a Master Boot Record (MBR). Disk layout information is stored on the last 1 MB of the disk.
• A dynamic disk can contain simple volumes, spanned volumes, striped volumes, mirrored volumes, and RAID-5 volumes.

Why to convert dynamic disks to basic?

Although dynamic disks contains too many advantages than the basic disks, it also provides some problems as bellow which make us have to convert the dynamic disks back to basic:

1.According to Microsoft Windows users, in some situations after converting the Windows Vista installed drive partition from basic to dynamic, following problems are observed:

• The dynamic Drive volumes could not be deleted when you try to reinstall Microsoft Windows Vista.

2.Accidentally convert the basic disk to dynamic disk.

3.Some examples in the forum as follows:

• I am having Windows Vista ultimate SP2 running on my computer & want to convert dynamic type disk to a basic one, but without formatting the computer….!
• I have to install the Windows system under 2000 but the dynamic disk does not allow me to, how can I change the dynamic disks back?

How to change a dynamic disk to a basic disk?

Once you changed the basic disk to dynamic disk, it cannot be changed back to basic disk without deleting the partitions and rebuilding the disk.

However, when you convert a dynamic disk back to basic disk, it is not usual and requires hard drive formatting. Formatting removes all of your hard drive partitions and cause critical data loss. To avoid data loss, you are required to backup all the data on dynamic disks by copying dynamic disks.

To change a dynamic disk back to a basic disk without data loss, please follow the steps below:

1. Back up all the data on all the volumes on the dynamic disk you want to convert to a basic disk to a safe place. ( How to clone dynamic disks to backup it?)

2. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.

3. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

4. Click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.

5. In the left pane, click Disk Management.

6. Right-click a volume on the dynamic disk that you want to change to a basic disk, and then click Delete Volume.

7. Click Yes when you are prompted to delete the volume.

8. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each volume on the dynamic disk.

9. After you have deleted all the volumes on the dynamic disk, right-click the dynamic disk that you want to change to a basic disk and then click Convert to Basic Disk.

After it is changed to the basic disk, you may do all the operations on the basic disk and you may change the basic disks back to dynamic one whenever by using the Disk Management tool without data loss.

Related Articles:

• How to Copy/Clone Dynamic Volume to Basic Disk and Resize Dynamic Disk Indirectly?
• The Safest Way to Resize Dynamic Disk – Copy The Dynamic Volume to Basic Disk and Resize
• Server Partition Manager to Manage your Windows Server in an Easier Way