Regarding Basic Disk convert to Dynamic Disk

Dynamic Disk is first introduced in Windows 2000 by Microsoft. This new type of disk can maximize all your servers' performance, especially on maximizing use of disk space. Convert basic disk to dynamic is recommended when you are running more than one hard disk. Because the dynamic disk allows you manage several hard disk at the same time.

How to convert basic disk to dynamic disk

With the new disk type introduced in Windows OS, new function is also be added in Windows built-in Disk Management. Only a few button click the conversion from basic disk to dynamic could be completed.

1. Log on Windows as Administrator Privilege, and click Start Menu ->Run, and then type "diskmgmt.msc" to open Windows Disk Management. (you could also right->click “my computer”->“management”->“disk management”)
2. Right-click the basic disk which you want to convert to dynamic, and click "Convert to Dynamic Disk" menu item (You must right-click the gray area that contains the disk title on the left side of the Details pane. For example, right-click Disk 1). The graph is below:
   
   
3. Select the check box that is next to the disk that you want to convert (if it is not already selected), and then click OK as follows:
   
   
   
   And then click OK button to open the following dialog, you can view about details:
   
   
   
   So, click Convert button to work this conversion
4. Click “Yes” when you are prompted to convert, and then start this conversion, in addition your computer could be restarted during the process.
   
   After converting to dynamic disk, then you could manage it free. To manage dynamic disk, although the built-in Disk Management could do some basic job, such as create volume/delete volume/format volume, however, for more advanced task, it could not be handled enough. Therefore, we need a better dynamic disk tool to assist us managing dynamic disk well. AOMEI Dynamic Disk Manager is the one that special designed for dynamic disk management. It could not only provide you the basic function as before but also several advanced features such as: ,resize volume (include operation on system volume), move volume slice, and convert disk between basic disk and dynamic disk, convert GPT disk to MBR. Here you could view its fresh interface:
   
   

Notice before convert basic disk to Dynamic

1. Disk Space Issues while converting Basic Disk to Dynamic Disk. The disk space issues means is about the 1MB space at the disk end. Dynamic Disk uses the 1MB free space which is intended to track all information about dynamic volumes on the system. The basic disk must contain the 1MB space that is not partitioned at its end. This space is required to record the information for dynamic disk. If the 1MB space does not is found by Windows, the system generates errors related to insufficient disk space for this conversion. To solve the problem, we suggest you shrink the last partition by using like Partition Assistant, in order to empty the 1MB free space for upgrading a basic disk to a dynamic disk
2. For a clustered server platform, a basic disk can't be converted into a dynamic disk. For example, If Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition or Windows 2008 Datacenter Edition is configured as a cluster, and then the shared storage system can't be upgraded as a dynamic disk.
3. To the people who had added the ghost point on there hard disk, dynamic disk could not be supported by ghost; it could only work on basic disk.
4. For a removable external disk, can't be converted to dynamic disk. A simple reason is that set up a spanned volume or striped volume on the removable disk, if the disk was removed from the system, the spanned or striped volume would be broken.
5. 5. For the laptop, or the people who has only one hard disk, even if the disk can be converted to dynamic disk, we still do not recommend doing so. The main reason for the two, first, the laptop really should not be running on a server platform anyway; second, most laptops only have one hard disk, and dynamic disk could gain a few benefits on the single disk environment.

As you see there are some situations that we do not suggest you convert disk to dynamic, do not worry about this, you could also manage your disk under basic disk, by using AOMEI Partition Assistant which is regarded as the latest “Partition Magic” by most computer users.

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