Has the disk been converted to a dynamic disk? Scroll back now! (2023)

When all disk partitions become dynamic disks, what should you do to convert dynamic disk to basic disk? Here in this post, we have listed 3 solutions to help you solve this problem.

I was trying to expand a disk and I got a popup saying the drive is becoming dynamic. I thought you meant disk free space, which means disk free space becomes dynamic first, then expands on disk. But no, it made all disks dynamic! Now Windows loads everything fine. The drive where this occurred is the data drive where all programs and user data are stored. All data is copied. However, I really don't want to back up and restoring would be a huge hassle. Is there a way to go back to basics without losing data?--the seven forums

What is a dynamic disk?

What is a dynamic unit? Basic disk and dynamic disk are two types of disk when it comes to storage types. Like the basic disk most commonly used on computers running Microsoft Windows, the dynamic disk can also use the Master Boot Record (MBR) or GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition scheme.

All volumes on dynamic disks are called dynamic volumes. There are 5 types of dynamic volumes: simple volume, mirrored volume, striped volume, spanned volume and RAID 5 volume. For more information, seeWhat are dynamic disks and volumes??

In theory, you can create up to 1,000 dynamic volumes per disk group; However, it is recommended to create a maximum of 32 or fewer per volume group. And to get the most out of dynamic disks and volumes, they are best used on computers with multiple disks, allowing us to scale storage according to our needs.

3 situations when hard drive becomes dynamic

A simple hard disk becomes a dynamic disk if one of the following 3 assumptions is true:

1. If you want to create a new partition in unallocated space when there are 4 primary partitions in an MBR disk, the partitioning will convert the basic disk into a dynamic disk.
2. On the non-system disk, you want to extend a partition on the basic disk, but there is no contiguous Unallocated space and no free space on the right side. At this time, if there is a dynamic disk, extending partition will convert this basic disk to dynamic disk.
3. You just accidentally converted a hard disk to dynamic disk by clicking "Convert to Dynamic Disk" option.

Of course, once the disk has been changed to a dynamic disk, you can create much simpler volumes that behave like simple partitions; or you can create advanced volumes such as mirrored volumes, spanned volumes, and striped volumes when there is more than one dynamic disk.

However, dynamic disks can bring some problems. For example, some operating systems cannot be installed on a dynamic disk, including Ubuntu and a small subset of Windows operating systems. For Windows operating systems that do not support dynamic disks, seeWindows 7 supports dynamic disks.

In addition, you can only perform a clean installation of Windows on a dynamic volume if that volume has been converted from a basic volume and maintains a partition table entry. Simple volumes converted from basic disks do not have a partition table entry unless they were system or boot volumes before conversion.

So, you probably want to know, "How can I convert a dynamic disk to a basic disk?

Continue reading.

3 ways to convert dynamic disk to basic disk

In general, there are 2 FREE solutions to convert dynamic disk to basic in Windows 7/8/10. You can use Disk Management and Windows Command Prompt (CMD) to reset a dynamic disk on basis, but they all require removing existing volumes.

Here are the following details if you want to use them to convert dynamic disk to basic disk:

Solution 1 – Use Windows Disk Management to convert

In Disk Management, just delete all volumes one by one, then dynamic disk can be converted to basic disk.

If your hard disk has become dynamic, do the following:

Step 1. Rundiskmgmt.mscto load Disk Management directly, or right-click "My Computer/This PC", select "Manage" - "Storage" - "Disk Management".

Step 2. Right-click a dynamic volume and select itDelete volume...Continue excluding volumes until the entire disk shows as Unallocated.

Step 3. Depending on the operating system you use, the dynamic disk will be automatically converted to basic disk after exclusions; or you still need to right click on the dynamic disk and selectConvert to basic disk.

Now everything is ready.

To avoid them, continue to Solution 3.

Solution 2 – Use Command Prompt to convert

The command prompt, also known as cmd or cmd.exe, is the command line interpreter in the Windows NT, Windows CE, OS/2 and eComStation operating systems. Although more and more windows tools are coming to the software market, cmd never goes out of style as it is a very powerful windows tool to achieve many goals.

Now, how to convert dynamic disk to basic disk with CMD?

Run Command Prompt as Administrator. Then in the Command Prompt window, type these commands one by one:

• part of the disc
• disk list
• select disc m(n is the dynamic disk number you want to convert)
• detail pane
• select volume m(n is the selected volume number)
• Delete volume(If there is more than 1 volume, just delete them one by one until all volumes on disk are deleted.)
• select disc m
• convert basic

Note that each type must end with the Enter key. Finally, you can type exit to exit the CMD.

To avoid this error message, see Solution 3.

So how to convert a disk from dynamic to plain without losing data? Is there a simple and safe solution? Of course there is. That means using the partitioning software - MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Solution 3: Lossless Scheme - Use MiniTool Partition Wizard to convert

MiniTool Partition Wizard was developed by MiniTool Software Ltd. is a professional disk manager that helps users to better manage disks and partitions. It doesn't matter if you're worriedLow disk space warning, bad clean disk, missing BOOTMGR,Windows could not complete the formatetc., this magic partition can help you solve the problem safely and quickly.

MiniTool Partition Wizard has 6 editions namely Free Edition, Pro Edition, Pro Ultimate Edition, Server Edition, Enterprise Edition and Technician Edition. So far, the free edition has been downloaded by over 20,000,000 users on CNET due to its ease of use.

When your hard drive changes to dynamic disk, you can rely on MiniTool Partition Wizard to convert dynamic disk to basic disk. Here we recommend using the Pro Edition Click on the buttons below to get them here at the best prices:

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After installing and registering this dynamic disk converter, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard to get its main interface. Then select the dynamic disk to convert from the disk map and chooseConvert dynamic disk to basic diskin the action area or in the drop-down list ofdiskin the menu bar.

Step 2. You can see all volumes on the destination disk have been converted to partitions on the basic disk. Now you can clickUseabove to apply all changes.

After the changes are completed, the computer will restart normally, showing that the hard drive has become dynamic issue has been solved safely and successfully. For detailed steps and corresponding thumbnails, seeConvert dynamic disk to basic disk.

If the dynamic disk is MBR disk and more than 4 simple volumes are created, the conversion may fail. At this time, try to reduce the space of each volume a little, and then you can finish the conversion.

“How to convert dynamic to plain without losing data? Here I have a professional partition manager called MiniTool Partition Wizard to do this job. And I think he can help you.”click to tweet

Copy dynamic disk to basic disk

You'll see that MiniTool provides a direct way to convert dynamic disk to basic disk when you accidentally converted hard disk to dynamic disk, but that's not the whole story. In fact, he is abledynamic volume backup/disks for the basic disk. Here we would like to introduce you how to convert dynamic disk to basic diskCopy CDResource.

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Step 1. In the main interface of MiniTool, choose Partition WizardCopy CD Secofrom the field of action.

Step 2. Skip the welcome page by clickingNext.

Step 3. Select the dynamic disk you want to copy as the source disk. then hitNextkeep going.

Step 4. Choose a location to save all data on the source dynamic disk. Please note that all data on the target disk will be erased. Therefore, early backup can be important if it contains important data.

Step 5. Different options will appear on the next page depending on the partition style used by the source disk.

If the destination disk is MBR disk, there are 3 options for you:

If the target disk is a GPT disk, there are two options for you.

After making your selection, clickNextAnd continue.

Step 6. MiniTool Partition Wizard will guide you how to boot from the new hard drive. Since we said this method is suitable for cloning data disk, you can ignore it and pressEndTaste.

Step 7. Finally, you can pressUseon the toolbar to perform this task. Please wait patiently until MiniTool Partition Wizard finishes.

Well, this is how to convert dynamic disk to basic disk with Copy Disk feature. The advantage here is that you don't have to back up and delete the source data on the dynamic disk. And you don't have to worry whether the conversion was successful because all the source data is still on the dynamic disk. Incredibly true? Just use MiniTool Partition Wizard to make the copy!

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Reading here, you should know what dynamic disk is, why disk becomes dynamic, and how to convert dynamic disk to plain one in Windows 7/8/10 in three ways. After the conversion, you can get rid of the dynamic disk problem and continue to manage disks in the usual way. I hope this content is useful to you.

If you have any questions about using MiniTool Partition Wizard, please leave us a comment below or email us at[email protected]. We read all topics!