When you set up your hard drive in your computer, it will be one of two states: basic or dynamic. In general, most of us have basic disks. However, sometimes you might find your disk is in a dynamic state, which offers a few advantages for specific use cases. The good thing is, if you need it, you can convert a dynamic disk to basic quite easily.
Your disk might be in a dynamic state for a few reasons. You might have changed the hard drive settings while installing Windows, inherited your hard disk or computer from an organization, manually converted disks to dynamic to increase the storage pool, etc.
While the dynamic disk has its advantages, it is also more complicated for general use. Basic disks are preferred for general use as they are more compatible and have fewer issues. So, if you wish to change your dynamic disk to basic, you can do it using the Diskpart command line tool in Windows. It’s a pretty simple process. This guide will take you through the step-by-step process of converting a dynamic disk to a basic disk. Let’s get started.
Before You Start
- You need administrator rights to change a dynamic disk to basic in Windows.
- Backup all the data in the dynamic disk to some other disk. While backing up, make sure the backup partition/drive is not on the same disk. This is because, while converting, you are required to delete all the volumes on the dynamic disk.
- Before starting, check the disk health using the CHKDSK command to a free tool such as CrystalDiskMark.
Steps to Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic
- Press the Start button on your taskbar.
- Search for “Command Prompt” in the Start menu.
- Select the “Run as Administrator” option.
- Type “diskpart” in the command window and press Enter.
- Type “list disk” and press Enter.
- Run “select disk X” (replace X with your disk number) and press Enter.
- Type “list volume” and press Enter.
- Type “select volume X” (replace X with your volume number) and press Enter.
- Run “delete volume” and press Enter.
- Repeat the steps 8 and 9 for each volume in the disk.
- After deleting all volumes in the disk, type “convert basic” and press Enter.
- Type “Exit” and press Enter.
- Close the Command Prompt window.
- Restart your computer.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
First, press the Start button, type “Command Prompt” in the search bar, and select the “Run as Administrator” option. This will open the command window with admin rights.
In the Command Prompt window, type “diskpart” and press Enter to launch the diskpart tool. Once it launches, type “list disk” and press Enter.
The above command lists all the disks on your computer. Identify the dynamic disk, and note down its number. Next, run the “select disk X” command where “X” is the disk number.
After selecting the disk, run the “list volume” command to list all the volumes/partitions in it. Next, run the “select volume X” command where “X” is the number of a volume.
Once the volume is selected, run the “delete volume” command to delete the selected volume or partition.
Important note: If your disk has more volume in it, run the “select volume X” (where X is the volume number) and “delete volume” commands until all the volumes are deleted.
After deleting all the volumes in the disk, type “convert basic” and press Enter. This command converts your dynamic disk to basic.
Type “exit” and press enter to close the diskpart tool. After that, close the Command Prompt window by clicking the “X” icon on the title bar.
Finally, restart your computer and you are done.
Wrapping Up — Changing Dynamic Disk to Basic in Windows
And there you have it. It’s that simple to convert any dynamic disk to basic in Windows 11 or 10. As I said earlier, you have to be aware that this process requires you to delete volumes/partitions in the disk. That means you will lose data on that disk. So, before proceeding, make sure you have a good backup. Some third-party apps promise to do it without data loss but they too require a backup disk.
If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.
