Converting Dynamic Disk to Basic - How?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ravic
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ravic

Idiotic me, I was going to partition a drive in Administrative
Tools/Disk Management, and unthinkingly clicked "yes" to the prompt
which makes a drive a Dynamic Disk.

The help screen says conversion back to a Basic Disk is simply a
sign-in as administrator, right-click the disk, and select "Revert to
Basic Disk" operation.
Tried that, but no such option appears on the context menu.

The closest I can find is in the menu: Action/Restore Basic Disk
Configuration -- but this prompts me for something in my floppy drive.
Tried to see if there was anything I could do using Partition Magic
v8, but it doesn't seem to have any options

Any advice on how to revert back to a basic disk?

Many thanks for any help.
 
ravic said:
Idiotic me, I was going to partition a drive in Administrative
Tools/Disk Management, and unthinkingly clicked "yes" to the prompt
which makes a drive a Dynamic Disk.

The help screen says conversion back to a Basic Disk is simply a
sign-in as administrator, right-click the disk, and select "Revert to
Basic Disk" operation.
Tried that, but no such option appears on the context menu.

The closest I can find is in the menu: Action/Restore Basic Disk
Configuration -- but this prompts me for something in my floppy drive.
Tried to see if there was anything I could do using Partition Magic
v8, but it doesn't seem to have any options

Any advice on how to revert back to a basic disk?

Many thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

It seems you cannot go back to a basic disk - see here:

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q217/2/26.ASP&NoWebContent=1
 
ravic said:
Idiotic me, I was going to partition a drive in Administrative
Tools/Disk Management, and unthinkingly clicked "yes" to the prompt
which makes a drive a Dynamic Disk.

The help screen says conversion back to a Basic Disk is simply a
sign-in as administrator, right-click the disk, and select "Revert to
Basic Disk" operation.
Tried that, but no such option appears on the context menu.

The closest I can find is in the menu: Action/Restore Basic Disk
Configuration -- but this prompts me for something in my floppy drive.
Tried to see if there was anything I could do using Partition Magic
v8, but it doesn't seem to have any options

Any advice on how to revert back to a basic disk?

Many thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

Further to my previous note: If you haven't made any
changes to your disk since the conversion then you
may be able to go back with this quick and dirty method:

1. Get a free copy of ptedit.exe (it used to be available
at the PowerQuest site).
2. Boot your PC with a Win98 boot disk from
www.bootdisk.com.
3. Run ptedit.exe and make a note of the disk type.
It is reported in the left-most column.
4. Replace this number by the number that is appropriate
for your system. ptedit.exe has a button that pops up
the various type numbers.

Reboot your system and check if all is well.

This method is completely reversible. If you punch in the
wrong number, just go through steps 2. and 3. again and
change the number back to what it was before.

Note that I was successful with this method in my test
setup but I can give no assurance as to what it will do in
your case.
 
Worked like a quick and easy dream! Many thanks.

For anyone looking for this utility, find it at:
ftp://ftp.powerquest.com/pub/utilities/

At the site, you'll find also a version ptedit32.

Thanks again.
 
Thanks for the feedback.


ravic said:
Worked like a quick and easy dream! Many thanks.

For anyone looking for this utility, find it at:
ftp://ftp.powerquest.com/pub/utilities/

At the site, you'll find also a version ptedit32.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...
 
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