How are third party Disk Utility Tools able perfrom operations not possible with OS Disk Utility Tools?

Question

I by mistake converted my 1TB internal HDD used for storing data to dynamic disk. Windows is in another SSD. Now I want to install another OS in the HDD but it is not possible with dynamic disk. It has around 800GB of data and it is not possible for me to take a back up anywhere.

I searched and found third party tools can do this. I checked a few videos where people used easeUS or AOMIE to convert dynamic to basic disk and after restart, it was done without data loss. All the videos have mostly positive comments.

I had earlier used AOMEI and had a big issue with it and hence I am a little bit hesitant. The issue was that I had 3 partitions in my HDD. First one on the left with data (NTFS). Second one in the middle with data (FAT32). Third on the right with another OS in it. I wanted to format the middle on to exFAT but windows had no option to format to exFAT in disk utility. When I tried to format the middle partition with another OS, it failed with error that there is not enough disk space.

So I used AOMEI to format the middle partition to exFAT which it successfully did but just after that, my third partition with another OS in it, automatically got deleted. AOMEI after formatting the middle partition deleted the third partiton. I lost the "another OS" and the data inside it.

My question now comes back to converting Dynamic disk to Basic disk which has positive reviews by many people using third party tools.

I want to know why Microsoft doesn't give this capability and if the reason is that it has some limitations which can cause data loss then what are those limitations and how are third party disk tools able to overcome those limitations and do it successfully mostly?

Further:

Is it safe for me to convert my disk from Dynamic to Basic using third party tools? What could have happened when another OS told there is not enough space to format the second partition and when formatted with third party tool, it deleted the partition next to it (third partition).

Answer 1

A long time ago Microsoft decided to concentrate their efforts on the OS and for the most part leave utilities and applications to third party suppliers. Microsoft supplies essential utilities and basic applications but leaves the rest to others. One of the great strengths of the Windows platform is the enormous variety of free and commercial software that is available for it. Microsoft could not hope to match this, so they have decided not to try.

Converting from Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk is inherently problematic. Dynamic Disk has facilities not possible in Basic Disk, and if used, makes conversion back to Basic Disk very problematic or not possible at all. Some of these situations can be easily tested for, others cannot not. For that reason Microsoft has chosen not to provide such a utility.

The conversion from Dynamic to Basic Disk is inherently risky. Third party utilities can do nothing about this risk. They have simply chosen to pass the risk to the user.

When a user decides to install a third party product they must decide if the supplier is trustworthy and the software is safe to use. If the software is used and something goes wrong, than thta is the users responsibility.

But for Microsoft the situation is very different. If a utility is supplied with the OS people will quite naturally assume that it is safe. But if Microsoft knows that the utility has inherent risks, even if the user follows instructions to the letter, and that software violates Microsoft's own guidelines, that puts them in a very difficult situation. There are support implications, which many users are paying for. And their are potential legal issues as well. Some countries have very strong consumer protection laws. That seems to me a rather excessive risk for a utility that is provided free with the OS.

In many cases a conversion from Dynamic to Basic Disk is relatively safe, particularly if the previous conversion to Dynamic Disk was very recent. But safety is always relative. But more complicated situations such as yours raise the risk. This is a major conversion with many potential ways for things to go wrong. I certainly would not attempt such an operation without a full backup and would warn others against attempting it.

Answer 2

It has around 800GB of data and it is not possible for me to take a back up anywhere.

Then you simply have to wait until you can afford a drive. I hear this lame excuse from people who have a crashed drive but can't run a recovery program because they don't have a drive with free space. Therefore they are asking how to "repair" their broken drive despite the fact that all common recovery programs recover on a different location instead of "repairing".

You might consider improving your descriptions. "easeUS" or "AOMIE" are company names, as well as "Acronis" and "Paragon Products". When using products from those companies please quote the product names instead of company names.

Be specific! Nobody knows what "Windows" is that you are talking about. There are different version which behave differently with regards to partition handling.

I want to know why Microsoft doesn't give this capability and if the reason is that it has some limitations which can cause data loss then what are those limitations and how are third party disk tools able to overcome those limitations and do it successfully mostly?

There are different ways to solve your problem, though more time-consuming ones, like backing up to a third drive, erasing the dynamic one and repartitioning. Microsoft does not need to program or make available what you personnally consider necessary. As for other partition operations that you describe they are subject to various risks that suggest either not to use those or to backup content first.

Microsoft is better of not to provide tools for risky operations because they will be flooded by not-so-knowledgeable end users requesting FREE support for their logically broken drives. Roughly 50% of data losses dealt with in another forum are caused by user inabilities and/or not complying with basic safety rules.

If you backup your content first, you can as well rewrite the whole disk to be changed although that takes more time than your convenience needs.

Is it safe for me to convert my disk from Dynamic to Basic using third party tools? What could have happened when another OS told there is not enough space to format the second partition and when formatted with third party tool, it deleted the partition next to it (third partition).

Even though the required conversion may only incur a change of one byte I don't consider it safe for YOU taking into account the content of your posting.

As for your last question there are plenty of possibilities of weird partition layouts a well-informed user would never generate but can be seen with other ones. Such layouts may cause trouble.

Other layouts are not weird but if you prepartition p.e. a drive with Gparted, install Windows XP and try to modify the partition layout with XP, XP will fail because XP expects the layout to comply with certain rules that are technically not necessary. Gparted does not comply with this restrictions. So, although you did not really do something wrong your disk becomes unusable.