Converted disk to dynamic in XP home!!

[tzza3038]

I messed up...in my MCP course I learned of dynamic disks and thought they
sounded very useful. I do not beleive I heard them say that it is only for
XP Pro or 2003 so I converted my XP Home to dynamic. Everything seems fine
except I lost a lot of programs in All Programs. I can browse to them in
Explorer but they are not in the start menu. Now when I install a program.
it does not go to the start menu and I cannot get Flash Player to work
because of this. Is there anything I can do asidef rom coverting back to
basic? Thanks for your help in advance, this is driving me nuts!

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I messed up...in my MCP course I learned of dynamic disks and thought they
sounded very useful. I do not beleive I heard them say that it is only
for
XP Pro or 2003 so I converted my XP Home to dynamic. Everything seems
fine
except I lost a lot of programs in All Programs. I can browse to them in
Explorer but they are not in the start menu. Now when I install a
program.
it does not go to the start menu and I cannot get Flash Player to work
because of this. Is there anything I can do asidef rom coverting back to
basic? Thanks for your help in advance, this is driving me nuts!

As you rightly note, you messed up. The KB articles clearly state that
dynamic disks are not supported under XP Home.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309044

The option to convert to basic shouldn't have been available to you in XP
Home.

You're pretty much stuck with being sure you have all your data backed up
before wiping the drive and reinstalling clean, which is officially what
you'll have to do since you have to delete all volumes on the dynamic disk
before converting back to basic.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_10.htm

It is possible that the workaround here might help you:
http://mypkb.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/how-to-non-destructively-convert-dynamic-disks-to-basic-disks/

But, you do need to be sure that you've backed everything up first.

You might also find these useful:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/ar...ved-Converting-Basic-Disks-Dynamic-Disks.html
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;283421

I would suggest that if you are going to experiment with OS features, get
another used system to experiment on so that your primary machine isn't
disabled when things don't work out as you expected. This doesn't have to
be expensive; I have been seeing P4 systems around 3gHz for under $200.

HTH
-pk

 

[John John - MVP]

It's a bit of a mystery how you got that done on an XP Home machine.
Try here:

The Lazy Admin : Converting Dynamic Disks Back to Basic Disks
http://thelazyadmin.com/blogs/thela...erting-Dynamic-Disks-Back-to-Basic-Disks.aspx

John

 

[tzza3038]

Actually, it is not XP Home, it is Media Center. I have been asking this
question on a couple forums and there was never an option for Media Center on
them so I just used Home, thinking it was close. Maybe that is the
difference.