Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk in Windows 7 and Convert Back

As you typically know, Windows 7 supports four primary partitions and an extended partition on a physical hard disk similar with 2000/XP/2003. Of course, you can create unlimited logical drives within the extended partition. Windows 7 and Server 2008 follows the same policy: You can have a maximum of four primary partitions, one of which can be an extended partition with logical drives. And also Win 7 supports two disk configuration types basic disk and dynamic disk, which you must understand to configure effectively.

Aboout Dynamic Disk and Basic Disk

Basic Disk: A Windows 7 Basic Disk, that is like to the disk configuration which we are used to in Windows NT, is a physical disk with primary partitions and extended partition. As long as you use an suitable format(such as FAT, NTFS), Win2K, NT, Windows 9x, and DOS can access basic disks. Diff with NT, your change operations don't need to restart your computer to take effect (e.g. in Windows 2000/XP/2003, restart computer is required to convert a basic disk to dynamic drive, but in Windows 7 reboot no required).

To manage Basic Disk Partition, we recommend Partition Magic Windows 7 which is an ALL-IN-ONE partition manager software and basic disk management utility. It allows you to resize/move partition, extend system/boot partition, merge partitions, split partition, copy disk and copy partition on basic disk storage type.

Dynamic Disk: A Windows 7 dynamic disk is a physical disk which doesn't need to use partitions or logical drives to manage the disk. Instead, it can contains a great many dynamic volumes which you create by using Windows Disk Management Utility. Regardless of what format you use for the file system, Windows 7 computers can access dynamic volumes directly, but Win 7 Home Premium Edition and Home Basic Edition doesn't support for Dynamic Disk.

To manage Dynamic Disk Volume, we recommend AOMEI Dynamic Disk Manager which is a complete solution for dynamic disks and dynamic volumes management. It enables you to resize dynamic disk, extend dynamic system volume, increase mirrored (RAID 1) volume, expand RAID-5 volume, add drive to RAID and remove drive from RAID on dynamic disk storage type.

Convert a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk in Windows 7

• Log on Windows 7 as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
• Click Start Menu, and then click Control Panel.
• Found Administrative Tools, and then double click Computer Management. In the left pane, click Disk Management.
• In the lower-left pane, right click the basic disc which you want to convert, and then click "Convert to Dynamic Disk" option.
• NOTE: You must right-click the gray area that contains the disk title on the left side of the Details pane. For example, right-click Disk 0.

Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk with Windows 7 Disk Management

• Back up all the data of the volumes on the disk you want to convert to a basic disk.
• Log on Windows 7 as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
• Click Start Menu, and then click Control Panel.
• Found Administrative Tools, and then double click Computer Management. In the left pane, click Disk Management.
• Right-click a volume on the dynamic disk that you want to change to a basic disk, and then click Delete Volume, and Repeat deleting volume for each volume on the dynamic disk.
• After you have deleted all the volumes on the dynamic drive, right-click the dynamic disk that you want to change to a basic disk, and then click "Convert to Basic Disk".

Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk in Windows 7 with AOMEI Dynamic Disk Converter

As a magic and powerful conversion tool, AOMEI Dynamic Disk Converter Professional Edition is able to revert/change a dynamic disc to basic disk without deleting partition in Windows 7/8/Vista/XP and Windows 2000 Pro, and it's safe and easy! An example is as follows:

1. Launch AOMEI Dynamic Disk Converter Professional Edition and skip a welcome page, and you will see its main interface below:

On the above screenshot, check Method 1 (Convert a dynamic disk back to basic disk), and click the Next button.

2. All dynamic disks in Windows 7 system will be shown in the following list box, please select the dynamic disks which you intent to convert. In instance, the Disk 1 (C: drive and D: drive) and Disk 2 will be converted, and click the Next button to continue.

3. Then, you will see the screenshot below, the program prompt you confirm the operations of converting the Windows 7 dynamic disks to basic disks (it also supports Windows 8 OS):

After ticking the option "I have decided to execute this operation...", then click the Proceed button to start the conversion, the process only take 3 seconds, then reboot your Windows 7 Operating System, and you're done!

The process is easy and safe, revert to basic disk wihtout deleting partition and data loss with AOMEI Dynamic Disk Converter Professional Edition in Windows 7, 8.

    Buy AOMEI Dynamic Disk Converter              Download AOMEI Dynamic Disk Converter