How to Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic in Windows 10 without Losing Data?

Why convert a dynamic disk to basic?

To achieve advanced features that dynamic disks provide, such as creating spanned, striped, mirrored, or RAID volumes, people often convert a basic disk to dynamic disk. However, there are some conditions you may consider converting dynamic disk to basic disk for the compatibility of dynamic disks.

1. Install Windows on other volume. Windows cannot be installed on a dynamic volume unless the dynamic volume was converted from a basic boot partition or system partition.

2. Want to use OEM partition or the partitions created by other operating system besides Windows. The partitions not created by Windows become nonfunctional on a Dynamic disk.

3. Other incompatibilities. For example, dynamic disk does not support FAT file system.

Convert dynamic to basic disk in Windows 10 using Disk Management

Disk Management can only convert an empty dynamic disk (without any volume) to a basic disk. Before your erase all the data on the disk, back up the disk that you want to convert.

Step 1. Type "diskmgmt.msc" in the search box and press Enter to open Disk Management.

Step 2. In Disk Management, right-click every volume on the dynamic disk, and select "Delete Volume".

Step 3. Wait for the process to complete, and then right click the dynamic disk and select "Convert to Basic Disk".

Convert dynamic disk to basic using CMD

Apart from Disk Management, you can also convert dynamic disk to basic disk using CMD DiskPart.exe, and you also need to clean the disk first. 

Step 1. In the search box, type "cmd" and right-click Command Prompt, and choose "Run as administrator".

Step 2. Type the commands given below and press Enter key after typing each command.

◆ diskpart

◆ list disk

◆ select disk n ("n" refers the disk number of the dynamic that you want to convert)

◆ list volume

◆ select volume m("m" is the number of the volume on the dynamic disk)

◆ delete volume (repeat these two commands to delete all volumes)

◆ select disk n

◆ convert basic

After the conversion is done, you can input exit and hit Enter to close this window.

These two methods are a bit lame as it will cost you extra time to backup and restore the disk. What’s worse, if the disk you want to convert to basic disk that contains Windows system, the Disk Management cannot convert it to basic disk. Fortunately, you can use third party software AOMEI Partition Assistant to convert dynamic disk to basic disk without affecting the OS.

Convert dynamic disk to basic disk without losing data

AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is reliable and efficient dynamic disks and volumes management software that works for Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP/2000. With its built in feature Dynamic Disk Converter, you can convert a dynamic disk to basic disk without data loss. Let’s see how it works:

1. Install and launch the program.

2. click the target disk and select "Dynamic Disk Converter".

3. In the next screen, select Method 1 and click "Next”to continue.

4. Check the dynamic disk you want to convert to basic and click Next. Then check the confirmation option and click “Proceed” to execute.

5. When the conversion is done, Click OK to restart your computer. Then you’ll see that the disk has been converted to basic disk.

Besides the feature to convert dynamic disk to basic disk in Windows 10/11 without data loss, AOMEI Partition Assistant has many other useful functions as you can see from the screenshots, such as Windows to GO Creator, Migrate OS to SSD, Resize Partition, Convert disks between GPT and MBR without data loss, etc. To enjoy those amazing functions on Windows Server 2000/2003/2008/2011/2012/2016/2019/2022, please take a look at AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.