Windows 2003 built-in Disk Management utility allows users to convert basic disk to dynamic easily, but the process of converting back to basic is not that simple. However, this article will introduce how to convert Server 2003 dynamic disk to basic with all data protected.
There are two types of physical disk configurations: basic disk and dynamic disk. A disk initialized for basic storage is called basic disk. It contains basic volumes, such as primary/extended/logical drives. A disk initialized for dynamic storage is called dynamic disk, and Windows 2000 introduces the concept of dynamic disk. It has many advantages compared with basic disk:
Dynamic disk’s disk and volume management tasks are performed without having to restart the computer afterward.
With dynamic disk, you can create volumes that span multiple disks.
You can extend a simple or spanned volume on dynamic disk.
You can create an unlimited number of volumes on dynamic disk.
A dynamic disk can contain simple volumes, spanned volumes, striped volumes, mirrored volumes, and RAID-5 volumes.
When you first install Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Windows 7/8/10/11, and Windows Server 2003/2008 (R2)/2012 (R2)/2016/2019, all disks are initialized as basic. While you can easily convert basic disk to dynamic disk without losing any data through Disk Management or third party software.
Although there are so many advantages of dynamic disk, you still have many problems which make you have to convert dynamic disk to basic disk. For example, if you have to install the Windows Server 2003 but the dynamic disk does not allow you to, then you need to change dynamic disks back to basic. However, convert dynamic disk to basic disk isn’t a simple thing as converting basic disk to dynamic. You have to delete all the volumes on the dynamic disk and then convert the empty disk to basic.
You may wonder that is there any other methods to convert dynamic disk to basic with all data protected. Well, fortunately, you can take some third party software to convert dynamic disk to basic without deleting easily.
AOMEI Partition Assistant Server offers a great feature Dynamic Disk Converter which can help you convert dynamic disk to basic disk without deleting the existing volumes. With this utility, you can convert your dynamic disk back to basic without much effort. Let's have a look at how it works:
✍ You can download the demo version of AOMEI Partition Assistant Server to have a try at first.
Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. To convert dynamic disk to basic disk, click “Convert” in the top toolbar, and choose “Dynamic Disk Converter”.
Step 2. It launches AOMEI Dynamic Disk Converter. Click "Next" to continue.
Step 3. Choose one between "Convert a dynamic disk back to basic disk" and "Convert any dynamic volume to basic partition". Here we choose Method 1. Then, click "Next".
Step 4. Select the dynamic disk that you want to convert to basic disk and click "Next".
Step 5. Here will show you the dynamic disk will be converted to basic disk after reboot, click "OK" to proceed.
Besides converting dynamic disk into basic without data loss, AOMEI Partition Assistant Server can also help you clone hard drive, recover deleted partition, convert MBR to GPT for Windows 11 without data loss in Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019.
