How to Convert a Windows 7 Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk When Microsoft says It’s Irreversible!
Firstly, Do Not Dance with the Devil!
I made the mistake (again!) of trying dynamic disks with my new Windows 7 installation. I must have been asleep – the use of this system is seriously frowned upon for most users. It has several pitfalls not least that it’s high-end Windows specific (i.e not home, basic etc), and it’s impossible to clone partitions for backup or moves, say.
But mainly, it’s supposed to be irreversible AND un-do-able!
- Dynamic Disk Option
To convert from basic to dynamic is frighteningly easy (see screen shot). The reversing option disappears once it’s done and in virtually all Disk Partition Software, any ‘partitions’, now called volumes, just show as one big monolithic slab of pale yellow disk that has any possible action greyed out! This was really bad as it was on the system drive…
You’ll see in the screen-shot that there are 3 disks.
Disk 0 & disk 1 were an effort at user-data mirroring originally until I realised what I pile of poo I’d just landed in. All the initial recommendations were negative and the prognosis didn’t look good. See:
- http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-1482847.php
- http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;217226&Product=win20 – Cannot Revert Boot Drive from Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755238.aspx – Change a Dynamic Disk Back to a Basic Disk
Solution
- HxD Screenshot
However, this post gave me a pointer which eventually led to here and the HxD disc editing tool, here. The Dynamic Disk Converter is a paid for solution and would have worked. But I tried the Hex Editor approach after a bit more reading around the subject…. WARNING: See my comment on Dynamic Disk Converter here – added 27/7/2010(SP)
The trick, as in Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is 42!
Specifically, all 42‘s must be converted to 07.
The highlighted area contains the bit to edit and the numbers to edit in this area are those in column 02 that are 42. So change all the 42′s to 07′s in column 02 in the four highlighted lines. (n.b. The screendump was taken after I’d fixed the disc, so all the 42s are now 07 and some partitions have been deleted.)
That’s all.
Do NOT twiddle anything else.
Caveat
This post in the thread says to just alter one line – this is wrong! (There’s a confusing addition at the bottom. This relates directly to my experience, so yes, all real primary partitions are numbered 07)
And this post says to do them all – this is right. It shows 3.
In my original pre-editted state, I had 4! Handily, this shows the reason (I think), why you can only have 4 primary partitions on a drive.
Finale and Actual Actions Summary
- Current Disks
Now you’ll see I have only two 07′s in the column (in the screenshot above). These map to the two partitions showing in my Disk Management full screen-shot here. For some reason, it had ‘remembered’ other volumes I’d made on the disk – that’s why I had 4 to do.
I was quite prepared to buy the paid-for software. It looked good and worth the cash. Instead:
- I very tediously moved ‘volumes’ into ‘partitions’ onto a third disk I entered into the system.
- This later disk needed it’s partitions resizing first to make room.
- It was hot-plugged using it’s SATA into the wire from the DVD as I didn’t have any spare SATA wires! Doh!
- The moved data was from disk 0 & disk 1, all relevant stuff going to disk 2.
- Deleted all the volumes from Disk 1
- I could then set Disk 1 to basic using Windows as per Microsoft instructions.
- Moved all user data back to C-Drive volume (I had been in the process of separating data from programs).
- Backed up C-Drive volume and system state using Windows 7 Backup tool to new partition ‘BACKUP’ using all of Disk 1
- This was in case the following hex stuff failed. It would allow an easy restore by:
- Install windows from DVD onto Disk 0
- Use Windows backup to reset system state and all the files & programs on the C-Drive on Disk 0
- This was in case the following hex stuff failed. It would allow an easy restore by:
- Now used the Hex editor to edit the disk sector information as described above.
- REBOOT (fingers crossed!)
- WAHAY! It worked.
- Removed pseudo partition remaining on Disk 0 to leave unallocated space – I think this was due to the invisible 1Mb database that exists on dynamic disks.
Plans
I’ve now got two new hard drives in the post. When these have arrived and are installed, I’ll use standard tools to move partitions and get user data onto a RAID mirror assembly. This will increase data integrity and give me a better backup. You’d think that outboard backups would be fine, wouldn’t you? Well I bought a Western Digital 1TB Studio Edition which worked okay for a while….
But it ran so hot the eSATA/USB circuitry failed! I dismantled it and found the drive to be okay – this is the third disk, Disk 2 in the screen-shots!
Now, I have a new system with a better, heavy-duty power supply, adequate (and quiet cooling), with the whole thing protected behind an APC UPS which I’ve had for a year. Sticking to basic disks should make backups simpler and the whole thing should be more reliable – certainly more so than the WD Studio thing which is a pile of hot plastic pants.
p.s. added 5/12/2010: read this for my new recommended fast backup solution: http://strangelyperfect.tv/10155/what-is-the-best-backup-for-windows-in-a-small-home-or-office/
p.p.s. added 01/03/2012: I now recommend that folks use the free Easeus software, http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm This will fix dynamic discs using a familiar graphical user interface so is way less scary. Thanks to those that pointed this out.
Stick to basic Disks – you know it makes sense!
Further Reading
- http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html
- http://www.viralpatel.net/taj/tutorial/partition_table.php
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Boot_Record
Why I can't change the value from "42" to "07"? "the request could not be performed because of an I/O device error", this message appeared. how could I solve it?
I don't know @pit.
But this sort of error points to greater problems, I think. Something seems really wrong with the disc.
But before that:
You are running the HxD program in administrator mode, yes?
This error happens when you are in actual edit mode, and not just test mode in the program, yes?
You may have to do some extra fixes to ensure that the disc is in a fixable state, before fixing it, if you see what I mean?
The usual things I do are:
scandisc, quick then full if the quick doesn't do anything.
FixMBR
FixBoot
You are the first person to get this error that I know. Another route would be the HxD author who may provide some pointers, even though the program is given away as-is and unsupported.
I've done a bit of Googling and it looks like the hard drive is duff and probably on the way out.
Try these for pointers and the correct usage of scandisk.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952272 http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/260576… http://forums.techarena.in/hardware-peripherals/1… http://www.ifmdb.com/computers_hardware-dell-erro… http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/567688-hard-dr…
May be I am too inexperienced, but the HxD has no instruction manual.
Whenever I try to overwrite the value it says read only and flashing in the bottom bar
there is no edit working
Why?
eckhard. This is the state of my hard discs currently as they appear in the "Open Disc" dialogue box of HxD.
So you need to re-open your discs but un-tick the box when you are ready and sure that you can do your edits in the right place!
In my current screenshot, you'll see that the named drives are at the top and two physical discs are below. For me, my C drive and S drive are on hard disc 1, and if it was dynamic as before I'd select it, un-tick the read-only and then proceed as I did before.
In HxD, the disc-altering area is not under File-Open as you'd expect but under:
Main Menu –> Extras –> Open Disc…
So how come a google of
"convert dynamic to basic"
hits upon page after page of (differing) instructions along the lines of
"download this, do that, do this, turn around (twice), touch your toes, do this and that (at the same time) , place head in hands"
..and each comment section is full of users posting "tried this, it doesn't work :-( "
Then you go and give simple "bish bash bosh" instructions and ever one is a winner.
I am happy to award you the maximum 500 internet points .
Ha Ha. I just need somewhere to spend them. ;-)
Thanks Paul.
[...] the auto-backup software provided as well as Windows’ own. This is extremely relevant for the large number of hits I’ve had to this posting where a major part of the problem is the ti…! In my case, the 750Gb just takes a few hours to copy across the Gigabit speed ethernet that the [...]
Edit
Hi there I've successfully converted one disk this way, but I have another to do which seems to have totally different bytes from those expected. I uploaded a screenshot here: http://screencast.com/t/y8KkueXdKKxt
Is there anything I can do?
Cheers, Ben
It looks like you have one partition on that disk with a code of EE. If you can read the disk data then shove it somewhere else and reformat your disk to match your current setup. If you want to hex-edit, check these two links (which I'll enter into the main article above as they're so useful).
http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_t…
http://www.viralpatel.net/taj/tutorial/partition_…
You'll see that "EE" is described as:
"Indication that this legacy MBR is followed by an EFI header" in both links.
This suggests to me that the disk was an old one imported into your system that was later mucked up by Windows when it was set up using the new GPT file system, probably when you went for the Dynamic Disk option – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table (I experimented with this but then reverted to NTFS).
The key bit to read is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table… It is full of dire warnings and says that type "EE" enables the OS to leave it alone.
You'll also see that several partitions could be hidden by this "protection mechanism". So if your OS can see these, then beware. I think that if this is the case you'll need more than a simple edit to "07" especially if extended partitions come into play. As you haven't shown Windows' view of your disk I'll leave it at that.
It may be possible to make the table entry "07" as above in the main article, but I certainly cannot guarantee it as I've not done it before. I have done successive disk edits swapping 42 to 07 and back again and it didn't harm my data. So by all means try the 07 option. If it fails, my experience is that you can probably revert it back to EE so at least you're at the same starting point if it doesn't work.
Please get back with your progress as I'm sure it'll help someone else along the way. But like I said, if you can – backup the data before you start. Clone the disk first if the data is really valuable.
Thanks for the most detailed response :) At the moment I can’t read the drive in Windows because it’s marked as inactive. I *believe* that I got everything I need off the disk previously, but there’s a nagging doubt hence I wanted to check again before I wiped it. Not sure if that’s going to be an option now…
So I updated the EE to 07, and now Windows recognises it but says I need to format it before use. I guess that makes sense since it’s not actually a valid partition and just putting 07 there isn’t going to make it so… So I reset it back to EE and once again Windows doesn’t recognise it.
I don’t know if this is relevant, but there are actually 2 partitions on the disk (HxD ‘open disk’ dialog here: http://screencast.com/t/gFxA4OWn). The first ‘disk’ already has 07 in the appropriate block but is not recognised by Windows. Does this give any clues?
Careful how you go…! From the two physical disks in your screenshot I assume that one contains your current working Windows OS. So make sure the adjustments are on the “duff” disk.
From my twiddling I know that sticking “07″ makes a partition on the disk visible to windows but there are only four places to do this. This is why there is a four (standard) partition limit in all Windows up to now, and that is if you don’t use the newer GPT file system.
So for myself, I had four partitions at one point and I entered four “07″‘s in the spaces to get them visible. (I’d changed this by the time I wrote this article which is why they’re not in my screenshots…)
With this in mind, and as you know that you had two partitions on that disk, why not try inserting one or more “07″s to see if the partitions re-appear? (As part of my twiddling after I got everything working properly, I tried adding an extra “07″ and ended up with a tiny sliver of extra partition! I later removed it.)
Failing that, have you considered using a partition recovery program? There are many about (Acronis, Partition Commander etc) and they may repair some entries in the partition table structure of which I’m unaware.
Also, you may want to read up on the definition of “active” as it relates to disks and partitions as it’s not immediately obvious what it all means (at least to me!).
My Win7-64 has a 100 Mb System partition that is “Active” and is the only active partition. It’s where the equivalent of the old ntldr files etc are now stored and where on startup the system looks for the boot files. This is the default behaviour on a Windows install nowadays. However, it’s possible to make the C partition (although Windows does not need to be on the C any more) the active partition as it was in times of yore… There is a prompt about this during the initial Windows install process.
It’s also possible to hide drives and partitions from casual usage but so that they’re still detected by the OS and it’s also not necessary for partitions to even have a letter (like C, D etc) for them to work correctly. Saying this, some programs need drive letters to work properly, if at all!
For all of this, the problem for me is in the definitions and shorthand that you’ll find on the web, which is why I’m saying have a read up on it so that you’re clear about the problem.
DiskPart. This is a tool you access from within the Windows Recovery Console. You may need to use this. It’s a bit arcane as you dig up and down through its levels of working, but it does much of what the Disk software does and may fix your problem. Again – you’ll have to read up on it. If it’s not installed you’ll need your Win7 disk to get it. There are copious instructions on-line with some of the best being in Microsoft’s own website. I’ve used it when I did a “Windows Repair Install” which is essentially the “Windows Upgrade” process. This is all detailed on the Microsoft website.
Q. Why did I need to do this? A. I was trying to get rid of annoying scandisk behaviour which came after a disappearing C-drive as seen in the Windows Defragment Tool …. My hunch was that the disc setting process as detailed here left a little hole in something. Then I read about the Windows Repair which was supposed to keep all programs etc intact.
Result? Well the annoying defrag & scanning behaviour has gone and virtually all programs worked as before. All data was left. In essence, I made everything the Microsoft default except for moving all my personal user data to a different partition. Sometimes the defaults are made default because it’s the best and most practical way of doing stuff!
Live and learn, eh?
Hmm, the thing is that this disk was never an OS disk, just a data disk that was seperate from the OS disk. Also it only ever had 1 partition on it when it was in it’s old machine. Unfortunately I’ve now wiped the OS disk and re-installed a different OS so I can’t just plug it back in where it was in order to recover the data. I’ll probably give your idea to try putting in the other 07s a go and see what happens, and if that doesn’t work then I think I have Acronis somewhere, or maybe I should do that first! Will have a think and play and report back…
Thanks a lot for the help!
You could try something like this, http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-express/ , which is one of a host of similar free things to try and recover the partitions…
Thanks benArrayx. I look forward to it. Really accurate information on the subject of drives, partitions, file systems and the like seems hard to pin down, at least to be understood in layman’s terms…
Nobody seems to have mentioned hidden partitions. My laptop has four partitions, two hidden, including the first. If I change all to 07 I fear that computer will try to boot from first partition.
I suspect hidden partitions should be changed to 17. Has anyone tested this?
Hidden to 17 – probably…. But I’ve been reading a lot round this topic recently.
This is a key sentence. It means that this partition contains the files necessary to start your OS into action. It can be anywhere, effectively, and not necessarily on the 1st partition and not necessarily on the partition where Windows is located.
What does come first is the MBR on an MBR disk. This is always on the 1st SECTOR, which is a totally different thing to a partition. The MBR is a library on the first sector of the disc that tells the BIOS & OS where the boot files are and how the disc is partitioned.
Now, as to “17″…. There are two ways of dividing and cataloguing the partitions on a disk. The legacy MBR which is what you’ll find on most PCs, and the newer GUID (GPT) way of doing things. The reason the latter was invented was that the original specification for MBR disks, invented by IBM, some years back started being abused and modified by various manufacturers. So “17″ may or may not refer to a hidden partition. Probably, that’s all. IBM dropped all support for the system quite a few years ago.
The way forward is to use GUID disks which have many benefits, not least a consistent way of doing stuff, but also it can handle huge hard drives. Unfortunately, you really need a UEFI BIOS to be able to use a GUID disk to boot from. Only a few motherboards currently have this in place (mainly the later ASUS ones from my checks). Some manufacturers like Gigabyte (say) have a kludge system to meld old to new and Seagate, the disk drive maker has a similar kludge to enable users to use the full 3Tb of it’s newest disk in their systems.
The reason I’m looking is that MBR disks are limited to 2.1Tb and as the first 3Tb discs have been out a while now, and they’re using the faster SATA 6 for file transfers, it’s the way to go for my next upgrade.
The bad thing, for me, is t6hat I can’t find a way to move my system from my current MBR disks to newer GUID disks without having to do a full re-install, which I’m loathe to do as my system works fine currently….. hmmm?
I did have the same problem. Adding an additional (5th) partition changed my disc to “dynamic”.
The solution for me:
1. Backup all data from the 5th partition to an external hard drive.
2. Delete the 5th partition (Windows 7 disk management)
3. Extend the partition (left side of unallocated space) to its maximum (Windows disk management).
4. Convert the dynamic disk to a basic disk using the free EaseUS Partition Master without data loss!
5. In case other partitions are converted to “logical”, you can use EPM again to revert them to “primary” (if necessary).
6. Now you have four primary partitions again on a basic disk.
7. If you need more than four partitions, use EPM to convert a primary to a logical drive (again). Within a logical drive you can create several partitions (using EPM or Windows disk management).
Here my present configuration:
thank you so much!!! it works:)) no need for partition wizard and aoei dynamic disk converter.. i really appreciate it..
Glad it worked, Drew.
What if there’s no 42?
Hi i’ve been googling and seaching in all places for like 4 days and finally i found your post and i decided to apply this but.. i have no “42″ in mi 02 column, actually i can see only one 42 in all the Sector 0.
http://i51.tinypic.com/312yflk.jpglink for image if you can’t see it
My question is what should i do? i can’t found a safe method that don’t make me loss all my data
@Alman
It’s the entries in offset 1C to 1F on column 02 you need. In your case you have (in order):
This link lists the partition types (it’s at the end of the main piece at the top as well as some others). We know that there’s not absolute table for these numbers as they developed ad-hoc over the years. But the link shows that yours are probably:
To me this suggests that either massive corruption has been happening, possibly by twiddling with the various figures or that it’s a disc that you’ve acquired and wish to access to see the data or maybe just for experimentation before using it for something else?
The reason for this is that most of the partitions are obsolete (indeed one has only a single page on the internet describing it). Some types are used by disc recovery programs. It doesn’t look like Microsoft’s Dynamic Disc has anything to do with this….
So, do you have some history to accompany the disc and does any of the above ring any bells with you?
Since writing this article, I’ve found that some free software, Easeus Partition Manager Home Edition, will revert a dynamic disk to normal. I’m using version 9.1 currently, and it’s on the menu system!
The software is easy to use, however, I’ve not had to do the reversion process again, so for me at least, it’s untested!
See http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm
I have dynamic partitioning on my HP Pavilion notebook. I want convert it to basic. But i have a doubt that I might have more than 1 Hard disk inside. I read one of the pages and it says the conversion procedure is not recommended if the dynamic partitioning spans more than 1 hd. So how to know the actual number of physical HDs in my notebook?
@Meet
Sorry about the delay replying – I’ve been away!
It’s unlikely that you’ve more than a single physical hard drive in your notebook because of space considerations. However, you can easily find out what’s inside by using “Device Manager” in the unlikely event that you have two…. Your drives show up in the default view right under “Computer” in the tree view. This is mine below, today.
You’ll see that my machine has two – a Seagate one and a Western Digital one. These are both 2TB devices which in the current hard drive climate means that the value of these two things is more than double or even treble the rest of the machine!
I could also check under the “Disk Management” section (screen-shots in the main article) which would show me the same information. It’s visible in the left column and expandable from there.
So there we are – two ways to check your physical drive count (and more info on the drives as well).
Easeus Partition Manager Home Edition
Since I wrote the article, the above free software has entered the fray and claims to do the reversion to simple disk all from a nice GUI. I haven’t actually tried it although I’ve used other functions of the software very successfully and without any hitches whatsoever. So I’m pretty confident it’ll do what it says it’ll do correctly. If you’re wary of playing with direct sector editing then I’d give it a shot.
If you give it a try, let me know how you get on.
Otherwise, HxD works. Diskprobe is a similar tool which does the same thing essentially. If you don’t have the know-how to find out the number of drives in your machine, I suggest that you leave it well alone as it’s a more confusing user interface IMHO altogether. I’m not being harsh or critical so please don’t be offended, just pragmatic.
The easiest way for you that I can see to get you out of the devil’s brew that Microsoft invented called Dynamic Disks, is to use the Easeus software above, because even HxD by itself is quite scary-looking for newbies.
I hope this helps.
Rees
Also, we just hv to modify the values in the Hex Editor?? What abt that dskprobe thing??
ok so i only have 1 hdd with 4 dynamic partitions
now to convert to basic i should only change 42′s to 07′s ?
Yep Gilbert. That’s all. But only columns 02 in the designated area.
It worked for me and quite a few others here as well. Some folks’ disks have been more complicated and it hasn’t worked for them, and anyway, as always, back up stuff you can’t afford to lose before you start!
can u look at this please…..
i dont know what to do…..
i cant find the 42 thing…..
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2739460001348&l=1f083938df
@Ario
If you check the comments above you’ll see that some people (like @Alman) have had what might be called “non-standard partitions”. If you can’t see any 42′s and you’re looking in the right place then it’s likely that yours are non-standard as well.
I can’t see your image as you’ve linked inside a Facebook profile. Maybe in your case it’d be best to use the easier-to-use Easeus Partition Manager software?
done…its changed to basic….after i used easeus thank you…..
Excellent @Ario!! – And it’s good to know that the free Easeus option worked because I haven’t actually tested it.
I was installing XP with 7 and accidentaly converted to dynamic disc, your fix worked!
windows xp booted again YAY :)
F+
i had a dynamic disk with 2 partitions but all i can see is only one 42 and when i changed it to 07 it shows only one partiotion the second is missing or hidden … how can i bring back the second one… PLEASE HELP
@amirali
Sorry about the delay but I’ve been away from a PC for a month…
My advice now is to use the free Easeus software mentioned a few comments back. Failing that, put 07 in all four positions to see if that will return the partition visibility. Earlier comments have shown that if there’s no 42 it tends to suggest a non-standard partition which will be harder to fix.
Make sure your data is backed up before you proceed.
Hi Strangely,
I experienced the same situation as most other people in the comments; I tried to make the fifth partition from my Windows disk using the built-in Computer Management console but accidentally converted the entire Windows disk into a dynamic disk.
I tried to convert it back to basic disk but it was not possible in the Computer Management console. I was scared about the unknown possibility of outcome to my action, and quickly searched the Internet for a solution to the problem.
I found a webpage which suggests a solution. It instructed me to use the Hxd software to alter only the first of the four lines which you instructed on this page. I hadn’t found your solution yet, and I tried the suggested solution and restarted the computer. The Windows logo froze after a few seconds and then the BSOD appeared. Now I can’t boot into Windows and make the necessary changes to convert the Windows disk back to basic.
However, I haven’t backed up my valuation data and programs installed on this disk, so I could like to retain all of them while being able to boot into windows again and to convert the disk to basic. Please help me solve the problem and also give me instructions, if possible, on an alternate method of converting the dynamic disk into basic disk without booting into Windows ASAP. Many thanks.
Best regards,
Michael
It’s a shame you didn’t come here first… I’m now recommending folks use the free Easeus software, http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm as it’s simpler than HxD for general users.
To access the disc from your position, you’ll either have to:
Once you have access to the disc you can edit it and hopefully get it back the way it was. I can’t guarantee it as Windows, using some self-protective mechanism, may have actually ripped into the sector information or done other things to the partitions (such as scandisc etc) which will fix files it thinks are broken.
The second option above is my preferred one, especially if the disc is SATA.
If you cannot do this, then Windows has disc editing (Hex) software as part of it’s recovery console (which has to be manually installed). This is essentially a more-confusing version of HxD.
The crucial thing for you is to ensure the disc stays intact and that you don’t try to boot from it. It must be fixed from without, not within. If you don’t do this then all your data is in limbo-land and only very expensive data recovery solutions will retrieve it. The last time I looked it was nearly £1000 for a disc and that was when discs were just a few Gb!
Let me know what you’ve got and any plans or outcome of plans you have in mind.
Hi Strangely,
Thank you for your quick response. I believe that my hard disk is a SATA hard disk, but it is embedded inside a laptop. Also, I don’t know how to take it out and connect it to another computer. Therefore, I would prefer the first method instead of the second method.
I booted the laptop from a Windows 7 DVD and chose the repair option in the Install Windows screen, because my laptop has the Windows 7 OS installed. However, the program was not able to detect the presence of my OS installed on the machine, and therefore I could not proceed to the next screen. Does this denote that the first option you mentioned is not possible? If it is still possible, can you please advise me with more details or appropriate links on how to achieve the first option, probably using other software? Also, I would like to know how to install the recovery console and use its disk editing software to fix the disk, if this is still a valid solution.
Finally, I would like to know how much possibility of revival of my partitions and data from your knowledge, based on the situation that I converted the entire disk to basic disk and then changed from 42 to 07 only on the first line of the four lines which you suggested. I’d be very thankful if I could revert successfully the state of my computer to one before I made a fifth partition from my disk. Please reply to this comment. Many thanks again.
Best regards,
Michael
P.S. I’ll be offline for a few hours, so please don’t expect me to reply to your comment soon (if you do reply). But I’ll reply when I come back online. Thanks.
Michael.
Sorry for the delay – I see you’re in Oz so we’re 12 hours difference. If at all possible get the disk from the laptop and plug it into a working system, then use the Easeus software on it as it looks to me to be by far the safest option. Just plug your laptop’s maker & model name into Google and you’ll soon find a work through about how to change the hard drive. There are heaps of YouTube videos on it, you’ll find.
It’d be helpful to know what the exact error message you had on the BSOD was, what you did before, and what you did just after the message.
The reason for this is the large amount of unknowns with your disc & system. Assuming it’s Windows 7, usually on larger discs NTFS is the file system used, if the disc is on the small size then FAT(32) will have been chosen. There are different methods to recovering for each, and some of the things you’ve done may already have removed some of your recovery routes. On top of this, you were attempting to make a 5th partition and have also had a BSOD.
Since I’ve never been in exactly your situation, then the Hex Editor you’re after is actually part of the WinXP support tools. It’s called Dskprobe.exe: DiskProbe, see this link on how to use it, say. This run-through from the Win7 forums gives lots of links and information as well.
This Microsoft KB article gives pretty convoluted instructions on using Disk Probe as well. As you’ll see, it’s not straightforward, and a lot depends on what your disk was originally, and if you can actually remember that bit…
As well as this, check this Major Geeks article on creating a bootable rescue disk with the required tools on it.
You’ll find several articles on-line about fixing the boot sector of your hard disc. IMHO, these will likely make more corruption because the actual partition table has been jiggled in your editing process or afterwards. Fixboot & FixMbr etc will only fix the bit that’s being read before the table is read, and currently your table makes the partitions invisible. Like this article here, it gives the proper commands to use, but these may need to be done after the Hex Editing process.
Now before you go away depressed, take a look at these two websites which provide free recovery tools and the discs to use them!
Hopefully following all these reads you’ve got enough information to decide what to do. Personally, I’d whip the drive out and access it in a non-bootable state using the Easeus software, as I said earlier. To me, that’s the simpler option. However, using the (untried by me) Test Disk tool on a bootable disc provided either of the two links just above will be the next best option for you, and if you are at all nervous about attacking your machine with a screwdriver then one of these options will be best for you, as I currently see the problem.
One thing to bear in mind is that even if you can’t get back into Windows, as long as you can read at least some of the partitions you’ve created (and lost) you’ll be able to copy the data off onto another drive. This may be the best that you can manage, but it’s better than losing everything. Following this you’ll wipe the drive completely, install a fresh copy of Windows, then your programs, then put the data you’ve recovered back. You obviously just didn’t have everything plonked into one C-Drive, so if Windows is there as it is by default and if it’s corrupted or lost then the stuff you’ve put on other partitions may be okay.
Hopefully your machine uses the old-style BIOS and not the newer EUFI and GPT formatting because that is all new to me. Using FAT or NTFS limits the disc to 4 standard partitions. You were attempting to make 5 so presumably you made one or more of the four an Extended partition? As you can see, there are a lot of unknowns when viewed by myself & any others who may want to help you. So don’t write anything to the disc until you’ve read more about it, and when you do write to the disc, make sure it’s not trying to boot.
Rees.
UPDATE:
I’ve been testing the Test Disk program from Christophe Grenier and it all appears to work, at least in a live environment. All the steps here, http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step work in my system, which is Win7. This is it working on my system as it’s currently running. It’s on the second screen.
You’ll need a Windows XP install disc, (I used an old XP-SP3 iso from my MSDN subscription which I extracted into a folder using 7-zip), and made the boot disc from it using the download from UBCD4Win. It will just fit on a CD on the default settings although I used a DVD. You’ll probably need to deselect lots of the addin program options to reduce the ISO size.
Then make the ISO and burn it to CD/DVD disc.
This is a bootable disc which contains the Test Disk program. You’ll either need a keyboard selection to get your machine to boot from it or preselect the boot order in your BIOS.
Read the process fully here (link above is the same but repeated for emphasis) for the usage of the program. It has extensive example screen-shots.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
The program claims to be able to recover all sorts of lost partitions – obviously, I don’t have any now - and since I’ve given up dancing with the devil, I’ll leave the real testing to you ;-)
Good luck!
Rees
[...] Dynamic Disk problems here you go: How to Convert a Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk in Windows 7 | Strangely Perfect however be very careful not to modify any other value as these are starting sectors of HDD.in my [...]
Edit
Hi Rees,
Sorry about this much delayed message… but I managed to fix my laptop’s dynamic disk problem using your suggested program! I would like to let you know how I achieved the solution. Firstly, I booted into the computer using a live USB, and then used the HxD program to change the remaining three 42′s to 07′s. After reboot, the disk was successfully converted back to basic disk. Then, I used the Test Disk program and was able to recover all of my partitions successfully.
The reason of why it took me a while to fix the problem is because I failed to create a live CD using ubcd4win (I kept receiving the BSOD error). Later however, I discovered a possible alternative called Windows To Go. It is a new feature in Windows 8 Consumer Preview and makes a live USB using the OS’s image. I tried this feature and fortunately, I was able to boot into the laptop successfully using my USB drive.
Finally, I would like to thank you for your suggestions and advises.
Best regards,
Michael
N.B. Originally, I intended to post this comment a few months ago, but I could not authenticate my comment using Sweet Captcha.
Thanks @Michael. Glad it all worked out in the end. I’ve tried the Win8 releases and there are a lot of inbuilt tools that are backwards compatible, probably to speed the upgrade process… ;-)
Another user told me the Sweet Captcha wasn’t working for them so I’ve disabled it. It always worked for me, and on my other websites, yet after copious checking against these working sites I could find no difference at all! Weird. At least you and others can comment now.
mere laptop me all partition basic se dynamic ho gaye h to me kya karu plz jaldi meri id per information send kar do plz i req u
Sorry Ritin. I don’t know what you mean.
Dear SP,
I followed your procedure, and after lots of efforts (my mistakes) i successufully turned the partition from dynamic to basic. But he problem is now the partition after rebooting messed up and the drive D: is also not there menas the real one and it seems the HD space reduced as it is not showing full memory. i took back up of important files but due to limited space in USB drive could not took full. So now struggling to recover my lost partition.
waiting for you guidance and reply
Best Regards
I can’t help @AAK
Your explanation doesn’t give me enough detail about what you’ve done apart from when you said,
If you’d actually been successful then you’d have no problem! But your later words are confusing to me so I need more clarity and explanation about what you did and what you ended up with.
i was trying to say the partition converted to Basic but the HD partition was messed up and lost. I did backup of important things not all as limited storage resource in usb. So was struggling to restore my partitions , if partition is restored they data hopefully be also restored. I hope i cleared myself. Hope you can shed some light on my issue
@AAK
It’s the disk, not partition that gets converted from basic to dynamic and vice-versa, not a partition. So if the disk is okay now, then you need to recover your partition (or partitions).
First thing to do (bizarrely) is absolutely nothing! It makes it easier to recover your data. So don’t do any disc access on the disc. I now use Easeus’s software, Partition Master which has a free Home Edition. This has a partition restore function which you can see in the top left of my screenshot below:
Your data should be there on the partition(s).  If it’s not, not all is lost.
I’ve found that the Data Recovery Wizard actually works! This is another free Easeus tool and will find 1Gb for you for free. This may be all you need to get the missing data files, I don’t know your situation.
I actually tested it and it worked, but I needed quite a bit more than this so then bought the paid-for product. It recovered ISO files I needed that had been on partitions that had been doubly remade and moved, so I was very impressed with it. It cost me £57 including tax, but the files it recovered are worth much more!
I hope this helps.
The screenshots above are from my system which now runs Windows 8. I still run Windows 7 but only in the virtual environment for the special conditions running software needed by my work.
If I get time, I’ll describe the way that I, an experienced computer user, managed to wipe a disc using Windows 8′s “Create a Recovery Drive” application…..!
Essentially, I read “drive” as “partition” as I’d previously been doing a lot of partition and data movement work so had “partition” at the front of my mind. When it said “All data on this drive will be deleted” – I still clicked the Okay button! What an idiot!
Thank you very much,
Replacing the 42′s with 07 worked perfectly, I had an ‘old’ 500GB HD from a cashed HP-Laptop with 4 partitions and Windows 7 didn’t recognize the partitions at all. After editing with HxD I had access to the partitions etc., I recovered all without data – loss. After partitioning it with EAUse now it is running perfectly as extarnal backup drive.