Dynamic Disk Invalid

I've been using Windows 7 for a while now but all the sudden I'm having an issue with one of my Hard Drives. I have a 320gig SATA as my primary system drive, a 500gig SATA data drive (this one is set to 'dynamic') and then an 120gig ATA drive (That I currently have no data on yet.)

For a couple of months now all was fine. My primary drive was assigned the letter C: (durr,) the 500gig was set to G: and the ATA was set to D:.

I have all of my music and stuff on my big drive, the 'dynamic' one. So I turn on my computer and click a shortcut to my music on my desktop and I get a message saying the link has no target, so I open My Computer and lo and behold, G: is gone. I go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management and I see:

"Disk 0, (D) basic, healthy, primary partition"
"Disk 1, (C) basic, healthy, primary partition"
"Disk 2, (supposed to be G), dynamic, invalid"

When I right-click on it, I get the option to 'convert to basic disk' (lose all data on it,) or 'reactivate disk.' Selecting the latter option gives me the error "This operation is not allowed on the invalid disk pack."

Properties reports the device is working properly, my bios sees the drive as well...???
There is a tiny white bubble with a red down-facing arrow over the drive icon there too that's looking kind of bad...

Please help!

!!!FIXED!!!

I downloaded HxD, a disk hex editor and opened the disk in it. In sector 0, location 1C2, the value read "42." This means dynamic drive, so I changed the value to "07" and saved the changes and rebooted.

Upon reboot I went back to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management and there it was, no longer 'invalid' but instead said 'healthy, NTFS, basic.' Glee!

I had to reboot again though for some reason because I was unable to change the drive's name (not path, just name) and also the drive was not appearing on the left in my library's window. After a 2nd reboot though it was back to the way it was and the disk is no longer dynamic.

I thought this was odd to begin with though because I used Windows7 to make that drive dynamic in the first place, so I have no idea as to why it would suddenly lose support for dynamic disks

Oh well, I'm happy.

For anybody that may be having the same issue, here's the link to the fix and the app: Convert Dynamic Disk back to Basic Disk without data loss - Wilders Security Forums

Have any tips for a failed dynamic volume on multiple disks?

Windows Dynamic Volume FAILED on import

Hi,

I just registered to say thank you, this was unbelievably easy, and probably saved me from hours of looking for a solution, my 500gb disk is now basic and working

Yes, bdonk talking about is really a good way, thanks.
I found out a more detailed method for back to basic disk at:
Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk without loss of data

OMG, bdonk, you are THE man !!!!

Seriously !!!!

I also have an external 500Gb disk, first time I used it it was via a SATA connector to test stuff, and I guess it was back then the disk was made dynamic or something, I never bothered to change it as in XP I could always reactivate the disk without problems.

Not in Windows 7, I had the exact same problem as you had !

This disk was full of data so I was going crazy.

What you said worked PERFECTAMUNDO !

I just want to add something, as when you use HxD and you choose "Extras" and then "Open disk" it first showed me 3 physical disks in the bottom !!! So I didn't know which one it was !!!
How I solved this : I went to the diskmgmt.msc (start\run\...) or like you say via Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management, and I right clicked on the disk in question, and there I took properties to see which disk it was under Volumes.

I especially registered to say thank you for this, as the more detailed guide which larysee gave didn't work, because the "Dynamic disk converter" application which he gave asked me to first import my disk via the "Disk management" application from windows, which wasn't possible. So I finally chose your way and I'm glad about it :-)

OWNAGE !!!

You rule dude !

Thanks a million !!!!

Hi

I also Registered to say Thanks i Owe Big all of you guys are great

Thanks very much to you all i've just founded my 1TB HDD

Much easier soloution I found if the above issue doesn't work was a program called Restorer 2000 Pro, pay for the software (I found it for about $30-50 dollars on most sites) and re-raid your disk in the vurtial disk in the raid you originally had (0,1,5,10, what ever) but make sure you setup the disk in the correct order you raided them in (disk 00, disk 01, disk02, etc.) then once the Vurtial disk array is set in Restorer 2000 pro, right click it and choose recover, you will need to copy the recovered files to a drive large enough to hold the data (usb drive, slave drive, etc.). It is a long process I restored 1 TB of data and it ran for about 9 hours, but no folders, files, or data was lost. I took the original invalid array and re-raided them with the hardware array program through the BIOS start up, never use the software, 48 hours of blogs, forums, freeware, and it is all found! Safe the time if the fix above fails and get the program it is a life and data saver! Cause of my problem was upgrading from Windows Vista x64 Business to Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and during this upgrade my disk went foreign and when I reattached them from foreign it asked to reboot, after rebooting the disks were all tagged invalid! Never again will I software Raid my drives!

Hello bdonk,
I just registered to say THANKS!!! Your solution saved all of my home video files and Adobe Premiere Elements creations. Most of these are irreplaceable if lost. After building a new Win 7 machine, I removed my 500 gig HD from the XP machine and installed in the Win 7 machine. I had done this with no problems during previous machine builds (Win98, multiple XP's); however, this time, my Win 7 machine is set to RAID since I have created a RAID 1 disk to protect these very videos and other photos. Did not give it a thought until Win 7 would not recognize the drive. When I returned it to the XP machine, it would no longer recognize the drive. Your solution solved the problem. I immediately copied the drive contents to an external drive via USB. Will now transfer this backup to the new Win 7 RAID. Thanks again for your post!

For Dynamic Disk Invalid, typecally your operating system can't support for dynamic disk. such as WinXP Home Edition, Win7 Home Edition will show a dynamic invalid disk in disk management. It seems that upgraded Dynamic Disk Converter 3.0 can revert an dynamic unreadable disk and invalid dynamic disk back to basic disk. I tested the program on VMware fine.

First, thanks so much for sharing this info. I DL'd and did as you said but i only see one volume I had 4 on my drive i believe the other 3 were X, Y, and Z. Does anyone know how to recover them???

Also: It still shows as dynamic invaled under disk manager, but the drive does come up under my computer.