Converting dynamic to basic disk

Question

I converted basic disk to dynamic on my laptop. However, now I cannot install Windows 7 on another partition. I just get message that installing them on dynamic disk is not supported.

Is there a way to convert dynamic disk to basic without losing data on already existing partition?

Answer 1

Here are instructions on non-destructively converting dynamic disks to basic disks. There are two methods discussed.

BE VERY CAREFUL. A MISTAKE CAN RESULT IN THE LOSS OF ALL DATA ON THE DISK.

1. If you can boot your system, follow Microsoft's instructions after completely backing up and verifying anything you don't want to lose from that drive.

(old instructions removed by Microsoft see Workaround section; ignore the sections about Live OneCare Firewall) for using the dskprob.exe tool from the Windows Support Tools for WinXP.

2. If you can't boot, use TestDisk. The first link in this post contains detailed instructions. Essentially, if TestDisk can detect your dynamic disk's partitions, it may be able to write out a new, standard partition table -- converting it to a basic disk.

Answer 2

There seem to be ways.

The official one is to back up the data on the disk, re-partition and -format and then restore the data.

If your volume was used in a stripeset (you had a reason to make it a dynamic volume in the first place, right?), then this should be the only pretty way to keep your data.

Otherwise you seem to be able to get creative with a hex editor. I've done that a few years ago myself but be careful and read up a little on how your disk is organized before destroying anything you might want to keep.