When using computers, many users will feel the partitions are not enough. If we use built-in disk management tool to resize partition, data stored on these partitions will be damaged. Generally, we employ partition management software like Partition Magic to resize partition without damaging data. However, there will still be some special problems.

I have encountered such a problem. When booting computer, I found that Partition Magic can't recognize the partitions. In the Windows Preinstallation Environment, I didn't see any partitions. I thought it was the compatibility problem of hard drive, so I entered BIOS to set, but only to find that there was no such a kind of setting options. I had no choice but to enter the system to find the cause. Finally I found the partitions were all "Dynamic" in Windows built-in disk management tool, and Partition Magic does not support dynamic disk management.

To resize partition in dynamic disk, we should firstly know about the concept of dynamic disk and differences between dynamic disk and basic disk. Dynamic disk is a newly introduced concept when Windows 2000 was released. Volume in dynamic disk equals to partition in basic disk. Dynamic disk supports extending volume with non-adjacent disk space. Multiple types of dynamic volumes are as follows:

1. Simple volume
This volume includes disk space in one single disk or hardware array. It is similar to partition in basic disk and has no limitation in size and number.

2. Spanned volume
It is not fault-tolerant volume and uses available space in multiple disks. It requires at least two pieces of disks and 32 pieces at the most. Every single disk can provide different disk space size, but they cannot be mirrored.

3. Striped volume
It is not fault-tolerant volume, and needs at least two pieces of disks and 32 pieces at the most. It distributes data to different disks to save so that computer accessing rate is promoted.

4. Mirrored volume
Mirrored volume has fault-tolerant function, and is mainly aimed at dealing with mirroring data from one disk to another. Every disk provides the same size storage space, but the space use ratio is only 50%.

5. RAID-5
RAID-5 volume has fault-tolerant function. It requires at least 3 pieces of disks and 32 pieces at the most. Every disk provides the same size space. Data accessing performance is high and space use ratio is n-1/n (n stands for disk number).

Then how should we resize volume in dynamic disk? The best solution is to convert dynamic disk to basic disk, and then resize partition in basic disk. However, conversion between dynamic disk and basic disk is irreversible. That means basic disk can be converted to dynamic disk without damaging data, but converting dynamic disk to basic disk needs to delete all the volumes in the disks.

If we don't have much important data in disks, we can choose this solution. But if we choose to back up important data in advance, the process will be rather complex. I have searched on the Internet for solutions and finally found a partition magic named MiniTool Partition Wizard, which resizes volume in dynamic disk without causing data damage. It is even free! I am so satisfied by it and have downloaded it to my computer. I found it practical and easy-to-use.

At last, I solved the problem of resizing volume in dynamic disk without causing data damage. I believe with the development of computer technology, there will be more times to use dynamic disk, and dynamic disk management tool will become better.

data recovery, deleted data recover, recover lost data, recover data from formatted partition, damaged partition data recovery, minitool power data recovery