Change a dynamic disk back to a basic disk: Storage Services; Local File Systems

Categories: Technology

I was looking all over for this and found the solution at TechNet. I had a disk that was a slave drive from a dead computer, and I want to make this 1TB hard drive the new drive for a computer. When I tried to install Windows via the Windows 7 DVD, I got the error

windows cannot be installed to this disk space. the partition contains one or more dynamic volumes.

Here’s the fix when only having the Win7 DVD-

When the first Windows installer image appears, select to “Repair” the copmuter, then the Command Line.

Using a command line

  1. Back up all volumes on the disk you want to convert from dynamic to basic.For more information about backing up volumes, see Related Topics.
  2. Open Command Prompt.
  3. Type:diskpart
  4. At the DISKPART prompt, type:list disk

    Make note of the dynamic disk you want to convert to a basic disk.

  5. At the DISKPART prompt, type:select diskn
  6. At the DISKPART prompt, type:detail diskn
  7. For each volume on the disk, at the DISKPART prompt, type:select volume=n

    and then type:

    delete volume

  8. At the DISKPART prompt, type:select diskn

    Specify the disk number of the disk that you want to convert to a basic disk.

  9. At the DISKPART prompt, type:convert basic

via Change a dynamic disk back to a basic disk: Storage Services; Local File Systems.

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