Win 7 not booting after conversion to dynamic disk

[shivamwho]

Hi,
Ive squeezed all my brain juices out to no avail so any help would be super welcome.
Specs: Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P mobo
4GB corsair xms3
two seagate st3250310as
AMD phenom II 955
Ive been trying to set up software mirrored raid on my two HDs.
I setup Win 7 as a clean install and then convert disk 0 to a dynamic disk. After that when i restart my comp, it just wont boot. Im left with the DMI pool data thing and a blinking cursor..
There seems to be no clear answers to this anywhere on the net... although ive seen similar questions posed.
Help!

 

[pat]

using the RAID option in chipset or pure software RAID in Windows? And do you really need a mirror? because it is like wasting a drive. I would rather use something like PureSync and mirror only folder. that offer the same kind of protection, but you don't have to waste a drive only for some kind of protection.

 

[shivamwho]

using the RAID option in chipset or pure software RAID in Windows? And do you really need a mirror? because it is like wasting a drive. I would rather use something like PureSync and mirror only folder. that offer the same kind of protection, but you don't have to waste a drive only for some kind of protection.

Hey Pat,
Thanks for replying. Im using pure software RAID. I wasnt gonna mirror the whole drive, only the OS. Was also thinking of creating a striped volume for apps and using the remaining space on the HDs for data.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/767-63-convert-windows-boot-partition-dynamic-disk
This chap was trying to do the same and it worked for him. My problem is once i convert the boot disk to dynamic, it just halts after the verifying DMI pool data line with a blinking cursor. Also in diskpart when i do a detail disk after conversion to dynamic heres what I get
BOOT DISK: NO

Any solution?

 

[pat]

at this point, I don't know. But I still don't get the poit as why do you want to mirror the OS? If a problem happen on the main drive, the mirror will likely have the same problem.

A mirror is useful only when you you cannot shut down your computer. In the event one drive fail, the mirror will assure the system while the broken drive can be swapped with a new one without stopping the computer(as long as system permit it).

In your case, the mirror won't be useful, particularly if you intend to strip parts of the same drive... you'll end up breaking the RAID0 array and loose data in the event one drive fail.

On my system, I use a different way of doing things. First, I create a RAID 0 array using the chipset RAID. Runs very fast (180 MB/s average for the system partition).

I've partitioned the stripe to fit my needs and I have a few other drive in single configuration to store stuff.

I'm using a software synchronizing tool to create mirrors for folders I really care on different physical drive. So, a folder with my picture on my work partition of the array has a mirror on another drive. In the event the array got some problem, the picture stored on the other drive serves as a temporary backup. Because you should not be relying only on HDD to backup documents. You should have a separate backup somewhere else than on your computer.

 

[Guest]

Hi everybody,

I have same problem - windows 7 ultimate will not boot after converting disk to dynamic. Please, does anyone know what is wrong with booting from dynamic volumes in windows 7? Can anyone at least point me in right direction? There is nothing fancy about what I want to achieve - just a software raid 1 array, with only 1 partition on disk.

I have done soft raid1s for years with almost every flavor of windows and quite a few linuxes too, but win 7 just will not boot from dynamic volume raid or otherwise.

Please skip discussion of software raid 1 usefullness/uselessness - properly configured raid 1 helps me much more than even a very recent backup, after all reinstalling and configuring all the tools for me takes a few days. Disk space lost in mirroring is simply nothing if I can avoid this and have absolutely no use for raid 0.

 

[bazsix]

Hi,

I had the same problem: windows 7 did not boot after converting the boot disk to dynamic.

I was able to recover it on the following way (sorry for my bad english):

1.) The basic situation was that: BIOS stoped after POST. It did not claimed there was no boot device, it was just not able to boot.
2.) So I booted the install DVD and choose repair installation. It detected the windows partition. Then I choose repair tools. There is a tool titled "repair startup problems". I tried it but it claimed everything was ok So I went to command line and tried the diskpart command. (Guides regarding diskpart can be found on the net). With diskpart i marked the windows partition as ACTIVE partition. Then reboot.
3.) At this point it still did not boot, but the situation slightly changed since it claimed: "boot manager can't be found".
4.) Boot the DVD again. Now it was not able to detect the win partition on the disk (good time to start worry), but it said a problem found and corrected automatically. So reboot again.
5.) It did not boot, and once again the message was the same "boot manager can't be found". So boot the DVD again.
6.) Now it detected the win partition again (hurray!) I opened the command line, and tried the bootrec command this time. It has 4 possible options: /FixMbr /FixBoot /ScanOs /RebuildBcd . (Sorry I'm not really sure what they are doing) The first one was working, the other 3 did not do anything. After the bootrec attempts I tried the "repair startup problems" tool again, which found & repaired a problem once again. So reboot last time.

And WOW my win 7 came back!

So if someone really knows how win 7 is booting please tell me what was happend, because I still can not understand it even if I was able to repair.

Many thanks

 

[archangel9371]

hi there people
i found a way to solve this problem. the windows dynamic disk problem

NOTE: this method will make you lose all your data but its effective

well in this method you will convert the dynamic disk partitions to basic disk partitions

1. download the partition manager (hiren boot CD) and burn it to a CD so it can be bootable
2. run the CD
3. click the DOS option
4. run FDISK and delete the NON-DOS partitions
5. create a Primary disk
6. reboot
install the windows/ linux you want
enjoy lol

 

[vanessa880809_88]

hi there people
i found a way to solve this problem. the windows dynamic disk problem

NOTE: this method will make you lose all your data but its effective

well in this method you will convert the dynamic disk partitions to basic disk partitions

1. download the partition manager (hiren boot CD) and burn it to a CD so it can be bootable
2. run the CD
3. click the DOS option
4. run FDISK and delete the NON-DOS partitions
5. create a Primary disk
6. reboot
install the windows/ linux you want
enjoy lol

Hey, I guess no one wants to lose all the data. It's not a good way to do so.
I guess if you searched google you can find better ways: http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager/convert-dynamic-disk-to-basic-disk.htm

 

[nik9772]

hey

thanks a lot

you saved from me from a lot of trouble

and i got to learn something new

please do keep writing about problems, it help others with same problems and help them tackle them and be ready for future problems

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr.