AOMEI Partition Assistant
SSD Dynamic Disk: What Is It And How to Convert?
This post will tell you what is SSD dynamic disk. It will introduce the dynamic and basic disk, then give fair advice for you to convert SSD to dynamic disk or not.
By Tina / Updated on May 12, 2023
Should I convert my SSD to dynamic disk?
Okay, sorry to say but I'm baffled. Dynamic disks, as far as I'm aware, are supposed to better, but they can only be used with certain types of Windows products. I've also just had a brand new drive fail on me, and apparently one fix is to turn it into a basic drive. The disk I'm using is a 1.5TB WD15EARS, it is a non-system drive ONLY used for installing games on. If anyone could give me some pointers here I'd really appreciate it.
- Question from forums.tomshardware.com
Dynamic disk vs. Basic disk: what's the difference?
Dynamic disks and basic disks are two types of storage, and they're quite different:
Basic disk is the most commonly used disk in Windows. After the hard disk is initialized, it is set as the base disk by default. Basic disks store data on individual basic partitions, and you can manage the space by resizing partitions, formatting partitions, etc.
Dynamic disk stores data through the Logical Disk Manager (LDM). You can create more than 32 dynamic volumes on your system, including simple volumes, RAID-5 volumes, Spanned volumes, Striped volumes and mirrored volumes.
Dynamic disks can do something that are not allowed on basic disks. For example, you can easily extend a volume on a dynamic disk even if the unallocated space is not immediately adjacent to it.
Because of the flexibility of dynamic disks, many users want to convert SSD to dynamic disk.
How to convert SSD to dynamic disk (2 ways)
If you want to own an SSD dynamic hard disk, please read this section carefully. We will share 2 methods to convert the basic to dynamic disk.
Please be attention, when you meet the following condition, you can't convert to dynamic disk:
★ When you downgrade the Windows OS.
★ When there are multiple operating systems on the target SSD/HDD.
★ When there are unknown partitions on the hard disk, such as OEM partitions.
★ When there is not enough free space on the disk.
✦ Method 1. Convert SSD to dynamic disk via Diskpart
Diskpart is a command-line tool to manage the hard disk, you can resize, format, initialize the partitions on it. It can also convert to dynamic disk with entered commands.
Step 1. Press “Windows+R” to open the Run program, then enter "diskpart" and hit "Enter".
Step 2. Then input the commands below, and press "Enter" each time:
• list disk
• select disk n("n" refers to the drive letter of the target disk.)
• convert dynamic disk
✦ Method 2. Convert SSD to dynamic disk with Disk Management
Disk Management, which is another built-in tool also enables you to let SSD convert to dynamic disk.
Tip: When the HDD/SSD is a MBR disk, and its size is larger than 2TB, you need to convert MBR to GPT first, or you'll be failed.
Step 1. Press "Windows", then input "diskmgmt.msc" and press "Enter". After opening Disk Management, right-click the target SSD and click "Convert to Dynamic Disk".
Step 2. Tick the target disk and click "OK" in the popped out window.
Step 3. Then click "Convert", a message will popped to tell you the consequence of changing the disk to dynamic disk, click "Yes".
Convert SSD to dynamic disk without losing data (hot)
As you can see, the methods mentioned have certain flaws: Dispart is not friendly to people unfamiliar with PC, and Disk Management has partition style and size restrictions. Therefore, you can adopt a more user-friendly disk manager - AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.
After a few simple clicks, you can easily get an SSD dynamic disk. You no longer have to worry about complicated commands and weird restrictions. Also, if you want to convert the dynamic disk to basic, it also can help you.
Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, right-click the disk and click "Dynamic Disk Manager".
Step 2. In the new window, right-click the SSD and click "Convert to Dynamic Disk".
Step 3. Tick the basic disk (Disk 2) and click "OK".
Step 4. Press "Commit" to preview the effect.
Step 5. Click "Proceed" to start this operation.
Step 6. After a while, you will get an SSD dynamic disk.
How to manage SSD dynamic disk easily and safely
In addition to converting to a dynamic disk, it also supports dynamic disk management, which can help you manage dynamic disk volumes more effectively.
Like basic disk, you can also create partitions on dynamic disks, and these partitions are called volumes. When the volume of the dynamic disk runs out of space, you may need to extend it.
Step 1. In the main interface, open"Dynamic Disk Manager".
Step 2. In the new window, right-click the target drive, then click "Resize/Move Volume".
Step 3. Drag the circle to adjust the size of the target drive, then click "OK".
Final word
How to get an HDD/SSD dynamic disk? In this post, we have introduced what is the dynamic and basic disk, and provided 3 methods to convert the target disk to dynamic disk. By compared with each others, the AOMEI Partition Assistant can be the best one.
