Vista - dynamic disks

i know that you can convert the basic disks of the hard drive to dynamic to
access mirror and striping raid type backup systems, but will i be able to
convert back to ntfs if i decided not to have it, i have totally forgot
about this, i think i know i cant but am i correct?

"Squibbly" wrote:

> i know that you can convert the basic disks of the hard drive to dynamic to
> access mirror and striping raid type backup systems, but will i be able to
> convert back to ntfs if i decided not to have it, i have totally forgot
> about this, i think i know i cant but am i correct?

Dynamic disks must be NTFS already as only NTFS supports dynamic disks.
You can convert Basic disks to Dynamic disks without data loss but
converting back to Basic means a reformat.
You can convert FAT32 disks to NTFS using the 'convert' command, but not
from NTFS back to FAT32.

"Peter" <Peter@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:20661202-F0D2-4651-91FA-AC5D829CDBA6@microsoft.com...
>
> "Squibbly" wrote:
>
>> i know that you can convert the basic disks of the hard drive to dynamic
>> to
>> access mirror and striping raid type backup systems, but will i be able
>> to
>> convert back to ntfs if i decided not to have it, i have totally forgot
>> about this, i think i know i cant but am i correct?
>
> Dynamic disks must be NTFS already as only NTFS supports dynamic disks.
> You can convert Basic disks to Dynamic disks without data loss but
> converting back to Basic means a reformat.
> You can convert FAT32 disks to NTFS using the 'convert' command, but not
> from NTFS back to FAT32.
>

oh thats what i forgot to turn it back to basic you got to format cheers

"Peter" <Peter@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:20661202-F0D2-4651-91FA-AC5D829CDBA6@microsoft.com...
>
> "Squibbly" wrote:
>
>> i know that you can convert the basic disks of the hard drive to
>> dynamic to
>> access mirror and striping raid type backup systems, but will i be
>> able to
>> convert back to ntfs if i decided not to have it, i have totally
>> forgot
>> about this, i think i know i cant but am i correct?
>
> Dynamic disks must be NTFS already as only NTFS supports dynamic
> disks.

It's not true. We can convert any internal basic disk with FAT32 or NTFS
partitions to dynamic disk.

> You can convert Basic disks to Dynamic disks without data loss but
> converting back to Basic means a reformat.

It's not true. We can convert dynamic disk back to basic disk without
data loss. It's enough changing all dynamic partition ID (usually 0x42)
to suitable ID (NTFS - 0x07, FAT32 - 0x0B or 0x0C) in disk partition
table.

> You can convert FAT32 disks to NTFS using the 'convert' command, but
> not
> from NTFS back to FAT32.

It's possible using any advanced partitioning tool like for ex. Paragon
Partition Manager.
--
Michal Kawecki [Windows - Shell/User MVP]
Warsaw, PL