We’ll, our primary 75GB drive looks like its failing, I took a new 750GB (!!) drive and made a 700GB data and 50GB system area, but in order to install Windows XP on the 50GB section, I need to make it recognizable. Apparently, only certain types of partitions can be used for Windows XP. Here’s how to convert a dynamic partition back into a Basic disk. “Basic”:http://www.d-silence.com/feature.php?id=246 are those partitions used in previous Windows before Windows 2000. Dynamic was introduced to allow you to do RAID dynamically. Basically, for most users, you should never need to go to dynamic disk although it lets you change the size of a partition and the space doesn’t have to be contiguous and you can RAID striped for more performance.
How To Convert to Basic and Dynamic Disks in Windows XP Professional
How to Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk To change a dynamic disk back to a basic disk. You basically have to backup and format it again.
# Back up all the data on all the volumes on the disk you want to convert to a basic disk.
# Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
# Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
# Click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.
# In the left pane, click Disk Management.
# Right-click a volume on the dynamic disk that you want to change to a basic disk, and then click Delete Volume
# Click Yes when you are prompted to delete the volume.
# Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each volume on the dynamic disk.
# After you have deleted all the volumes on the dynamic disk, right-click the dynamic disk that you want to change to a basic disk, and then click Convert to Basic Disk.
