How to convert a dynamic disk to a basic disk

It's easy to convert a basic disk into a dynamic disk on Microsoft Windows 2000/xp/2003/2008/vista and Windows 7, but it's not easy to convert a dynamic disk to a basic disk. Why is that? Because Windows Disk Manager cannot convert a dynamic disk with a partition to basic, it can only convert an empty dynamic disk back to basic. If there are partitions or dynamic volumes on a dynamic disk, the Convert to Basic disk option is grayed out and cannot be converted.

You may have to convert a dynamic or dynamic disk to a basic hard disk in the following situations:

vista/windows7/win2008 system Setup does not allow Windows systems to be installed on dynamic disks. In other words, the Windows 7/vista and Win2008 operating systems cannot be installed on dynamic disks.

Some third-party software may not support dynamic disks, such as Common Ghost, and you cannot restore a ghost backup's mirrored file to a dynamic disk.

Dynamic disks are displayed in an invalid state in the Windows Home Edition, and you will not be able to access any data on the dynamic disk if the dynamic disk is invalid.

In some cases, dynamic disks suddenly become unreadable, or dynamic disks cannot be imported into the system, and data on dynamic disks cannot be accessed.

There are four common scenarios listed above, and many situations may also require you to convert the disk back to the basic disk, which cannot be enumerated here. Anyway, when there is data on the disk, but you need to convert the dynamic disk to the basic disk. Here's a simple list of three traditional solutions:

Back up all the data on the dynamic disk to another disk, and then delete all partitions on the dynamic disk, and when the dynamic disk becomes an empty disk, you can use Windows Disk Manager to convert it back to the basic hard drive. The disadvantage is that you need to back up your data and delete partitions. Note: System partitions on dynamic disks cannot be deleted.

Using the partition table recovery software, this software can restore the partition table according to the information in the partition's DBR, and the disk will automatically change to basic disk after the recovery is complete. The disadvantage is that this type of software is not specifically designed to transform dynamic hard drives to basic, we just use its characteristics, it may take a lot of time to recover, while some partitions may not be restored, can not be restored partition will have the risk of partition loss.

Use disk sector editing software such as Winhex to modify the MBR of the disk directly, changing all the partition markers 0x42 to other tags. The disadvantage is that the technology is so difficult that you need to be familiar with the partition tables in the MBR and risk zoning loss.

So is there a simple and safe way to switch? This article will teach you to use the dynamic disk converters in the partitioning assistant to implement simple and secure conversion operations. Dynamic disk Converter It can transform a dynamic disk to a basic disk without compromising data, at the same time it takes only 3-10 seconds. At the same time, this converter can also convert some invalid, unreadable and external non-import dynamic disk to return to the basic disk. Of course, not all dynamic disks can be converted, and it will prompt you for dynamic disks that cannot be converted, and you can look at the "FAQ" in its help document to learn more.

Dynamic Disk Converter usage steps

1, download the free Section Assistant (note: Must download the section Assistant 3.0 version, other high version such as 4.0 does not contain dynamic disk Converter this tool), install and run. On the left side of the main screen, click on "Dynamic Disk Converter" to run this program. As shown in Figure 1:

2, then you will see the Dynamic Disk Converter welcome interface, you can read its introduction, and then directly click the "Next" button to go to the next wizard page, as shown in Figure 2:

3. In the "Action Selection" page here, select the "Convert dynamic disk to basic Disk" option and click the "Next" button, as shown in Figure 3:

4, and then into the "Dynamic Disk List" page, where the program requires you to select a dynamic disk you want to convert to the basic disk, here Select Disk 1, as shown in Figure 4:

5, the following Figure 5 is the Operation confirmation page, please tick "I have decided to perform this transformation", then click the "Execute" button to start converting this dynamic disk to a basic disk.

After a few seconds, the conversion will be complete, and the program may require you to reboot the computer, and it has been successfully changed to the basic disk after you reboot the computer and view the disk in the Windows Disk Manager. If you include a spanned volume, RAID5 volume, and striped volume on a dynamic disk, the dynamic disk converter cannot convert it to a basic disk, and you can quickly copy or clone this type of dynamic volume to a basic disk using the capabilities of the clone dynamic volume of this converter.