The safest way to resize dynamic disk - EASEUS Partition Master

Dynamic disk is a good choice for the people who want to maximize the hard drive performance, especially for some small companies or that for particular use. Compared to basic disk, dynamic disk has many advantages. However, it has two huge disadvantages, too. One is that if you convert a basic disk to dynamic, you cannot convert it back to basic without data loss in Disk Management, as you need to delete all dynamic volumes firstly before converting. The other is that in most conditions the dynamic volume still cannot be extended, especially for the system volume. Many people would encounter this problem if they need to increase dynamic disk. To offset the limitation of Disk Management and offer better solution for dynamic disk resizing, EASEUS Partition Master offers a powerful function to convert dynamic disk to basic so that to resize dynamic disk in a much more convenient and direct way.

This article will introduce dynamic disk in a nutshell and share how to resize dynamic disk indirectly and safely with EASEUS Partition Master and how to convert dynamic disk to basic without data loss.

What is Dynamic Disk?

A dynamic disk is a physical disk that provides features that basic disks do not, such as support for volumes spanning multiple disks. Dynamic disks use a hidden database to track information about dynamic volumes on the disk and other dynamic disks in the computer. A disk managed by a software RAID provider with support for flexible volume reconfiguration. A dynamic disk uses a partition as a container for volumes; there is no guaranteed mapping.

What is the dynamic volume resizing limitation in Disk Management?

Before Windows Vista, you cannot resize dynamic disk conveniently, you can only extend dynamic volume in Disk Management. Moreover, following operations are even impossible.

1. Extend System Volume/Boot Volume.

2. Expand Mirrored Volume.

3. Increase Striped Volume.

4. Extend RAID5 Volume.

5. Extend the Simple Volume which was converted from the basic disk of Windows XP/2003 that was upgraded from Windows 2000.

How to resize dynamic volume by converting dynamic disk to basic directly using EASEUS Partition Master?

EASEUS Partition Master software can convert the dynamic disk directly to basic disk to resize the partition in a direct and safe way. We highly recommend that you download our demo version and have a try before purchasing. While for more detailed guidance of how to archive this, please check out: How to safely extend or enlarge dynamic disk/volume under PC or Windows Server?

Besides partition manager features, EASEUS partition manager software also provides some other features like Partition Recovery Wizard to recover data, Disk & Partition Copy Wizard to upgrade or backup disk.

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

Simple Volume

After the Simple Volume being converted 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 converted to basic disk and resized on basic disk, at first you need to convert it to Simple Volume in Disk Management, then adding mirror with another dynamic disk.

Striped/Spanned/RAID5 Volume

Convert to Basic Disk feature in EASEUS Partition Master doesn't support Striped Volume, Spanned Volume and RAID 5 Volume. However, if you want to resize them, you can copy striped/spanned/RAID5 volume to basic disk and then resize the basic disk. By the way, these volumes can be converted to Simple Volume or Mirrored Volume only, as these Striped/Spanned/RAID5 dynamic volumes should be re-built in Disk Management.

The step by step instructions, please refer to Copy Dynamic Disk.

Tips:

1. This Convert to Basic Disk feature is unavailable in Linux bootable disk.

2. This Convert to Basic Disk feature can only process dynamic disk with simple and mirrored volumes. The other types of dynamic volume like spanned volume, striped volume are not supported. How to convert dynamic disk with mirrored volumes?

3. This Convert to Basic Disk feature can only support converting up to 4 simple volumes on dynamic disk. Because the basic disk based on MBR can only create up to 4 primary partitions.

4. All other operations are not available before "Convert to Basic Disk" is applied.

5. After converting, all volumes will be primary partitions.

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