How to copy/clone dynamic volume to basic disk and resize dynamic disk indirectly?

To maximize the performance of dynamic volume, you may use Disk Management which provides some useful features. However, when the volume which contains your Operating System is out of space and you need to extend this volume to make sure the Operating System can work normally, you may find Disk Management doesn't allow you to extend system volume. Actually, the extend function built in the Disk Management is not available for system volume, boot volume, Striped Volume, Mirrored Volume and RAID 5 Volume. Then some third party partition software like EASEUS Partition Master will help you copy dynamic disk to basic or convert dynamic disk to basic and extend/resize dynamic volumes indirectly.

We know no software is available to directly resize dynamic disk now, but EASEUS Partition Master provides a safe alternative to it, that is, copy the dynamic volume to unallocated space on basic disk or convert dynamic disk to basic and then resize this basic disk (How to resize the basic disk?). If your dynamic disk is setting with simple volume or mirrored volume, we suggest you choose "Convert to basic disk" function to convert dynamic disk to basic disk firstly, and then resize this basic disk; while if your dynamic disk is setting with spanned, striped volume or RAID 5, the second method "Copy Dynamic Volume Wizard" function is suggested to safely copy dynamic disk to basic disk and resize this basic disk. After resized the partition, you may remain the basic disk to use or convert the basic disk to dynamic disk (If you want to rebuild Mirrored volume, please add mirror) again in Windows Disk Management, just as you like.

Besides, please be noted that these features - Convert to Basic Disk and Copy Dynamic Volume work only under Windows; it is not supported under bootable CD.

For Convert to basic disk function, please refer to detailed instruction to convert simple volume or mirrored volume to basic disk. And for Copy Wizard to copy dynamic disk and then resize partition, follow instructions below:

1. Wizard -> Copy Dynamic Volume

2. Click dynamic volume copy icon on toolbar.

Follow the steps below to copy dynamic volume and resize the volume indirectly: (In this case, suppose you want to copy and resize the system volume.)

1. The initial hard drive configuration.

You may find that the free space of system C: volume is not enough and needs to be extended.

2. Extend the volume by using Disk Management tool.

A box pops up and indicates that the volume cannot be extended, because it is the system volume.

3. Then you may turn to EASEUS Partition Master. Run this program, and then start "Wizard" > "Copy Dynamic Volume" or click "Copy Dynamic Volume" on the toolbar.

4. EASEUS Partition Master will list all existing volumes. Select the system volume C: and click "Next".

5. The program automatically checks the volume to make copy operation faster and smoother.

6. Choose an unallocated space on a basic disk and click "Next".

7. Edit the destination partition, you can drag the borderline to resize partition or drag the central place to move the partition.

8. Click "Finish", the operation will be added to "Operations Pending" panel on the main window.

Attention: If the dynamic disk you copy is not the system volume, ticking box in step 9 is not a must while step 10 and step 11 can be ignored.

9. Click "Apply" button and tick the check-box in the pop-up window.

10. After rebooting and completing the operation, EASEUS Partition Master will shut down the computer automatically.

11. Replace the source dynamic disk that contains the system volume with the destination basic disk, and then boot the computer. (You may see the copy of C: partition has been extended.)

12. Convert the basic disk back to dynamic.

13. You may see that the volume has been extended successfully in the Disk Management tool.

For different volume types, the situations are different when converting basic disk back to dynamic:

Simple Volume

After the Simple Volume being copied or converted to basic disk and resized on a basic disk, you can convert the basic partition back to Simple Volume in Disk Management without difficulty.

Mirrored Volume

If you want to convert the Mirrored Volume back after being copied and resized on the basic disk, you can convert it to Simple Volume in Disk Management first, then adding mirror with another dynamic disk.

Striped/Spanned/RAID5 Volume

If you want to convert them back to dynamic volumes after being copied and resized on the basic disk, these volumes should be converted to Simple Volume or Mirrored Volume.

Tips:

1. This feature works under Windows only, and it is not supported under bootable CD.

2. The source volume should be FAT file system or NTFS.

3. If the source volume is the system boot volume, please make sure there is no boot partition on the destination disk, otherwise the system on destination partition may fail to boot after copy.

4. The destination disk should be larger than the used space of source dynamic volume.

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