XP_2600 Posted June 27, 2010 Share Posted June 27, 2010 Hi all, i have a weird problem, earlier i was converting disks in Windows XP to dynamic and boot the machine normally, now i received more than a ticket from users who converted their disks to dynamic in Windows 7 then they can't boot the machine anymore the machine freeze at a black screen, any ideas about the reason and solution ? thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin-uk Veteran Posted June 27, 2010 Veteran Share Posted June 27, 2010 whats the drive layout look like? iirc you cant boot from a dynamic disk, but i could be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XP_2600 Posted June 27, 2010 Author Share Posted June 27, 2010 No you can, and i did it many times with Windows XP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+LogicalApex MVC Posted June 27, 2010 MVC Share Posted June 27, 2010 I would recommend you read up on Dynamic Disks via the following two MSDN articles located here and here. As Colin-UK stated you can't boot from a dynamic volume. It makes sense. A dynamic disk is the MS implementation of software RAID. It can't access the boot information from the software RAID implementation before Windows is able to load the driver and mount the RAID volume. Why are you using Dynamic Disks at all? With on-board RAID almost standard now you can get the crappiness of software RAID with the simplicity of hardware RAID via onboard RAID controllers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XP_2600 Posted June 27, 2010 Author Share Posted June 27, 2010 Boot and system partitions. You can convert a basic disk containing the system or boot partitions to a dynamic disk. After the disk is converted, these partitions become simple system or boot volumes (after restarting the computer). You cannot mark an existing dynamic volume as active. You can convert a basic disk containing the boot partition (which contains the operating system) to a dynamic disk. After the disk is converted, the boot partition becomes a simple boot volume (after restarting the computer). From the link which you sent, you can see its a supported scenario, also as i told you i did it many times in Windows XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin-uk Veteran Posted June 27, 2010 Veteran Share Posted June 27, 2010 i knew it :p you need the partition to be active to boot from it. you cant mark an existing dynamic volume as active. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XP_2600 Posted June 27, 2010 Author Share Posted June 27, 2010 So the conversion in Windows 7 don't keep the boot partition boot after converting ?! its weird!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin-uk Veteran Posted June 27, 2010 Veteran Share Posted June 27, 2010 I think it would keep the boot partition, but it wouldnt keep the active flag iirc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XP_2600 Posted June 27, 2010 Author Share Posted June 27, 2010 And you don't think its weird? as Windows XP was doing it automatically ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin-uk Veteran Posted June 27, 2010 Veteran Share Posted June 27, 2010 it does sound weird, im pretty sure i had problems when i tried changing my boot disk to dynamic in xp, once, and thus learned to stay away from them lol. I guess it could be down to differences between NTLDR and BOOTMGR, but i could be wrong there :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XP_2600 Posted June 27, 2010 Author Share Posted June 27, 2010 ah i was going to reply, but then i noticed your avatar , do you love IE6 ? :s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin-uk Veteran Posted June 27, 2010 Veteran Share Posted June 27, 2010 ah i was going to reply, but then i noticed your avatar , do you love IE6 ? :s lol, IE6 is ftw :shifty: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XP_2600 Posted June 27, 2010 Author Share Posted June 27, 2010 LOl, ok now i did a live test i just converted the disk to dynamic and rebooted now Win7 does not want to boot, and i don't have an access to Win7 bootable DVD :D. any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin-uk Veteran Posted June 27, 2010 Veteran Share Posted June 27, 2010 LOL, well that wasnt clever :p you'll have to boot with a rescue cd that has a hex editor and follow the instructions here http://strangelyperfect.tv/6415/how-to-convert-a-dynamic-disk-to-basic-disk-in-windows-7/ or you could just wipe the disk and reinstall, but since you have no installation media, i guess thats not an option :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John.D Posted June 27, 2010 Share Posted June 27, 2010 Yup, you already said it did the same thing with others. Why do it? Guess some have to learn the hard way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XP_2600 Posted June 27, 2010 Author Share Posted June 27, 2010 PaulAuckNZ its a test machine :p:P:P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted June 27, 2010 MVC Share Posted June 27, 2010 (edited) where do you people get that you can not boot from a dynamic disk??? Here win 7 - disk was basic Now when you go to convert it you get a warning... Did you pay attention to that warning?? How was your os setup to boot? Where you dual booting? Where was your you were booting from?? But as you can see - converted and rebooted on a now dynamic disk Please do not go around say you can not boot your os from a dynamic disk -- because clearly as you can see from the example its NOT true.. edit: As to this statement "A dynamic disk is the MS implementation of software RAID" You clearly don't understand what a dynamic disk is at all -- I suggest you read the articles you linked too ;) Yes dynamic disks allow for software raid, but thats just part of what they can be used for. Edited June 27, 2010 by BudMan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XP_2600 Posted June 28, 2010 Author Share Posted June 28, 2010 I know i can boot from dynamic disk for sure, and i did it many times in Windows XP, but just tell me why 7 do this ?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted June 28, 2010 MVC Share Posted June 28, 2010 My example was a win 7 box.. Again -- what was your boot configuration like? I can not tell you why it didn't work without know how your disk was originally setup for boot.. Again what it multi boot? Where was your OS partition, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin-uk Veteran Posted June 28, 2010 Veteran Share Posted June 28, 2010 edit: As to this statement "A dynamic disk is the MS implementation of software RAID" You clearly don't understand what a dynamic disk is at all -- I suggest you read the articles you linked too Yes dynamic disks allow for software raid, but thats just part of what they can be used for. I was only supplying information based on my past experiences, I said I could be wrong :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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