How do I change a Dynamic disk back to whatever is normal.

Don't ask how it became dynamic. It is a very long story and I
basically screwed up attempting to fix a problem.

On 9/9/2022 2:10 PM, swalker wrote:
>
> How do I change a Dynamic disk back to whatever is normal.
>
> Don't ask how it became dynamic. It is a very long story and I
> basically screwed up attempting to fix a problem.
>

Microsoft advice, is trash the disk, then do a "drag and drop"
restore of the volumes on the disk, using say Macrium. They claim
here, that the disk must have the data removed, before they
allow the "convert basic" to run in diskpart.exe .

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk-management/change-a-dynamic-disk-back-to-a-basic-disk

But your case is special, in that it could be as simple as a
legacy disk with four or fewer primary volumes on it.

http://ntfs.com/ldm.htm

# This is a disk with four "simple volumes".
# It is easy to imagine this being done to a Basic Disk by accident.

http://ntfs.com/images/screenshots/pic3.gif

Part PrivHead Volume1 Volume2 Volume3 Volume4 LDM
Table Database

If you had presented a picture of the current disk management,
that would have helped.

If the disk had Extended/Logical volumes or if the disk was
GPT, then I'd probably panic and do it the Microsoft way.

Only the most simple setups, are worth hacking.

*******

Now, the answer.

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmanager/convert-dynamic-disk-to-basic.html

MiniTool Partition Wizard can only convert dynamic disk containing simple volumes
and mirrored volumes to basic disk.

If you have other types of volumes on the dynamic disk, you may head down to read
Way 2 and Way 3.

Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk works for both the OS disk and data disk, and
is a paid feature in MiniTool Partition Wizard. Hence, you need to pay for a license...
------------

Oh, well.

https://kb.acronis.com/content/16124

Acronis Disk Director:

Conversion of a dynamic system disk to basic will require a reboot.

That means they run their own OS during that time, and that makes
the C: partition quiescent while they work.

That means if we want to do this with TestDisk to re-generate the MBR,
we'd be running TestDisk with a Live Linux DVD.

Since I own a copy of Acronis DD, I know this sort of thing to be true :-/

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-disk-director-forum/disk-director-11-advanced-convert-dynamic-disk-basic-doesnt-work

*******

So what have we learned so far ?

1) Microsoft = pessimistic approach
2) Paid tools. Can do. But implementation may suck.
For your case, this really should be easy for them to do.
*IF* they had bothered to test their software.

TestDisk is not reliable. I've only done one successful recovery with it.

Macrium is reliable. It seems they test their stuff, and someone
there knows what they're doing.

Acronis DD, not so much (by my own testing, and one partition destroyed).

I tried to fix it manually, but something is happening to the
disk geometry. I think it may be a side effect of trying to use PTEDIT32.exe
so I'll have to try again later.

Paul

Thanks Paul.

On Sat, 10 Sep 2022 00:10:08 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
wrote:

>On 9/9/2022 2:10 PM, swalker wrote:
>>
>> How do I change a Dynamic disk back to whatever is normal.
>>
>> Don't ask how it became dynamic. It is a very long story and I
>> basically screwed up attempting to fix a problem.
>>
>
>Microsoft advice, is trash the disk, then do a "drag and drop"
>restore of the volumes on the disk, using say Macrium. They claim
>here, that the disk must have the data removed, before they
>allow the "convert basic" to run in diskpart.exe .
>
>https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk-management/change-a-dynamic-disk-back-to-a-basic-disk
>
>But your case is special, in that it could be as simple as a
>legacy disk with four or fewer primary volumes on it.
>
>http://ntfs.com/ldm.htm
>
> # This is a disk with four "simple volumes".
> # It is easy to imagine this being done to a Basic Disk by accident.
>
> http://ntfs.com/images/screenshots/pic3.gif
>
> Part PrivHead Volume1 Volume2 Volume3 Volume4 LDM
> Table Database
>
>If you had presented a picture of the current disk management,
>that would have helped.
>
>If the disk had Extended/Logical volumes or if the disk was
>GPT, then I'd probably panic and do it the Microsoft way.
>
>Only the most simple setups, are worth hacking.
>
>*******
>
>Now, the answer.
>
>https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmanager/convert-dynamic-disk-to-basic.html
>
> MiniTool Partition Wizard can only convert dynamic disk containing simple volumes
> and mirrored volumes to basic disk.
>
> If you have other types of volumes on the dynamic disk, you may head down to read
> Way 2 and Way 3.
>
> Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk works for both the OS disk and data disk, and
> is a paid feature in MiniTool Partition Wizard. Hence, you need to pay for a license...
> ------------
>
>Oh, well.
>
>https://kb.acronis.com/content/16124
>
> Acronis Disk Director:
>
> Conversion of a dynamic system disk to basic will require a reboot.
>
>That means they run their own OS during that time, and that makes
>the C: partition quiescent while they work.
>
>That means if we want to do this with TestDisk to re-generate the MBR,
>we'd be running TestDisk with a Live Linux DVD.
>
>Since I own a copy of Acronis DD, I know this sort of thing to be true :-/
>
>https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-disk-director-forum/disk-director-11-advanced-convert-dynamic-disk-basic-doesnt-work
>
>*******
>
>So what have we learned so far ?
>
>1) Microsoft = pessimistic approach
>2) Paid tools. Can do. But implementation may suck.
> For your case, this really should be easy for them to do.
> *IF* they had bothered to test their software.
>
>TestDisk is not reliable. I've only done one successful recovery with it.
>
>Macrium is reliable. It seems they test their stuff, and someone
>there knows what they're doing.
>
>Acronis DD, not so much (by my own testing, and one partition destroyed).
>
>I tried to fix it manually, but something is happening to the
>disk geometry. I think it may be a side effect of trying to use PTEDIT32.exe
>so I'll have to try again later.
>
> Paul