Question : Disk Management - Dynamic Disk - Convert ot Foreign Disk  OR Convert to Basic Disk

Hello

I have an internal  hard drive that I used on another Windows 7  computer, and I'm moving it to another Windows 7 computer.  

After plugging into the new machine, I look at Computer Management > Disk Management and I see that it is called Disk1 and it  has an exclamation mark next to it "!" -- and below it it says Dynamic  and a few spaces down it says Foreign.  

Right clicking on the item gives me a choice to "Import Foreign Disk" or "Convert to Basic Disk".

I don't want to lose the content on the disk, so what should I do?

Thanks

Rowby

Answer : Disk Management - Dynamic Disk - Convert ot Foreign Disk  OR Convert to Basic Disk

... a dynamic disk is "tied" to the machine it's created on.     When you connect it to another system, it's considered "foreign."    But you can "import" it, and it will then be associated with the new system.

It's unfortunate that Microsoft offers the "convert to basic" option without an explanation => I've seen several instances where someone selected this option and lost all of their data.     Once a disk is dynamic, there are no Microsoft tools that allow converting this back to a basic disk without loss of data (there are some 3rd party tools to do this).

But in your case, it's simple ==>  Just select "Import Foreign Disk" and you'll be fine.