A physical disk can have its space organized into partitions or volumes using basic or dynamic technology, respectively. Basic disk technology is common to all versions of Windows. Enhanced volume types that span multiple disks are available with dynamic disks.

• Versions of Windows 7 that support dynamic disks can convert between basic and dynamic disk formats using the Disk Management console or the DiskPart command-line utility.
• When a basic disk is converted to a dynamic disk, all primary and logical partitions it contains are converted to simple volumes. The disk will obtain a copy of the dynamic disk database that records all other dynamic disks and their volumes on that computer. If the basic disk being converted contains the system or boot partitions, the computer will require multiple restarts to complete the conversion.
• When a dynamic disk is converted to a basic disk, all volumes contained on that disk are destroyed. If the data they contain must be preserved, it must be backed up or moved somewhere temporarily before the conversion takes place. If the volumes on the disk being converted are part of a spanned or striped volume, those volumes will be destroyed when the disk is converted. The data will be inaccessible on the other disks that contain the remaining parts of those volumes, even if those dynamic disks remain dynamic disks.
• When a dynamic disk is converted between MBR and GPT types, it must first be converted to a basic disk, then converted to MBR or GPT as appropriate, and then converted back to a dynamic disk. When you use the Disk Management snap-in, the conversion to a basic disk and then back to a dynamic disk happens automatically in the background. If you're using the command-line DiskPart tool, you must explicitly make the conversions.