[RESOLVED] Windows sees SATA drive as dynamic volume

[mcseguy9]

I installed a SATAII drive on a mobo that supports SATAI. I used a jumper to force it to SATAI speed so that it would work with the system, per Western Digital's recommendation due to my chipset type or something like that. I also updated the chipset drivers and installed some sort of SIS Raid utility. The drive is seen by Windows but when I went into Disk Management to set it up the only option for the type of volume I could make it was Dynamic. When I use this type I can't image it using Acronis True Image and when I try to create an image of another drive on the SATA drive Acronis says it's not a good idea as it would be inaccessible when attempting to restore from that dynamic volume. I went back into Disk Management to delete the volume and see if another option was available and I just missed it, but deleting the drive isn't even an option. How do I delete the drive and set it up as a regular volume that can be accessed by Acronis?

[Train]

You do have at least 2 hdds?
Yes that is a problem with Raid, being able to back it up. But unless you are a very hardcore gamer and a couple other catagories, you will not find raid any advantage. Raid 0 has one glitch, and you start from scratch. AGAIN.

[mcseguy9]

Yes, there are two hdd's in the system. One is PATA and the other is SATA. What I'm trying to figure out is how to make the SATA drive, which is the the secondary drive, a regular volume instead of a dynamic volume. Any thoughts? If you need me to post anything about the system please let me know.

[Train]

Remove the SIS Raid and then check Disk Management.

Although with some mobo you need to double check in BIOS and disable Raid, but leave SATA enabled. Others, it is just easier to is add a SATA PCI card that does what you want.

[mcseguy9]

I'll check into that and get back to you. Thanks for the help. Just a little information - this is the 2nd SATAII drive I've put in this machine. The first one was the exact same kind and I didn't have this problem so this is very strange. That drive died after about a week of use. I just received the replacement and this is what is happening. Strange. But like I said, I'll give your suggestion a try and see what happens and report back. Thanks again.

[mcseguy9]

I figured it out. I did remove the SIS raid utility but that didn't do what i needed. The disk was still showing up in Disk Manager as a dynamic disk. I deleted the partition so it was all unallocated space but it still showed as dynamic on the left side of the disk, where it would say Disk 1, Dynamic, 232.88 GB. Well, I right-clicked on that part of the window and it gave an option to convert the disk to Basic. I chose that option and I was than able to create a regular partition and it is now a basic disk and not a dynamic one. Thanks for the help.

[Train]

And THANK you for posting the fix.

Weird, but then I have stayed away from dynamic disk.