Windows xp convert system disk to dynamic

Converting a disk from basic to dynamic is totally safe, but it's also completely useless if you don't need the software RAID features of dynamic disks. You don't need to convert a disk to a dynamic one in order to extend a partition; this can be done on basic disks, too.

But not on the system partition, unless you're using Windows Server or later. In order to extend the system partition on a Windows Server system, you need to reboot it into something different from its main O. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Asked 9 years, 10 months ago. Active 9 years, 10 months ago. Viewed 18k times. Edit: This image is backed up nightly. Improve this question. Do you receive an error or is it just nothing happening with the volume size? Type list disk.

Make note of the disk number you want to convert to dynamic disk. You can access the control for Storage Spaces in Server Manager under the files and sharing section, then look at storage pools.

From here you can add disks that do not have any partitions, or new in any empty partitions on existing disks. Once you've added your physical disks to a pool, you can create virtual disks in mirror mode to have an effective raid 1.

Note that using server manager is very basic, but easily gets the job done for some setups. Storage spaces has a lot of cool options and features that are only accessible via PowerShell. If you have met a similar situation as we mentioned in point 5 before. In case of some unexpected accident happened, you should backup hard drive before doing. Step 1. Step 2. It will pop up a window where you can confirm the information, click OK. After converting the hard drive to GPT partition style, you can back to Windows Disk Management and convert basic disk to dynamic disk successfully.

While, in the later Windows versions, the dynamic disk will be converted to basic disk automatically once you delete all volumes on it. Anyhow, data loss is a big trouble. But a third-party partition manager can achieve converting dynamic disk to basic disk without data loss. MiniTool Partition Wizard is a good choice. MiniTool Partition Wizard, a professional partition manager, is designed to partition and repartition hard disks, as well make some powerful conversions including Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk , and more.

Buy Now. The inter-conversions between basic disk and dynamic disk can have no data loss as long as you select a right tool. All in all, you can convert basic disk to dynamic disk without data loss with Windows snap-in Disk Management or diskpart. And then you are able to convert dynamic disk to basic disk with all data are kept well by using MiniTool Partition Wizard if it is necessary.

If you are facing some issues when using this software, you can contact us by sending an email to [email protected]. And you can also let us know in the following comment. You can use MiniTool Partition Wizard to convert a dynamic disk to a basic disk without data loss:. Download Partition Wizard. However, before you attempt to do so, you need to keep the following points in mind:. As already mentioned, a disk can be converted from basic to dynamic using the Disk Management console.

Double click Administrative Tools and open the Computer Management applet. Click Disk Management as shown in Figure A. Right click the disk and click Convert to Dynamic Disk.

It is important to remember that dynamic disks are not accessible under pre-Windows operating systems. This is important if you are dual booting with an older version of Windows. Any dynamic disks will not be readable under the legacy version of Windows. You should also understand the process for converting back to a basic disk. In order to revert back to a basic disk, you must back up all your data, delete the existing volumes, and repartition the disk.

Since the disk has to be repartitioned, your very first step will be to back up all data on the volumes then proceed with the steps below. Now that you are familiar with the steps you must complete to convert between basic and dynamic disks, you can begin learning how to manage dynamic disks. The Disk Management console is the main interface for managing basic and dynamic disks. Once you open the console, you will see a graphical display of all the disks installed on your computer as well as the volumes configured.

Management tasks can include creating and extending volumes, formatting volumes, changing drives letters, importing disks, and so on. The following sections will discuss how these management tasks can be performed under Windows XP. The main type of volume on a dynamic disk is a simple volume.

You can create a new simple volume or spanned volume within the Disk Management console by completing the steps below:.