Question Basic disk became Dynamic (Foreign) Why ?

yossibac

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Dec 2, 2021
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An IDE drive is a Basic disk when using Windows 7 but turns into Dynamic Disk (Foreign) in Windows 10 installation.
What is happening? It's the same hardware. I disconnected all the hard drives from my Desktop PC and then connected a new hard drive and installed Windows 10 on it.

Now upon reconnecting the IDE drive it's showing as Dynamic (Foreign) in Disk Manager. I can probably import it back, but what is happening here?
All my SATA hard drives are normal, only the IDE is a problem.
When reconnecting the old hard drive with the old Windows 7 installation, everything is normal.
Could somebody explain that behaviour please? Thanks.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Make and model disk, capacity, how full?

When "labeled" as Dynamic Disk does the disk still function as expected?

No problems, errors, etc...?

RAID environment ?

Overall, my thought is that Windows 10 is simply recognizing features and functions available via the drive that Windows 7 did not recognize.

FYI:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/basic-and-dynamic-disks

Open Disk Management, expand the window so that all can be seen. Take a screenshot and post the screenshot here via imgur (www.imgur.com).
 
An IDE drive is a Basic disk when using Windows 7 but turns into Dynamic Disk (Foreign) in Windows 10 installation.
What is happening?
Please show screenshots from Disk Management.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

If a drive is dynamic, then it is dynamic in every OS.
It can not be basic in windows 7 and dynamic in windows 10.

Dynamic drives have to be imported, when moved to a different OS or different PC.
 

yossibac

Commendable
Dec 2, 2021
140
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If a drive is dynamic, then it is dynamic in every OS.
It can not be basic in windows 7 and dynamic in windows 10.

Dynamic drives have to be imported, when moved to a different OS or different PC.
This is true hence my question
It's a Seagate IDE 500gb, sorry cannot pull it out to look for model. However, there's nothing wrong with it,
I've been using it for storage for years with Windows 7, no problems at all, got 2 partitions and plenty of room.
Now under Windows 10 it looks like this (please see photo) and of course not functioning.
I've returned to Windows 7 and already copied all the contents, but I'd like to learn and get to the bottom of it.
In Bios, it's fine in both operating systems.

View: https://imgur.com/a/K00fZKp
 
This is true hence my question
It's a Seagate IDE 500gb, sorry cannot pull it out to look for model. However, there's nothing wrong with it,
I've been using it for storage for years with Windows 7, no problems at all, got 2 partitions and plenty of room.
Now under Windows 10 it looks like this (please see photo) and of course not functioning.
I've returned to Windows 7 and already copied all the contents, but I'd like to learn and get to the bottom of it.
In Bios, it's fine in both operating systems.

View: https://imgur.com/a/K00fZKp
right click it and select "import foreign discs", that should show you list of discs groups that can be imported, once you continue, it should show you disc volumes, once you confirm it, drive should be visible now
 
Now under Windows 10 it looks like this (please see photo) and of course not functioning.
Import it.

foreign-dynamic-disk.png


If you want to convert it to basic, then
delete all partitions on the disk,
right-click on disk and choose "Convert to basic".
 

yossibac

Commendable
Dec 2, 2021
140
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right click it and select "import foreign discs", that should show you list of discs groups that can be imported, once you continue, it should show you disc volumes, once you confirm it, drive should be visible now
I know that, but why did it happen in the first place?
 
Just something I noticed, not sure how it relates to the problem: One disk shows as EFI. This is the newer partitioning scheme. The other one shows as a "primary partition", and this is the older BIOS style partition. In order to boot from EFI, the motherboard BIOS would have to be set to allow EFI/UEFI (modern) partition schemes. In order to boot from old style BIOS partitioning, the "legacy" boot mode would have to be enabled. To boot from either, the BIOS would have to be set to support either mode. To actually use those disks (as opposed to booting from them), only the mode of the boot disk needs to be supported (you could still use the other disk, you just wouldn't be booting from it). However, I see the possibility that if the operating system uses the BIOS of the motherboard for marking something about a disk, that the support or lack of support for legacy or UEFI might change how the disk appears.
 
I know that, but why did it happen in the first place?
Because some time before you have converted this disk to dynamic (in windows 7).
You may not have noticed it.
Usually happens, when you want to extend a partition in disk management, but free space is not next to the partition, you're extending.
You get a warning, but you dismiss/ignore it and later forget.

SktKNC9CQto3MfQbJFxd9OvqaNgVqZ9w1s3NXjhcNPw.jpg
 

yossibac

Commendable
Dec 2, 2021
140
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1,595
Because some time before you have converted this disk to dynamic (in windows 7).
You may not have noticed it.
Usually happens, when you want to extend a partition in disk management, but free space is not next to the partition, you're extending.
You get a warning, but you dismiss/ignore it and later forget.

SktKNC9CQto3MfQbJFxd9OvqaNgVqZ9w1s3NXjhcNPw.jpg
Yes, you may be right, maybe sometimes in the past I deleted a Windows partition and extended another, so I could use it for storage. Not sure though but it's possible.
I also noticed a Bios update on ASUS website, will try and update Bios and see if something changes.
 

yossibac

Commendable
Dec 2, 2021
140
10
1,595
OK. Flushing the bios didn't do anything. So as SkyNetRising suggested is probably true.

Strange I can't see where to award best answer or thumb up, on this thread only?
Any idea?