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I had a computer with two 3TB HDDs that were Dynamic Disk mirrors of one another. I'm trying to recover data off of one of them without success.

So I plugged one of these 3TB HDDs into a USB3<->SATA adapter and, in Disk Management, see the new disk as an "Invalid" "Dynamic" disk. I right click on that disk and then click "Reactive Disk" in the resultant menu and get this error:

This operation is not allowed on the invalid disk pack.

Does this mean the disk is bad? I found lots of paid data recovery software that I can use and maybe that really is the only option available to me but I can't help but seriously wonder if that's also just the result of those software vendors just spamming Google.

I'm running Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Build 1803.

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    "Does this mean the disk is bad?" - You are trying to access data off an incomplete disk pack.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jul 10, 2019 at 2:07
  • "You are trying to access data off an incomplete disk pack" So what do I need to do to access the data? I realize that doing so is going to break the mirror and that's fine. I just want to get at the data. That's why I was using the Dynamic Disk feature to mirror the data - the data is important to me and I want to be able to recover it on demand...
    – neubert
    Commented Jul 10, 2019 at 2:11
  • Like what happens if one disk gets physically damaged while the computer is off? At that point the disk pack is going to be incomplete too. The point of mirror'ing is to be able to recover data when failures happen. If you have to have both disks, at all times, to access data on any one disk, then idk what the point of Dynamic Disk mirror'ing is. It seems like a complete garbage feature if this is how it works...
    – neubert
    Commented Jul 10, 2019 at 11:51
  • There is a difference between attempting to recover the disk pack on the machine that created the disk pack and attempting to read the data from a single disk from a 2-disk pack.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jul 10, 2019 at 14:11
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    See this solution of using a hex editor to change in sector 0, location 1C2, the value "42" (invalid drive) to "07" (basic drive), and reboot twice. If this doesn't work, undo it and see these methods.
    – harrymc
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 6:31

3 Answers 3

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The article Dynamic Disk Invalid recommends using a Hex editor to change on the disk the byte indicating the disk as "invalid drive" to "basic drive". Several persons have indicated that this solution has worked for them.

The recommended tool is the free HxD that can edit raw disks.

The byte to change is found in sector 0, location 1C2. Check that it contains the value "42" (invalid drive) and if so, change it to "07" (basic drive). The poster said he needed to reboot twice for this to take effect.

If this does not work, return the byte to "42", and search for a recovery utility.

One such utility is said to be MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro, whose use for solving the problem is described in the article If Dynamic Disk Invalid Issue Occurs, How to Repair It with Ease. Unfortunately, you will probably need the paid version ($39). A demo is available, which might mean a trial version.

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  • I changed from EE (didn't have 42) to 07 and it turned the entire drive to "unallocated" in disk management.
    – Rudolph
    Commented 2 days ago
  • This will only work on SIMPLE VOLUMES. Since people typically create arrays using dynamic disks in majority of situations this advice is best ignored.
    – Joep van Steen
    Commented yesterday
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I've had similar issue, but with raid0 config. The easiest way to access data was to create VM in VirtualBox/VMWare Workstation and attach that SATA-USB adapter do that VM.

VM should be linux (I've choosed Ubuntu) and you need to install ldmtool (apt install ldmtool) to work with dynamic disk.

basicly easiest way to access dynamic drive of any type would be:

ldmtool scan
ldmtool create all

it will create volume in /dev/mapper/, for example ldmtool_WIN_VOLUME

ntfsfix /dev/mapper/ldmtool_WIN_VOLUME # optional, may prevent mounting read-only incorrectlly closed volume
mkdir /mnt/dynamic-disk
mount /dev/mapper/ldmtool_WIN_VOLUME /mnt/dynamic-disk
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THIS IS HOW YOU FIND THE LOCATION

For anyone struggling, by section 0, location 1C2 they mean at the top of HxD where it says section leave it at 0 or change it back to 0 then reading along the left side you want to look for 000...1C0 this is the location and 2 columns into it is the location 1C2.

Row 00...1C0 , column 2 , this is the data field you change to 07

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2
  • For me '1C2' shows EE not 42
    – Rudolph
    Commented 2 days ago
  • OMG, a screenshot is 10 times more clear than this 'guidance'.
    – Joep van Steen
    Commented yesterday

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