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There are two kinds of disks in Windows OS: Convert Disk From Dynamic to Basic The main difference between the two is that the first is the disk type that Windows OS uses by default, while the second is what professionals and IT experts use to make volumes that span multiple disks and more complex fault-tolerant volumes (like mirrored and RAID-5) volumes.
Most importantly, dynamic disks do not work with Windows Home editions. So, you can’t use an internal or external hard drive that has become a dynamic disk volume. You can change a dynamic hard drive back to a basic one, but doing so deletes all the data on the drive for good, so you lose the data.
Convert Disk From Dynamic to Basic
Using Disk Conversion Software
- Install and open EaseUS Partition Master and go to Disk Converter.
- Select the disk conversion mode that suits your need:
- Convert Basic to Dynamic: change a Basic disk to Dynamic.
- Convert Dynamic to Basic: change a Dynamic disk to Basic.
- Select the target disk – Basic or Dynamic, confirm you’ve select the correct disk and click “Convert” to start.
with Disk Management
- To begin, you must open the Run window by pressing the Windows + R shortcut keys simultaneously.
- After that, enter diskmgmt. msc and press Enter.
- When the Disk Management window opens, right-click on the basic disk you wish to change and choose Convert to Dynamic Disk. When the Disk Management window closes, repeat the process.
- A pop-up window opens; choose the basic disk from the drop-down menu and then click OK.
Via CMD
- Open the command prompt by looking for it in the Start Menu and clicking on it.
- To begin, open a command prompt window and enter diskpart followed by the Enter key.
- Put list disk in the search box and press the Enter key. Write down the disk number you want to modify from Fixed to Dynamic.
- Select disk from the drop-down menu and press Enter.
- Type convert dynamic into the search box after choosing your disk and pressing Enter.
- When you’re done converting, put exit into the text box and hit Enter to complete the disk conversion process.
Why Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic
When the dynamic disk is changed to a basic disk in Windows 11, the partition scheme is more stable. When you convert a disk, it changes from a dynamic disk to a basic disk. This means that the disk’s partitions are no longer a single storage area that runs from one end to the other. Instead, each partition on the disk has its own allocation table and works as a separate volume.
In Windows 11, the main reason to change a dynamic disk to a basic disk is that the basic disk can support more than one boot configuration. It works with both newer and older versions of Windows. Most of the time, when people format such a disk drive, they change it from dynamic to basic because it works better and is more compatible.
What are Basic and Dynamic Disks?
In general, a computer has two types of hard drives: a Basic Disk and a Dynamic Disk. Basic Disk uses primary partitions and logical drivers, which can be formatted with a file system. These are better for people who use their computers at home to do basic, everyday tasks.
Dynamic Disks, on the other hand, use a Logical Disk Manager (LDM) or Virtual Disk Service (VDS) to keep track of the disk’s dynamic partitions. IT professionals and administrators use these most of the time because they have more features and help improve reliability and performance.
- Dynamic Disks help in creating volumes that span multiple disks. With this, you’ll be able to make better use of your available disk space by combining areas of unallocated space that are shared across many disks.
- Using dynamic disks, you can only create fault-tolerant volumes (RAID-5 or mirrored).
- You can also save data to different hard disks and create stiped volumes. These volumes improve the disk performance by allowing more than one disk to read and write data.