• 0

Need to convert Dynamic to Basic Disk without reinstalling, losing data


Question

Sorry if this has been asked before, I don't have time to search for it. Could someone suggest a working program for this. Thank you.

I tried a few free off of Cnet, by googling. But many are shareware really. They want you to buy to have the function, which I don't know if it works or not. I managed to convert one of my laptops but haven't gotten the other to convert. suggestions would help.

25 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0
  On 01/11/2012 at 00:45, Simon- said:

It would be difficult to do, and even if you find a tool, who knows if it will do a good job. Better off just manually rebuilding... Back up on a file level, format, reinstall the OS/Apps, restore the files.

as I stated I did it with partition wizard on one laptop but won't work on the other for some reason
  • 0
  On 01/11/2012 at 00:56, *RedBull* said:

as I stated I did it with partition wizard on one laptop but won't work on the other for some reason

The reason is that something is probably wrong. I would do what Simon- suggested.

Have you looked at: http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm (Easus Partition Manager Home Edition)

  • 0
  On 01/11/2012 at 02:46, farmeunit said:

The reason is that something is probably wrong. I would do what Simon- suggested.

Have you looked at: http://www.partition...om/personal.htm (Easus Partition Manager Home Edition)

Yeah but it doesn't do conversion without purchase. I don't want to purchase and then it not be able to do what I want. I had this same problem before on my other laptop that I recently converted. Strange.

  • 0

oK, Yes I tried one program to fix things and now it's not bootable. Anyone know of a good free data recovery program? I'm just going to recover data and reinstall Windows.

  • 0
  On 02/11/2012 at 02:05, *RedBull* said:

oK, Yes I tried one program to fix things and now it's not bootable. Anyone know of a good free data recovery program? I'm just going to recover data and reinstall Windows.

recuva - always worked great for me!

  • 0

Yeah I found several "free" programs that have limited functions, they allude they can convert but attempt to get you to pay if you want that feature.

  • 0

please boot your system with "Hiren's Boot CD" and select for "run mini xp". it will allow you to explore your hard disk and allow you to copy your data to other storage device. Hiren Boot CD is free.

Download:

http://hbcd.hnsdc.co...BootCD.15.1.zip

for how to burn it please read here:

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/burning/

  • 0

I have done this successfully in the past. It doesn't require conversion. You need to change the partition type ID (cannot remember what it is from the top of my head) to NTFS (which I am assuming that you are using. I believe the ID for NTFS is 07.

I have had success in doing this using CFDISK and FDISK on SystemRescueCD.

  • 0

Boot to your windows install cd. Once at the first screen, press shift+f10. Now you'll be at a command prompt. Attach an external hard drive, then manually copy all the files you need to keep. Something like Robocopy /e c:\users\MyUserDirectory E:\Backup

  • 0
  On 02/11/2012 at 04:00, marshallz said:

I have done this successfully in the past. It doesn't require conversion. You need to change the partition type ID (cannot remember what it is from the top of my head) to NTFS (which I am assuming that you are using. I believe the ID for NTFS is 07.

I have had success in doing this using CFDISK and FDISK on SystemRescueCD.

Yes I followed a guide changing 42 to 07 although the picture and the actual looked a bit different. So here I am looking to reinstall windows cause it won't boot due to some blue screeen that flashes. I wanted to install Win8 dual booted with Win7. Dynamic disk preventing me from this and no software to convert. So at least I'm getting all my data back and will reformat reinstall following. I'll leave off the HP Ware as much as possible.

I managed to copy over some really important files so far, just waiting on the larger save. Most of it I probably won't need but we'll see.

Do you think you suggestion will fix what I discribed? so I don't have to reinstall?

  • 0

What utility were you using to change the ID type? Ideally, FDISK under linux appears to be the *safest* option IMO. Changing the partition ID doesn't alter the contents of the HDD, or the MFT. If you are receiving a BSOD as a result of changing the ID I would be inclined to think there is something else more to it.

When backing up client data in the past with dynamic volumes, changing the ID has always allowed me to backup the volume as well as continue to use the OS as normal if left set. I cannot think of any other varying factors that may be causing it to BSOD.

  • 0

Yeah I'm not sure. Just I know I changed that value and rebooted like the instructions said to find it not boot. I don't have much options at this point. Data is still being copied over however slowly. Got a few hours til it's done. If anyone suggests something that may fix it I'm open. But beyond that I'm looking to reformat/reinstall. oh well.

  • 0

Well I'll look at what options were provided so far before I start to reinstall. I don't want to due to the software I will lose in this will have to repurchase. Unless MS cuts me more slack.

  • 0
  On 02/11/2012 at 05:05, *RedBull* said:

Yes I followed a guide changing 42 to 07 although the picture and the actual looked a bit different. So here I am looking to reinstall windows cause it won't boot due to some blue screeen that flashes. I wanted to install Win8 dual booted with Win7. Dynamic disk preventing me from this and no software to convert. So at least I'm getting all my data back and will reformat reinstall following. I'll leave off the HP Ware as much as possible.

I managed to copy over some really important files so far, just waiting on the larger save. Most of it I probably won't need but we'll see.

Do you think you suggestion will fix what I discribed? so I don't have to reinstall?

You can use Testdisk off some Linux LiveCDs to at least get your install back to working. Bleh. :/

  • 0

Think I've found a solution. USB bootable Win7 install. I'm currently working on setting that up. Once it's done I can boot to it and install a program to fix the invalid disk and then use a imaging program to clone the partition once it's up. Then put the clone on this laptop with my good old Win8. Problem solved.

If it doesn't work like that, then I got MS tech in the morning which could help. Otherwise reformat/reinstall after making sure I've saved the data I want off of both laptops. :(

Currently my win8 install is doing me good at least.

  • 0

Ok, so nothing I've tried worked to fix either of my situations. It came down to a clean install on both. Currenlty working that issue.

I will note that I used GPARTED to handle the invalid disk issue. deleting the partitions and formatting.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • I think the flub is slightly funny, albeit minor. What will be funnier is the people buying some utterly terrible Chinese Android phone for $500 (that's with a huge profit margin worked in). That said, I've bemoaned this before: I miss the days when Neowin was about Microsoft products and technologies and didn't host articles that would get people riled up politically. It used to be a friendlier place where people were only bitches about insignificant things related to Microsoft.
    • AMD thinks Ryzen Threadripper 9000 wipes the floor with Intel by Sayan Sen At Computex 2025 earlier this year, AMD revealed its new Zen 5-based Ryzen Threadripper 9000 series with up to 96 cores, comprising the PRO 9000WX series and 9000 series chips. At the time though the company did not share performance numbers but given the specs, we had a fairly good idea of their capability. For those who may not be familiar with Ryzen Threadripper, it is AMD's desktop CPU lineup meant for workstations and HEDT (high-end desktop) builds and is placed between the mainstream Ryzen and the server EPYC lineups. With the launch expected to happen next month, performance numbers for the Ryzen Threadripper 9000 are now out. Before diving into the performance details, AMD has also shared a recap of some of the platform details and the compatible sTR5 socket. These new premium chips support up to 8 channels of DDR5-6400 memory and up to 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes for I/O. AMD also promises over 7000 MT/s of DDR5 support with EXPO. The specs of the Ryzen Threadripper 9000 lineup are given below: Processor SKU Cores Threads Base Clock (GHz) Boost Clock (GHz) L3 Cache (MB) Memory Channels PCIe Lanes TDP (W) AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9995WX 96 192 2.5 5.45 384 8‑channel DDR5‑6400 ECC 128 PCIe Gen5 350 AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9985WX 64 128 3.2 5.4 384 8‑channel DDR5‑6400 ECC 128 PCIe Gen5 350 AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9975WX 32 64 3.2 5.4 384 8‑channel DDR5‑6400 ECC 128 PCIe Gen5 350 AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9965WX 24 48 3.2 5.4 384 8‑channel DDR5‑6400 ECC 128 PCIe Gen5 350 AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9955WX 16 32 3.2 5.4 384 8‑channel DDR5‑6400 ECC 128 PCIe Gen5 350 AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX 12 24 3.2 5.4 384 8‑channel DDR5‑6400 ECC 128 PCIe Gen5 350 AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9980X 64 128 3.2 5.4 256 4‑channel DDR5‑6400 92 PCIe Gen5 350 AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9970X 32 64 3.2 5.4 256 4‑channel DDR5‑6400 92 PCIe Gen5 350 AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9960X 24 48 3.2 5.4 256 4‑channel DDR5‑6400 92 PCIe Gen5 350 AMD has compared the 96-core 9995WX against the previous-gen 7995WX (images below), also with the same core configuration, and the 64-core 9980X, against Intel's 60-core Xeon W9-3595X. While Xeon has generally been associated with Server CPUs, the Xeon W chips are designed to be used in workstations. AMD follows a similar naming, too, wherein the W in the WX is meant to indicate workstation, and the non-W Threadripper is for HEDT. AMD claims up to 26% faster throughput on the newer 96-core 9995WX compared to the 7995WX. Meanwhile, against the Intel Xeon w9-3595X, AMD expects utter dominance from its 9980X with up to 108% faster performance. Even the lowest gain, says the company, is 22% over the Intel chip, and that is still very significant. AMD also compared the AI performance of the 9995WX vs the Xeon w9-3595X. The company promises up to 49% faster LLM processing, but keep in mind that the figures given include a GPU as well. Besides AI, performance related to other creative and professional workloads was also shared. In Keyshot rendering, for example, AMD claims up to 119% gains over the Xeon SKU. And in Chaos V-Ray, the 9995WX is said to offer nearly 2.5 times the performance. AMD has not released pricing information for the Threadripper 9000 series.
    • Funk Microsoft - I would switch from PS5 as you have better deals but the Xbox interface (I tried One S and later on, even one X i hate the interface and considering all MS changes in Windows interface over the years.. I hope they have a good one coming ps5 has also weird interface I had to get used too. But considering the library of ps4 games I wanted to be playable for me… I got used and adapted
    • I loved Sonic CD so much. I think I must have almost worn out that disc!
  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      Ian_ earned a badge
      First Post
    • Explorer
      JaviAl went up a rank
      Explorer
    • Reacting Well
      Cole Multipass earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Reacting Well
      JLP earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      Rhydderch earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      654
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      267
    3. 3
      Michael Scrip
      218
    4. 4
      +FloatingFatMan
      188
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      146
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!