How to convert Basic Disk to Dynamic

Disk in Windows 10
This post compares Basic Disk and Dynamic Disk and shows how to convert basic disk to dynamic
disk and dynamic disk to basic disk, using Disk Management and CMD / diskpart, without losing
the data in Windows 10/8/7.

Basic Disk and Dynamic Disk

There are two types of computer hard disks: Basic Disks and Dynamic disks. Basic disks are the
commonly used storage media with Windows. They contain partitions like Primary partitions and
Logical drives which are typically formatted with a file system. Dynamic disks offer the ability to
create fault-tolerant volumes that may even span multiple disks – which Basic disks cannot.

Most home personal computers are configured using Basic disks. However, IT professionals
usually prefer to use Dynamic disks, as they offered more functionality and increased reliability
and performance. While Home editions of Windows support Basic Disks, Enterprise/Pro/Ultimate
versions of Windows operating system support Dynamic Disks as well.

Microsoft has listed the operations that can be performed on each of these types.

Operations that can be performed on both, Basic and Dynamic disks:

1. Check Disk properties, Partition properties, and Volume properties

2. Establish drive-letter assignments for disk volumes or partitions
3. Support both MBR and GPT partition styles.
4. Convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk or a dynamic disk to a basic disk.
Operations that can be performed only on Dynamic disks:

1. Create and delete simple, spanned, striped, RAID-5 and mirrored volume.
2. Extend a simple or spanned volume.
3. Remove a mirror from a mirrored volume
4. Break the mirrored volume into two volumes.
5. Repair mirrored or RAID-5 volumes.
6. Reactivate a missing or offline disk.

Convert a Basic Disk to Dynamic Disk

Before you start this process, you should know that there could be data loss as a result of this
operation, so it is imperative that you first take a backup of your data to an external hard disk. So
proceed only if you know what you are doing and be careful.

If you are using a basic disk as a storage area for shadow copies and you intend to convert the
disk into a dynamic disk, it is important to take the following precaution to avoid data loss. If the
disk is a non-boot volume and is a different volume from where the original files reside, you must
first dismount and take offline the volume containing the original files before you convert the
disk containing shadow copies to a dynamic disk. You must bring the volume containing the
original files back online within 20 minutes, otherwise, you will lose the data stored in the existing
shadow copies. If the shadow copies are located on a boot volume, you can convert the disk to
dynamic without losing shadow copies, states Microsoft.

Using UI

In Windows 8.1, open the WinX Menu and select Disk Management. Right-click on the Disk and
select Convert to Dynamic Disk. You will be asked to once again confirm the Disk and click on
Convert later on. The process will start, and the Disk will be converted to a Dynamic disk.

Using Command line

Open an elevated command prompt, type diskpart and hit Enter.

Next, type list disk. Make a note of the disk number of the disk you want to convert to Dynamic.

Now type select diskn and press Enter.

Next type convert dynamic and hit Enter.

Read: How to create Mirrored Volume for Instant Hard Drive Backup in Windows 10.

Convert Dynamic disk to Basic disk

Using Disk Management

To change a Dynamic Disk to a Basic disk, using Disk Management, right-click each volume you
want to convert to a basic disk, and select Delete Volume for each volume on the disk. When all
volumes on the disk have been deleted, right-click the Disk, and select Convert to Basic Disk. The
operation will start.

Using CMD

Open an elevated command prompt and type diskpart and hit Enter.

Next type list disk and note the disk number, of the disk you want to convert to basic. Now type
each of these and hit Enter, one after the other:

1. Type select disk <disknumber>.

2. Type detail disk <disknumber>.
3. For each volume on the disk, type select volume= <volumenumber> and then type delete
volume.
4. Type select disk <disknumber>. Specify the disk number of the disk that you want to convert
to a basic disk.
Finally, type convert basic and hit Enter. The operation will start.

Remember to always backup first before you carry out any of these operations. And
also never convert a Basic disk that contains your operating system to a Dynamic disk, as it could
make your system unbootable.

Dynamic Disk vs Basic Disk:

How to Convert to Dynamic
Disk
By Victor Ashiedu

-
Updated October 8, 2019
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Table of Contents

Introduction
Dynamic disk type was introduced by Microsoft with Windows 2000. Earlier
versions of Windows Operating Systems used Basic Disks but you can
convert to dynamic disk (from basic disks).

What is Dynamic Disk vs Basic Disk

A dynamic disk is a Windows disk system that creates volumes. Dynamic disk
volumes may span multiple physical disks or create fault-tolerant volumes.

Conversely, a basic disk can contain primary partitions. It may also contain
logical drives. You can extend a primary partition or logical drive. Extending
a basic disk effectively adds more space to an existing disk.

In this tutorial, you will learn:

 Features and Uses of Dynamic Disks

 Features and Uses of of Basic Disks
 Similarities and Differences Between a Basic disk and a Dynamic
disk.
 Types of Dynamic Volumes
 How to Convert to Dynamic Disk (From a Basic Disk) and Vise Versa
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Dynamic Disks
This is a new disk management technology introduced in Windows 2000. All
Windows Operating Systems prior to Windows 2000 do not support Dynamic
Disks.

A dynamic disk supports MBR partition style. They also support GPT partition
style. Dynamic disks create volumes that span multiple disks. Volumes that
span multiple disks are called spanned and striped volumes. They can also be
used to create volumes that support fault-tolerance – mirrored and RAID-5
volumes.

Features of a Dynamic Disk

Below are the main features of a dynamic disk

 Allows creation of volumes with non-contiguous extents on one or

multiple physical disks.
 Depends on Logical Disk Manager (LDM) and Virtual Disk Service
(VDS) to function.
 Exclusively supports multi-partition volume.

Operations Supported Only on Dynamic Disks

You can perform the following operations on a dynamic disk. These
operations cannot be performed on a basic disk.

 Create or delete fault-tolerance volumes – mirrored and RAID 5

volumes
 Create or delete simple, spanned and striped volumes
 Extend a simple or spanned volume
 Repair fault-tolerance volumes (mirror or RAID 5)
 Remove a disk from a mirrored volume or break a mirror completely
 Reactivate a missing or offline disk

Types of Dynamic Volumes

As you would have understood from the tutorial so far, with dynamic disks
you can create five types of dynamic volumes.

In this section I will discuss these dynamic volumes.

Simple Volumes
Simple volumes are dynamic-disk equivalent of the primary partitions and
logical drives found on basic disks. A simple disk can only be on a single disk.

Important Tip
If you install Operating System on a simple volume, you cannot extend the
volume.

Spanned Volumes
A spanned volume is a dynamic disk created by combining spaces from two
or more disks. You can extend a span volume by adding free space from
another disk. One use of a spanned disk is when you need a disk size that is
too large for a single disk.

Striped Volumes
A stripped volume stores data in stripes on two or more disks. In a stripped
volume, data of equal sizes are written across each disk in the volume.

Stripped volumes do not offer fault tolerance. Also, these volumes cannot be
extended or mirrored. If one of the disks that make up the stripped volume
fails, the entire volume fails. Also, data in the volume become inaccessible.
Mirrored Volumes

This is a fault-tolerant volume that duplicates data on two or more disks. In a

mirrored volume data redundancy is provided by duplicating the information
contained on the volume across the two disks that make up the mirror.

In a mirrored dynamic disk volume, in the event of a single disk failure, the
data on the failed disk becomes unavailable. Even with a failed disk, the
mirrored volume continues to operate using the unaffected disk. This means
that you could still access your data while you rebuild the mirror.

Important Tip
Mirrored volumes are also known as RAID 1.
RAID 5 Volumes

A RAID 5 volume (striping with distributed parity) stores data in stripes on

three or more disks. In the event of a disk failure, RAID 5 uses the parity
information stored on the remaining disks to recover the volume.

However, during data recovery (caused by a single disk failure), data in a

RAID 5 dynamic disk volume will still be accessible. Unfortunately, multiple
disk failures will lead to data loss. This is because the volume will become
unrecoverable.

Basic Disks
Basic disks contain partitions instead of volumes. A Basic disk can have two
types of partitions. A Primary partition or a logical drive. They provide simple
storage solutions and support both MBR and GPT partitions.

You can add more space to a primary partition by extending the partition.
However, only NTFS primary partitions can be extended. Likewise, you can
extend a logical drive but the extension must fall within the same contiguous
free space in the extended partition that contains it.

Features and Uses of of Basic Disks

The following are features of a Basic Disk:

 They contain partitions instead of volumes

 They support clustered disks, IEEE 1394 disks, and USB removable
drives.
 For OS backward compatibility, they usually use MBR partition style
but can also support GPT partitions.
 Primary partitions and logical volumes can be extended.

Operations Supported on Basic Disks

You can perform the following operations on a basic disk:

 Format a partition and mark it as active

 Create and delete primary and extended partitions
 Create and delete logical drives within an extended partition

How to Convert to Dynamic Disk (From a Basic Disk)

In the last parts of this tutorial, I will show you how to convert to dynamic
disk (from a basic disk). You will also learn how to convert to basic disk
(from a dynamic disk).

Convert Using Disk Management Tool

The steps below will walk you through the task to convert a basic disk to a
dynamic disk using disk management:

 Right-click the Windows logo on the left of your task bar. Then
click Computer Management.
  To access disk management, expand Storage. Then click Disk
Management.

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 To convert disk 5 from a Basic disk to a Dynamic disk, right-click the

disk. Then click Convert to Dynamic Disk.
  The wizard presents an option to select the disks you wish to
convert. The disk you started with is pre-checked. Check the box
beside each disk you wish to convert. Then click Ok.

 Disk 5 is now a Dynamic disk!

Convert Using DISKPART Command Line Tool

A windows command line utility called DISKPART can be used to complete
the task above. I will be converting Disk 6. It is a Basic Disk. See the mage
below.

 Open Command Prompt as administrator. In the search box on the

taskbar, type Command prompt. Right-click it and select Run as
Administrator. On the User Account Control prompt, click Yes.
  Command Prompt opens. Type DISKPART and press Enter key on
your keyboard. This will open DISKPART.

 First, determine available disks on the computer. To do this, on the

DISKPART prompt enter the command below:

LIST DISK
This will list all available disks on the computer. Information included are
shown in the image below. We are interested in the first (Disk ###) and the
fifth column (Dyn).

The Dyn column tells you whether the disk is a Dynamic disk or not. The disk
marked with asterisks (*) are Dynamic disks. If the Dyn column is empty, it
means the disk is not a Dynamic disk.

For this exercise, I will convert Disk 6 to a dynamic disk.

 To convert disk 6 enter the command below.

SELECT Disk 6

 With Disk 6 selected, enter the command below and press Enter.

CONVERT DYNAMIC

 To confirm that Disk 6 is now converted, enter LIST DISK then press
Enter key.

For the list of commands specified above and the results, see the screenshot
below. You can see that Disk 6 is now converted. For the Disk Management
view, see the second image below.
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How to Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk

The process of converting Basic Disks to Dynamic is exactly as shown above
with few exceptions. I have explained the exceptions below.

On the Disk GUI tool, right-click the disk and select Convert to Basic.

To convert to basic disk using DISKPART, the only change is in the part
where you typed “CONVERT DYNAMIC”. For conversion to a Basic disk, type
the command below instead.

CONVERT BASIC
See the images below for confirmation.
There you have it. I hope this tutorial have improved your knowledge of
basic and dynamic disks. I also hope the DISKPART portion was as helpful as
I hoped!

If you have any questions or comments, kindly use the “Leave a Reply” form
at the end of the tutorial.