Can't get to my second hard drive now

[Guest]

I just upgraded to vista from XP, I have two hard drives installed, the slave
has all my information on it like document, music, ect. after upgrading I can
no longer see the drive in windows explorer. I see the drive and installed
properly and working properly under the device manager. I see the drive under
the Disk Management as well but there is a red down arrow on it (Disk 1), it
says it's Dynamic and that it's offline. When I right click it the only
options I get are to convert to basic disk. Any help would be great to get
back to all my inportant information. Thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

Hi SeNile,

This article should answer your question:

http://itsvista.com/2007/02/itsvista-tip-32-convert-a-dynamic-disk-to-a-basic-disc-in-vista/

The news may not be what you want. Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Thanks freddy for the information even though it's absured. I feel like they
are pulling a bait n switch here. Here I upgrade to Vista Home Premium and
can't accsess my second drive unless I upgrade to Ultimate. Is that just
rediculase?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Hi,

Yup, it's an eye popper. You have to back up your stuff and then convert.

 

[Gary G. Little]

Dynamic disks have always been a problem, not just for Vista but for XP as
well. It was always recommended to use BASIC and avoid dynamic disk volumes
unless you had a really good reason to do so. After loosing disks or having
disks "float" on me during system resotres and/or new partition installs of
XP, I said enough and started using basic a few years ago.

But ... that doesn't help you retrieve your data. Before committing tot he
mor destructive path recommended in that article, ff you have an XP install
disk, you may be able to boot to the XP install command line and copy your
data files to an external HDD. Of course if you were diligent and have a
backup, then all you may need to do is let Vista partition and format the
drive then restore your data.

 

[Guest]

And you won't. I've installed windows Vista Home Premium and it wasn't a
choice as to whether format in basic or dynamic.

After calling MS support I found out the only option is to upgrade to the
most expensive (Ultimate) version of Vista, or take it down somewhere and
have your data saved to another medium that you can reinstall on your current
version of vista, or stay home and cry about it the way most Americans will
usually do, which is what MS has built an empire on.

You won't like hearing this, but the fact is service and honesty has nothing
to do with anything. If you've live here this long and still haven't figured
that out, shame on ya!

It wouldn't be so bad if MS would address this in their documentation, but
then they might not sell as much which I'm sure was instrumental in their
decision to release the product like this.

Nothing in the documentation about it either. Call MS support to find out
what was going on when I couldn't see my esata hd and they informed me it
can't and won't ever see it in this version of vista. Will have to upgrade to
windows ultimate.

They admitted it isn't addressed in their documentation or advertising, and
of course they were very appologetic that they didn't say anything about it,
but are more than willing to sell me the upgrade now.

In other words I can go *$% myself if I don't like it.

Well that's alright, but it seems like a crooked way to do business, but
then this is America and those with the gold rule and make the rules and if
anyone doesn't like the way MS does business, they can go *$% themselves too
or start their own software business.

All in all, I got the support I expected.

You probably won't see this post either because then the secrete would be
out and their whole business plan would be shot.