Help! I changed something in Disk Management.

[don69]

I don't know what I did. I have one physical hard drive that I partitioned in three partitions when I installed Windows 7 RC (and a 4th "System Reserve, created by Windows). Windows 7 is installed on the first partition, the other two has not been formatted yet. Then today, I went in to Disk Management to change the size of the partitions and to add another one (for other test installations of Windows).

As I played around with sizes, I deleted, created and shrunk the various unused partitions. All of a sudden after I did something, all the partitions now no longer say "Primary Partition". The blue color on top of the partitions also changed to a yellow/brownish color. My guess is that they have been converted to a Simple Volume instead of a Basic Volume, so that a partition could be spread out on both sides of another partition. The disk itself is still a Dynamic Disk. But by right-clicking I can't see anywhere where to convert a Simple Volume to a Basic Volume, if that is even what I should do.

Does anyone know what I did, and how I can get things back to how they were. Did I do any harm?

I'm a bit confused about the terminology, Simple Volume, Basic Volume, Basic Disk, Dynamic Disk, Primary Partition, Extended Partition etc.

Thanks for any help.

 

[starams5]

Hi D

Disk Management is not the best tool for managing partitions. I personally use Paragon (DOS) which basically allows me to do anything I want including deleting and moving files. Unfortunately you have to pay for it but I'll link you to some freeware. Repartition the other space as primary also, however, do not set to active. You should only have one active partition.
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/partitioneditors.shtml

 

[don69]

Hi D
Repartition the other space as primary also, however, do not set to active. You should only have one active partition.

Hi starams5,

I don't think I should need any additional partitioning software. My needs are very modest. I just need to create 4 partitions on the same drive, not resize existing partitions etc.

Do you, or anyone else, know how to change a Simple Volume back to a Primary Partition? In XP, I think you could to do this by right-clicking, but no such option in Win 7?

I now have one partition with my Windows 7 installation, which says it's a Simple Volume on a Dynamic Disk. The rest of the space is unallocated. There's also a 100 MB System reserved partition. How can I change my main C: partition back to a Primary Partition instead of a Simple Volume?

 

[don69]

After searching the web some more, I think I converted my drive from a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk, thus the Primary Partition changed to a Simple Volume. As I understand, there's no way to change that back without losing data (the @Convert to Basic Disk command is grayed out).

I would appreciate if someone could explain what implications this will have. The system seems to run normally, but if there is any disadvantages, I'd prefer to reinstall Win 7 now, rather than later when I have more software installed.

 

[Guest]

You can convert back this from downloading the following software
http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Partition-Master-Home-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html

After installing this software you have to go to Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk which is Disk tab
Then it will ask for restart computer.
After rebooting you can see it changed.

 

[nks]

Hey Don did you find any reliable solutions yet?

The same thing happened to my lappy and now I am scarred to restart. Did you restart your comp after this issue?
Please let me know if you ever find a solution for this.

best
K

After searching the web some more, I think I converted my drive from a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk, thus the Primary Partition changed to a Simple Volume. As I understand, there's no way to change that back without losing data (the @Convert to Basic Disk command is grayed out).

I would appreciate if someone could explain what implications this will have. The system seems to run normally, but if there is any disadvantages, I'd prefer to reinstall Win 7 now, rather than later when I have more software installed.

 

[don69]

Hey Don did you find any reliable solutions yet? The same thing happened to my lappy and now I am scarred to restart. Did you restart your comp after this issue?

Hi nks,

unfortunately I don't remember how things went. This happened 9 months ago which is an eternity in Windows-land.

Either I solved the problem by following the advice in this thread or I may have ended up repartitioning the HD and reinstalling Win 7 RC. I have since then reformatted the HD once again to install the release version of Windows 7.

I'm not sure about the boot thing, but I would guess that you should be able to reboot without any problems. Just make sure you have a backup before you do. Good luck!

 

[nks]

thanks for the advice,

No problems as yet. Will reformat in due time.

 

[Guest]

Hi D

I am facing the same problem you faced. I wanted to know what you did finally? Did you re-installed windows 7 again or you just downloaded some software to make the windows partition primary. Also tell if you faced some problem in operating the system. It would be of great help.

Thanks....
Bond007 !!!

 

[James_18]

Hi D

I am facing the same problem you faced. I wanted to know what you did finally? Did you re-installed windows 7 again or you just downloaded some software to make the windows partition primary. Also tell if you faced some problem in operating the system. It would be of great help.

Thanks....
Bond007 !!!

I had this have problem too and finally fixed it if it is your primary hdd then it is complicated to fix if not it is very easy

here are the steps to fix it

1. If you are still in windows do not shutdown make all the data backups you can
2. ether get a secondary external hdd or use a secondary internal if you hve one (i had one)
3. shut down windows 7 and it will not boot back up don"t worry
4.install windows 7 on the SECONDARY hdd
5.download http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Partition-Master-Home-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html and instal on fresh instaled os
6.open program and right click on your old C: now should be called D: depending how windows instaled and change it to basic without data loss by right clicking it
7. it may prompt you to reboot do it if not reboot any way and go to step 9.
8. load the fresh instaled windows 7 and make sure all actions complited
9. load your main windows 7 and delete the fresh windows install partition
10. shutdown boot from windows 7 disk and choose the repair option follow the on screen promts and reboot

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey