Jason the Eighty Eighth Posted February 26, 2004 Share Posted February 26, 2004 good news: my partitions in Windows are all set to dynamic drive. however, yesterday, i was setting my RAM speeds to 333mhz, and totally fux0red my machine (it wouldn't past post, i was really worried), so i had to reflash my BIOS, remove the jumper, etc. anyway, the BIOS appears to be fixed now. bad news: however, now, i can't even boot up into Windows without seeing an ugly blue screen. sometimes it says IRQL_NOT_EQUAL, others it has different messages when i remove 2 RAM sticks. anyway, so i was thinking i had to reformat anyway, with all the errors i get, slow bootup times, driver traces, corrputed event logs, etc. very bad news: however, my main partition with my MP3s and DVDs are set in dynamic drive. when i reformat, everything else will be reformatted in a basic drive, which will mean my general drive would be unreadable (i've done it before, when i reformat all drives and leave behind dynamic ones, it would be unreadable in diskmgmt). so basically, i want to know if there is anyway i can reset my dynamic drive to basic drive without getting into Windows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted February 26, 2004 Share Posted February 26, 2004 You cannot format to a Dymanic Disk. You can only format to Basic and then Convert to Dynamic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuxi Posted February 26, 2004 Share Posted February 26, 2004 What good does Dynamic Disk do, anyway? :huh: :blush: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted February 26, 2004 Share Posted February 26, 2004 What good does Dynamic Disk do, anyway? :huh: :blush: HOW TO: Use Disk Management to Configure Dynamic Disks in Windows XP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasandoro Posted February 26, 2004 Share Posted February 26, 2004 You could always import the foreign dynamic disk after your system is reinstalled in diskmgmt...done it a million times. --Kas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason the Eighty Eighth Posted February 26, 2004 Author Share Posted February 26, 2004 You cannot format to a Dymanic Disk.You can only format to Basic and then Convert to Dynamic. i know, but i can't access Windows to change from dynamic to basic. if i format my Windows, my partition is still stuck on dynamic, thus it would be unreadable as the Windows partition is on basic. ...correct? :blink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted February 26, 2004 Share Posted February 26, 2004 i know, but i can't access Windows to change from dynamic to basic. if i format my Windows, my partition is still stuck on dynamic, thus it would be unreadable as the Windows partition is on basic....correct? :blink: When you go to setup it will recognize the disk as dymanic and ask you if you want to remove the dynamic disk and set it basic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason the Eighty Eighth Posted February 27, 2004 Author Share Posted February 27, 2004 When you go to setup it will recognize the disk as dymanic and ask you if you want to remove the dynamic disk and set it basic. setup as in diskmgmt after i reformatted Windows or setup when i'm in the process of installing? cliffs: 1. 6 partitions, all dymanic. Windows won't boot, must reformat. 2. plan: reformat/delete 5 partitions, set one for Windows, install Windows on that one. thus there is one on basic for Windows, one on dynamic with my old stuff, and the rest is left. 3. HDD is 250Gb. we all know Windows reads it as 137Gb before we set the 48-bit LBA. IIRC the dynamic partition is 100Gb, and i'm going to set Windows as 10Gb. are you saying despite my basic paritions, i still keep my dynamic drive? also, are you sure you can reset a dynamic into basic before the OS setup? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 Yes you can revert a dymanic disk to a basic disk. Read the FAQ i posted or call Microsoft for help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason the Eighty Eighth Posted February 27, 2004 Author Share Posted February 27, 2004 (edited) What good does Dynamic Disk do, anyway? :huh: :blush: A Win2K dynamic disk is a physical disk that doesn't use partitions or logical drives. Instead, it contains only dynamic volumes that you create in the Disk Management console. Regardless of what format you use for the file system, only Win2K computers can access dynamic volumes directly. However, computers that aren't running Win2K can access the dynamic volumes remotely when connected to the shared folders over the network. In NT, what we call sets (e.g., mirrored sets, striped sets) are in Win2K called volumes (e.g., mirrored volumes, striped volumes). http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=8619 the only thing beneficial thing i see is i can quickly change the sizes of my partitions anytime without reformatting it. now back on topic please. Edited February 27, 2004 by Jason the Eighty Eighth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason the Eighty Eighth Posted February 27, 2004 Author Share Posted February 27, 2004 System or Boot Disk Listed as Dynamic Unreadable in Disk Management This problem can occur if Windows 2000 was re-installed and during Setup a volume on the dynamic disk was deleted and recreated, ... Windows 2000 Setup and other disk partitioning tools can only create basic partitions. Creating any partitions on a dynamic disk outside of Windows 2000 or during Setup creates a disk with both dynamic and basic partition table entries. Re-creating a volume during Windows 2000 Setup changes the partition system-id byte from type 0x42 (dynamic) to a basic partition system-id byte based on the file system chosen, usually 0x06 for FAT, 0x0B for FAT32 or 0x07 for NTFS. Anytime there is a mix of basic and dynamic system-ID bytes, the disk will be viewed as Dynamic Unreadable in Disk Management. keep in mind i'm using 2000, not XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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