"Convert to dynamic disk" by mistake?

[koroshiya]

Hello,
I have an external SATA hard drive which I use inside a USB enclosure to back up things occasionally. Sometimes when I reboot Windows, that hard drive disappears from the MyComputer list and I need to go to My Computer>Manage>Disk Management, where that disk appears as OFFLINE and right-click to it and press something like "Activate" (not quite sure of the exact menu name but something like that) and the disk is activated and appears in My Computer as usual.

This exact procedure I have done many times but last night and while being in a rush I must have accidentaly right-clicked on the disk and pressed "Convert to dynamic disk" (I cannot recall at all if I pressed immediatelly "Enter" after that, all this happened in seconds). Now the whole capacity of the disk appears as Unallocated and there are no other options in the right-click menu apart from "New Partition", "Properties" and "Help".

This can't be final, can it? How can I revert back to my original partition?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[gavm99]

If it is showing as unallocated then your previous partition has gone. You can revert to a basic disk again but you will not get your data back.

Your only hope of getting the data back is by using a data recovery tool.

Thanks.

"Nobody cares how it works, as long as it works

 

[koroshiya]

I was able to recover the previous partition using the TestDisk software. Thanks for your reply anyway.

 

[gavm99]

That's good news, when you used the tool did you get all your data back as well? I will make a note of that software for future reference!!

"Nobody cares how it works, as long as it works

 

[technome]

I searched on google, this programs has worked for others. Nice to know



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[acemuzz1]

hi all, i keep having the first half of your problem too.
my external hdd needs to be activated every time i plug it in too. I need to go to My Computer>Manage>Disk Management, where that disk appears as OFFLINE and right-click to it and press something like "Activate" then it returns. i was hoping that someone could tell me why this is happening and how to fix it.
cheers.

 

[koroshiya]

gavm99, yes, I was able to restore my previous partitions, with the all the data in it. TestDisk is not the most user friendly tool but it does what it says.