Why making a new new partition cause the hard drive to turn into dynamic drive?

Question

So, I was trying to make a new partition using the Windows 7 built in Disk Manager on a HP desktop computer with Windows 7 pre-installed and stuffs. When finishing the new partition wizard, there is an alert saying something like "you won't be able to boot from partitions other than the primary boot drive" and something about "converting into dynamic". I didn't know what it means, so I clicked "no". I tried the wizard again, and the alert shows again, and I clicked "yes" this time.

So, looks like the damage is done, the whole hard drive turned into dynamic. After some google searches, I find out that converting it back to basic is not a click away task, and I can't install Ubuntu on a dynamic drive either (which was my intention at the first place).

I want to know why does this happen. And after converting it back to basic drive, will it guarantee me to create new partitions safely in the future without the risk of turning into dynamic drive again?

Answer 1

The background:

This is typical problem that you run into with HP computers.

They already have 4 primary partitions on their disk.

And a basic(no-dynamic) disc can hold maximum of 4 primary volumes.

Hence, if you go and create a new partition, it will ask you to convert the disc to dynamic which is what you have done.

Normally we have at most 3 primary partitions and an extended partition(which itself is primary). And within this extended partition, you can create 26 logical drives.

So, had you not converted the disc to dynamic, the solution would have been converting the windows installation partition to extended and creating logical drives.

But now that you have already made the disk dynamic,

The solution:

Make sure the disk has 4 primary partitions.(Basically revert the disk partition layout to what it was BEFORE you converted it to dynamic)

Try converting disk to basic as specified here.(I have not tested this part. So you will have to experiment.)

BUT First, backup all your important data. I won't be responsible for any data loss.

If you are successful, you will have to convert windows installation partition to extended using same software. There, by logical, they actually mean extended partition.

Then, create a new logical drive in there for ubuntu and install ubuntu as ubuntu can install on logical drive unlike windows which installs only on primary partition.

Answer 2

I have a solution for your problem. Use Easeus Partition Manager to convert the disk back to basic, but you would still not be able to make more than four partitions. You would have to expand volumes to consume the space. You wouldn't lose any data, but I can't guarantee it will solve the power outage problem.