10 replies to this topic

[markymoo]

Hi,

I like to share with you my method. I had a 400gb sata drive and xp wont see the data after install until you add it to Disk Management as a Dynamic Disk because somehow it became a dynamic disk in the past. I not sure why. For it to be seen as a Basic Disk like all the rest of your drives you have to convert it to Basic but this means you lose all your data so say Microsoft. I didn't want to lose 400gb of data. Haha. So here's a hack to convert it to a Basic Disk without losing any data. It also means i can access the drive in dos properly too. Welcome...


First download this great disk editor - No need to install. http://mh-nexus.de/hxd/ - Will also open disk images.

By default it reads your disks Read Only so goto Extras - Options and untick 'Read Only by Default.

Next goto Extras and select Open Disk and select the right Physical Disk of the drive you want to become Basic Disk.

Once opened you see the first sector on display like so.



It should read 42 at sector 0 location 1C2. Change it to 07 and then click the save icon at the top to save back to the drive. Now reboot and run chkdsk drive: /f after.

Thats it, it's now a Basic Disk.

Basic Disk Storage

Basic storage uses normal partition tables supported by MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. A disk initialized for basic storage is called a basic disk. A basic disk contains basic volumes, such as primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives. Additionally, basic volumes include multidisk volumes that are created by using Windows NT 4.0 or earlier, such as volume sets, stripe sets, mirror sets, and stripe sets with parity. Windows XP does not support these multidisk basic volumes. Any volume sets, stripe sets, mirror sets, or stripe sets with parity must be backed up and deleted or converted to dynamic disks before you install Windows XP Professional.

Dynamic Disk Storage

Dynamic storage is supported in Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. A disk initialized for dynamic storage is called a dynamic disk. A dynamic disk contains dynamic volumes, such as simple volumes, spanned volumes, striped volumes, mirrored volumes, and RAID-5 volumes. With dynamic storage, you can perform disk and volume management without the need to restart Windows.

You cannot create mirrored volumes or RAID-5 volumes on Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP 64-Bit Edition-based computers. However, you can use a Windows XP Professional-based computer to create a mirrored or RAID-5 volume on remote computers that are running Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, or the Standard, Enterprise and Data Center versions of Windows Server 2003.Storage types are separate from the file system type. A basic or dynamic disk can contain any combination of FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS partitions or volumes. A disk system can contain any combination of storage types. However, all volumes on the same disk must use the same storage type.

[TheHive]

My drive just bellied up for some reason.
I dont want to loose the data that is in the partitions that use to be on the drive.
Will this method see all the partitions.

I tried the drive on a USB external drive case and the Drive is recognized as being a drive, but the partitions or its contents are not being seen by Windows XP. So im trying to to rescure my partitions if possible.

[markymoo]

I think i must of setup the drive as a dynamic drive in xp and use it fine but when i reinstalled the drive was not seen seen as default. I had to import as a dynamic disk for the drive letter to appear and the data to be seen. I thought i might lose my data but its fine. It became annoying so i wanted to appear as a basic disk like all my other drives as default and wanted to backup disk images to it in dos, so i did this hack otherwise i would had to wipe the drive and recreate it to basic. I had no space to backup 400gb. My method is for drives that are not faulty but are seen by windows as a dynamic disk. In your case it be wise to try disk recovery software if it gone bad first. Does the drive show up with a filing system on it? or does it show up as all in red as bad unidentified drive in recovery software. Try R-Studio http://www.data-recovery-software.net/ Recovery s/w will try to read the drive if it cant work out what filing system it is say if the boot sector been blown out so you can still save your data.

[Alexei]

It should read 42 at sector 0 location 1C2. Change it to 07 and then click the save icon at the top to save back to the drive.

This works only on Basic disks converted to "dynamic".
As I remember (not 100% sure, though) right click on a drive in a disk manager may show "convert to basic".
If it doesn't it's no possible.

@The Hive,
Can you please run HDTune "Error Scan"?
It seems your MBR is damaged. There are tools to fix it. BTW, was it Dynamic or Basic disk?

Alexei

[was_jaclaz]

@markimoo
Of course that applies if the partition (before becoming "42") was 07 (i.e. NTFS).
To those less prone to use disk editors, beeblebrox:
http://students.cs.byu.edu/~codyb/
or PTEDIT32 can do the same in a more "friendly" environment.

@TheHive
First thing to try is testdisk:
http://www.cgsecurit...g/wiki/TestDisk

If the problem is only related to the MBR (and eventually EPT) partition entries it can restore the lost partitions in no time.

jaclaz

[markymoo]

@Alexei

This is exactly my point and why i did it this way. Once you convert a drive to Dynamic you can't convert it back to Basic in Disk Management without losing all your data even if there was the option to right click in the Disk Ids(dark grey boxes) it will unallocate the partititon and wipe it all again setup as Basic. You have to unallocate the partition first to get to Basic normally. You can't go backwards but you can with the hack. So yes it is possible with the method i described and keep all your data. The title stated Dynamic disk back to Basic that was once a Basic

@Jaclaz
Yes i should have stated NTFS. Disk Id 07. I was assuming most people who have a 400gb would sanely setup as NTFS

Thanks for the suggestion of the tools. The one i recommended has no install procedure. Is a freeware too

[TheHive]

I think I have a Basic Disk. I dont have it set up in RAID.

Things Ill keep in mind after going and reading more about them

HDTune "Error Scan"

testdisk - http://www.cgsecurit...g/wiki/TestDisk

R-Studio


Does it matter if I have it brought up as USB drive, or shouls I have it connected to one of my IDE cables.
Using USB the Drive is seen but not the partitions. With IDE connection, the drive is not seen.

Thanks!

[markymoo]

It's fine coming up as USB disk from you external as long as it can see the drive and it reports the correct size. The drive isn't physically damaged as it shows up. It's corrupt. Use the recovery software to scan the disk and save any data to another disk.

[crashman]

MUCH EASIER WAY,

Get all the data off the dynanmic disk to another. Then, simply use a Win98 SE boot disk which you can get on bootdisk.com, enter fdisk hit yes when asked if you want to enable 32 bit disk, then clik Delete the partition. When you do this you'll get a selection, chose to delete the non-dos partition. Then chose add a partition and select all the defaults. You'll end up with an active dos 32 partition. After that, you can use any partitioning tool you want to do whatever. Dynamic partitions are not my thing and XP makes it all to easy to make them with no way of getting them back.
PS: This will not work with external drive cases, you have to take out the drive and connect it to the PC ALONE to do it without any chance of screwing your other data up and it will erase the dynamic disk forever.

[Endoscopy]

I had a friend that upgraded his computer from 2000 to XP and his data disk couldn't be recognized because it was a dynamic disk. I took it, put it on my computer, and ran a recovery program on it. I copied everything to a USB disk. I reformatted his disk to a basic disk and copied the data back to it and gave it back to him.

[user110]

Hi,

I like to share with you my method. I had a 400gb sata drive and xp wont see the data
.........

I discovered a similer method with you. Also, converting a Dynamic Disk back to a Basic Disk visit the page: http://www.articlesb...ta-1215239.html for detailed.