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In my last tip, I showed you how to convert a dynamic disk to a basic disk, which might be necessary if you upgraded from Windows XP Pro to Windows Vista Home Premium (or Basic). The huge drawback to the method I described was that it erases all of the data on the disk. I also mentioned that there is a hack that might allow you to get around this nasty side effect.
There is a way that might work, but it should be emphasized that this is a hack, it is entirely possible that it won’t work, and you’ll loose all of the data on the disk. You should first backup the data, but odds are the reason you need this hack is because you can’t back it up, so you’re probably gambling on this. If your dynamic disk spanned multiple hard drives, I wouldn’t recommend trying this, the best hope is if you have a dynamic disk that resides on one hard drive. Finally, I don’t currently have an appropriate setup to test this (a Home version of Vista on a desktop with a dynamic disk after an upgrade), so I was not able to test the entire process, if you do try this ‘desperation move’ to convert your disk, please leave a comment summarizing your experience.
To attempt this, you’ll need a Microsoft tool called Disk Probe. This tool is available in the Windows 2000 SP4 Support Tools, Windows 2003 Support Tools, or I was able to download it with the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools. Once downloaded, if you try running this application, it will tell you there is a compatibility problem, and if you ignore that prompt, the install will run and tell you that it’s only compatible with Windows XP. What to do now?
Thankfully, you can extract the files from this download. To do this, I’m sure there are many programs that can handle the job, but I’m going to use 7-ZIP, an open source (free) file archiver. 7-Zip is not only excellent for creating archives in many different formats (including it’s own high-compression format), but can also extract archives of many formats, including some exe and cab files, which we’ll be dealing with.
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Comments
tratch
Mar 30, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I just wanted to say thanks, I just upgraded to Vista Home Premium and didn’t realize that I wouldn’t be able to use my dynamic disks. I followed the advice and was able to recover everything off of my three supplemental drives.
Thanks again!
Joe
Mar 30, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Awesome. It’s always nice hearing I was able to help someone out!
JLAC
May 6, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Thanks for this very useful tip. I suffered a motherboard failure and switched to new hardware which came with Vista. Trying to connect my 500GB video editing workspace disk (with lots of in-progress projects) resulted in the “dynamic disk problem” described. I was about to fork out $50 or more for a data recovery tool when I found your article. It was worth a try since the disk wasn’t damaged as far as I knew, simply configured as dynamic (from the old system). The steps described here and on the “thelazyadmin” site worked fine for me and I really appreciate your help. Now that I’ve got my data back and copied to a different disk, I’ll reset the 500GB drive back to being dynamic and let Vista convert it to basic “properly”. I don’t know whether I really need to do this but it seems prudent to anticipate and avoid a future issue. Thank-you very much.
PS The link to thelazyadmin.com site needs to be updated to http://thelazyadmin.com/blogs/thelazyadmin/archive/2007/01/17/Converting-Dynamic-Disks-Back-to-Basic-Disks.aspx
Joe
May 6, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Glad to hear it worked. Thanks for the heads-up on the link, I’ve corrected it in the post.
Angus
Feb 26, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Bill Gates needs to be taken out and horsewhipped for this product. I’ve just wasted two days of my life because I’ve been trying to access a USB drive created on a previous Vista Business OS, through Vista Home. How in the name of Christ can he be so mean to let loose such an abomination?
I can’t believe the solution requires having to fumble around in the dark at this level, for something that should be so trivial - and worse, this is a backup drive we’re talking about. BACKUP! That’s stuff we can’t afford to lose.
Apple has one OS: Leopard. No home. No Business. No special directors cut. And that’s the way it should be.
Seriously, this company is detestable.
Angus
Feb 26, 2008 at 4:10 pm
So I’m trying to download this blasted tool and what do you know, it’s making me jump through some idiotic |WGA hurdle.
Jesus Christ I hate this company!
Tobie
Jun 9, 2008 at 3:08 am
Thanks for a great and thorough description! So if I follow this, will the drive only work on the machine that it was connected to when the operation was performed? I am trying to recover a disc for a friend, so I’m wondering if I can do it on my machine, or should I do it on his?
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