Dynamic to basic disk?

Assuming there are no mirror sets, extended partitions, and no more than 4
partitions on a disk, WHY IN THE WORLD doesn't Microsoft provide code that
lets us convert a dynamic disk volume to a basic volume without losing
data?

I have a mirrored disk (boot disk) on our server that I would like to make
larger. I should be able to break the mirror, convert the volume to basic,
delete the partition following the boot partition (which is a backup boot
partition), use DISKPART to extend the volume, then convert back to a
dynamic again and recreate the mirror.

(I am aware that I can extend a volume on a dynamic disk, into any
unallocated space, but I want to make sure it becomes one contiguous
partition.)

There are other reasons that we might want to convert dynamic to basic --
for example, using Partition Magic or its cousins... most of which only
work on basic disks. Having to lose all of the data just seems like the
programmers didn't want to be bothered with writing this code. Surely it's
not rocket science! I could look into writing a utility myself, except I
understand that the format of the dynamic disk database is not documented.

Ugh.


David Walker
.

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