Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic w/o Losing Data

[GamezUK]

Hi,

I was having a lil' play with Linux on a spare HD one minute and the next, before I knew it my regular Windows OS (XP MCE05) was not mounting my third HD (not the linux one) but in Disk Management displays it as a "foreign dynamic disk".

I read up a little and I'm now thinking that I need to convert this disk back to a basic disk right?

How can I do this without losing my data?

Thanks, Lloyd

 

[feigned]

I had this problem before...it's a total buzzkill.

Borrowed from another forum I frequent.

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THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO IMPLIED WARRANTY FOR THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION. IF YOU FUCK UP YOUR DISK, IT'S YOUR ASS/FAULT, NOT MINE.

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To revert to a basic disk configuration from a dynamic situation, these are the steps you need to take. This is a TEMPORARY solution only.

Okay, you'll need the diskprobe utility. It's a part of the support tools on the 2000 Server disk.

You have to open up diskprobe. Select "Drives," then "Physical Drives." You have to select your drive here. "PhysicalDrive0" is your first drive, "PhysicalDrive1" is your second drive, so on and so forth. Double-click the drive. Under "Handle 0," you see your drive selected. There's a button there named "Set Active." Click it. Then click OK.

Click "Sectors" on the pull-down menu, then "Read." Click "Read" again in the window that pops up. You're Reading sectors 00 and 01. Now you should see the window populate the drive's sector information.

In row "01C0," and the third column over, you will see the data "42." Navigate to this block and change the "42" to "07." Click the "Sectors" pull down menu again. Click "Write." You will have to allow write access to the drive, so click Yes/Ok.

Click on "Drives," then "Physical Drives" again. "Close Handle" for the drive that you edited information on.

Reboot or load up the Disk Management console and import your drives. They will show up as foreign when you first view them, but that's perfectly fine.

Now get the data off of that drive, delete the partitions on said drive, and rebuild it.

That's it. Really.

If you can stay away from dynamic disks, do so at all costs. I'm not joking. I've found that it just causes more problems in the long run.

 

[GamezUK]

Thanks for that info!

My disk already has a status as a foreign disk...

I just noticed that when I try to import it windows says to add it to system configuration first... is this msconfig? Where do I add it?

I'm just trying to explore all the routes I can before I go to extremes.

Thanks again.

 

[DougLite]

Do NOT use feigned's method if there are spanned, striped, or RAID-5 volumes on the disk, you will totally hose them! That method only works on disks with simple or mirrored volumes, and it's probably a bad idea to change it back to a basic disk if it has more than four volumes on it (really, if it has more than one volume on it)

 

[GamezUK]

Thanks,

As it happens, there is just the one simple volume...

I found this:

"Just a thought.

Have you looked in System/Advanced/Startup & Recovery/Settings/Edit

You might find your X is not in boot.ini and, possibly editing it in might solve your problem"

Could that really be the issue? I've checked out my boot.ini and I can see no mention of the drive...

 

[feigned]

Thanks for that info!

My disk already has a status as a foreign disk...

I just noticed that when I try to import it windows says to add it to system configuration first... is this msconfig? Where do I add it?

I'm just trying to explore all the routes I can before I go to extremes.

Thanks again.

That's the LDM, IIRC. If it allows you to import it then go ahead...

If you can't do anything to import it then my method (which doesn't work with RAID volumes like DougLite said) should do the trick.

If it's just a data disk with one partition you'll be fine. Any more and yeah...you could be screwed.

 

[feigned]

Thanks,

As it happens, there is just the one simple volume...

I found this:

"Just a thought.

Have you looked in System/Advanced/Startup & Recovery/Settings/Edit

You might find your X is not in boot.ini and, possibly editing it in might solve your problem"

Could that really be the issue? I've checked out my boot.ini and I can see no mention of the drive...

It sounds like a data drive and not a system disk. If so, there won't be an entry in the boot.ini file for it because it has nothing to do with the operating system.

 

[GamezUK]

Great, thanks for all the help.

You'll all be pleased to hear that I got the data back (well, am in the process of) by trying something very simple.

I'm sure that all of your methods would have done the trick but I've been SO weary of playing around with disks and partitions (after having lost everything before!) that before trying feigned's method I stuck the disk in my other PC and booted up...

The situation was identical; Windows recognised the disk as a Foreign Dynamic disk. The difference though was that it let me import the disk (unlike my main PC) and then it worked fine! While I've got access to the disk I'm raring everything on it and sending it to my main PC. I'll then format the disk (as a basic disk) and put everything back on it (fingers crossed!).

Thanks loads to everyone. Can I just ask how something like this may have happened?

Lloyd

 

[feigned]

Thanks loads to everyone. Can I just ask how something like this may have happened?

Lloyd

The only reason I have those steps to revert back to a basic disk is that we were moving some disks to a newer server and the newer installation wouldn't recognize the dynamic disks...nor when we put them back into the older server so...

That's the only thing I can think of...it just didn't want to play nice for some reason. Not sure if anything would be in your event log about the dynamic disk LDM information being lost or not since it's copied to every dynamic disk system-wide, so that doesn't make sense.