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[Fix] Cannot install Windows on dynamic disk

[Fix] Cannot install Windows on dynamic disk

October 17, 2015 IT Support 17 Comments

When you’re going to install Windows on your computer or laptop, but you can’t select the disk that you want. And if you click Show details, you see below message which means that you can’t install Windows on a dynamic disk.

Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition contains one 
or more dynamic volumes that are not supported for installation.

Cannot install Windows on dynamic disk

Note: This solution choose to clear any data and information on disk so if you have any important data on the disk, you have to move it or backup to other disk first.

Warning: If you did software RAID 0, or RAID 5 on the disk, converting the disk to basic will break the RAID and you will lose data on the RAID.

To fix this issue, you have to convert the disk to basic disk. In this article, I will use clean command in diskpart program to clear any data and information on the disk.

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Step-by-step

  1. On the page that you have to select a disk to install Windows, press Shift + F10 to open command prompt window.
    Windows Setup - Cannot select the dynamic disk
  2. Type diskpart and press Enter.
  3. Type list disk and press Enter. This command displays all disks on the computer.
  4. Select disk that you want. In this example, I will select the first disk (disk 0), so I type select disk 0 and press Enter.
    diskpart - select disk 0
  5. Then, type clean and press Enter to delete any information on the disk.
    Clean command in diskpart program
  6. Type exit and press Enter.
  7. Close the command prompt window.
  8. Click Refresh to update disk status.
    Click 'Refresh' to update disk status
  9. Now you can create partition or choose the disk to install Windows.
    Windows Setup - Select a disk

References

  1. Basic and Dynamic Disks
    https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363785(v=vs.85).aspx
  2. Standard RAID levels
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels

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17 Comments

  1. Aubrey I. Patton March 28, 2017

    Thank You so much for this concise and brief guide. It literally saved my day!

  2. Raymond Henao September 2, 2017

    thank you sire it really helped me… I wish to learn more an achieve more

  3. Ankur vishwakarma November 28, 2017

    thank you so much sir………
    thank you.

  4. MS Leong May 8, 2018

    Thanks! Good article for Tech to refer

  5. Ahmed Abbas Alabdaly September 20, 2019

    Thank you Sir.

  6. kaushik September 21, 2019

    Life Saver

  7. Rahul October 3, 2019

    Thank You sooo much SIr….

  8. Gayass1133 November 5, 2019

    Thank you so much. I was ready to install windows on my hdd just to be able to wipe the ssd

  9. Blablabla April 15, 2020

    Thanks sir. its helpful for me. i fix my hdd this way.

  10. mohamadi October 15, 2020

    hello
    tanks a lot.very good.

  11. Jack February 16, 2021

    Very informative and useful indeed.

  12. Victor March 15, 2021

    Thank you so much for this info so simple but effective .Now am safe

  13. Sarath May 4, 2021

    Cannot open command prompt

  14. Ric May 31, 2021

    Too often appreciation isn’t shown for the little things. Thank you, it was a big help. Thanks for taking the time to share this.

  15. Naveen Nath December 1, 2021

    Thank You so much.. It really works .. just in seconds.
    Wow.

  16. Peter Fores March 28, 2022

    Million dollar advice! You saved me, others and our inner peace. Thank you

  17. Muhammad Mujtaba December 26, 2023

    thank yo so much…………..

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