The Safest Way to Resize Dynamic Disk – Copy The Dynamic Volume to Basic Disk and Resize

Before Windows Vista, dynamic disk is a good choice for the people who want to maximize the hard drive performance, especially for some small companies or that for particular use. Though compare to basic disk, dynamic disk has many advantages, it has two huge disadvantages, too. One is that if you convert a basic disk to dynamic, you cannot convert it back to basic without data loss, as you need to delete all dynamic volume firstly before converting. The other is that in most conditions the dynamic volume still cannot be extended, especially for the system volume, many people would encounter this problem if they need to increase dynamic disk. But due to the limitation of Disk Management, only Simple Volume and Spanned Volume can be extended. Moreover, there is no third-party product can resize dynamic disk directly.

Is there a way to resize dynamic disk? The answer is yes and this article will introduce dynamic disk in a nutshell and share the method how to resize dynamic disk indirectly but safely and how to convert dynamic disk to basic without data loss.

What is Dynamic Disk?

A dynamic disk is a physical disk that provides features that basic disks do not, such as support for volumes spanning multiple disks. Dynamic disks use a hidden database to track information about dynamic volumes on the disk and other dynamic disks in the computer. A disk managed by a software RAID provider with support for flexible volume reconfiguration. A dynamic disk uses a partition as a container for volumes; there is no guaranteed mapping.

What is the dynamic volume resizing limitation in Disk Management?

Before Windows Vista, you cannot resize dynamic disk conveniently, you can only extend dynamic volume in Disk Management. Moreover, following operation is even impossible.

1. Extend System Volume/ Boot Volume.

2. Expand Mirror Volume.

3. Increase Stripped Volume.

4. Extend RAID5 Volume

5. Extend the Simple Volume which was converted from the basic disk of Windows XP/2003 that was upgraded from Windows 2000.

How to resize dynamic volume indirectly and convert dynamic disk to basic without data loss?

Certainly, there are some software in the market which can convert the dynamic disk (Simple Volume only) directly to basic disk to resize the partition, while it will expose your system or data to a larger risk with no doubt, if there is an error or failure during the converting. Instead, EASEUS Partition Master copy dynamic volume to basic disk firstly, If you want to convert dynamic disk to basic without data loss, with the copy dynamic volume function you can easily achieve this. If you still need to use dynamic volume, you can convert the basic disk back to dynamic in Disk Management again..

For different dynamic volume, the situations are different when converting basic disk back to dynamic:

Simple Volume

After the Simple Volume being copied and resized on a basic disk, you can convert the basic partition back to Simple Volume in Disk Management without difficulty.

Mirror Volume

If you want to convert the Mirror Volume back after being copied and resized on the basic disk, you can convert it to Simple Volume in Disk Management first, then adding mirror with another dynamic disk.

Striped/Spanned/RAID5 Volume

If you want to convert them back to dynamic volumes after being copied and resized on the basic disk, these volumes should be converted to Simple Volume or Mirror Volume only, as these dynamic volumes should be re-built in Disk Management.

The step by step instructions, please refer to Copy Dynamic Disk

Conclusion

Copying dynamic volume to basic disk and resizing is a bit inconvenient, as you need another basic disk, but it is the safest way to resize dynamic disk indirectly. After copy and resize, you may remain the basic disk to use or convert the basic disk to dynamic volume again in Disk Management. Even if there is failure due to unpredictable error, original dynamic disk still can work normally. If you convert dynamic disk directly to basic, it will be a disaster when there is error.

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