Non destructively Convert offline dynamic disk to basic disk using testdisk tool

Question

I had a 250GB hard disk having several NTFS partitions. The disk was a dynamic disk (created in windows).

Now when I formatted windows (which was in another disk), the dynamic disk is shown as offline.

I tried using the testdisk tool to recover the data and created a partial backup.

Testdisk is able to list all partitions in the disk. All partitions are shown as type 'D' (Deleted). I want to change the 'D' to 'P' (Primary), 'L'(Logical), 'E' (Extended) appropriately and build a new partition table. If I can write the partition table to disk, the disk will be of 'basic' type and should be readable in all OS.

What should be the appropriate partition types? I checked the files on the partitions and no OS was ound. So none of the partitions were bootable.

Will randomly selecting P,L,E hurt the data in anyway?

Edit

Can anyone suggest how to choose the partition types to P,L,E given that none of the partitions were bootable.

Answer 1

Some moron, likely previously employed, at my workplace installed a second 500GB hard drive in two systems and set it to Dynamic.

The first time I encountered this it bit me after I reimaged the system. 500GB of GIS data needed by an engineer ...

I followed this -analysed the drive, picked a partition with P and used the "c" option it mentions below to copy all files off to an external USB 2.0 disk. It took about a week to copy all the data, but in the process the original drive was untouched. Basically testdisk lets you traverse the directories and copy off data without modifying the disk.

Answer 2

You can change your Dynamic disk to basic disk without losing data.
Even though you will not lose the data when you use this option to convert a dynamic disk back to a primary disk, be sure backup any data on the dynamic disk that you wish to keep first just to be safe in case something happens.
1. Open the Control Panel (All Items view), and click on the Administrative Tools icon, then close the Control Panel window.

2. Click on Computer Management in Administrative Tools, then close the Administrative Tools window.

3. If prompted by UAC, click on Yes.

4. In the left pane under Storage, click on Disk Management.

5. In the dynamic disk (ex: Disk 0) that you want to convert to a basic disk, right click on each volume on the disk and click on Delete Volume until the whole disk is unallocated space.

6. When finished, close Disk Management.
Note: It is extremely important to not save anything on this now deleted "unallocated space" disk. If you do, you risk not being able to recover the data on it.

7. If you have not already, you will need to download and install the free MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition program. Download and install it.

8. Open MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition, and click on the Partition Recovery Wizard link in the left pane.

9. Click on Next.

10. Select the Unallocted disk that use to be the dynamic disk, and click on Next.

11. Select option Full Disk, and click on Next.

12. Select option Quick Scan, and click on Next.

13. When it's finished, check all found partition boxes, and click on Finish.

14. At the bottom left corner of the left pane, click on the Apply button.

15. Now it will ask Apply changes. Click on Yes.

16. When it's finished, a confirmation dialog will appear, click on OK.

17. Close Partition Wizard Home Edition.

18. Restart the computer to have the deleted dynamic disk restored as a primary disk now with all of the data still on it.

Before performing these steps check Convert dynamic disk to basic tutorial. And all the information above form this tutorial and there this is provided on step 4.