Re: Dynamic to basic disk?

DWalker wrote:
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.

http://mypkb.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/how-to-non-destructively-convert-dynamic-disks-to-basic-disks/

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


.

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