Disk Manager 8.x and 9.x includes a function on the boot floppy that automates the removal of the Dynamic Drive Overlay from a drive depending on how the drive was originally installed. The first method is the BIOS Standard Uninstall which moves the data from Ontrack Proprietary Format to BIOS Standard Format and then removes the DDO from the drive. The Second is the Quick Uninstall which does not move data on the drive. If you do not have Disk Manager 8 or higher you can upgrade to complete these following steps.

NOTE: ALWAYS BACK UP DATA BEFORE DOING THIS OR ANY OTHER TYPE OF HARD DRIVE MAINTENANCE!

Step 1: Determine if the BIOS will support the drive after the uninstall

You must have a BIOS that can translate the drive. Disk Manager has set up the drive with a specific geometry, your BIOS must have that same geometry.
You must have a clean, write-protected, DOS bootable diskette with the programs FDISK.EXE, SYS.COM, and FORMAT.COM.
You must have your version of Disk Manager on a diskette.
Back up your data and verify that it is a valid backup.

Preferred Disk Manager removal.

1. Go into the BIOS setup and set the Type to 'Auto' and the mode to 'LBA.'
2. Boot cleanly to a bootable diskette and get to the 'A:\' prompt. If you are running DM 9.x or greater, boot directly to the DM diskette and skip to step #4.
3. Run Disk Manager. (To do this, insert the Disk Manager diskette into drive A: then type DM and press enter.)
4. Choose 'Advanced Options', then choose 'Maintenance Options.' Choose the 'Dynamic Drive Overlay' option.
5. Choose the 'Remove Dynamic Drive Overlay' option.
6. At this point Disk Manager will inform you whether this process will be data destructive. If you receive a large red box informing you that if you proceed you will lose access to the data, then unless you are willing to destroy access to the data, CANCEL the operation. Disk Manager is telling you that your BIOS is not translating the drive the same as Disk Manager is. If you have NTFS partitions, removing the DDO and retaining data is not allowed under any case.

If you are using FAT partitions, modifying the BIOS setting, adding a controller card or using a different machine with complete drive translation capability is the only workaround if you get this screen.

Otherwise, back up all of your data to some other drive or CDs first. Then, remove the DDO in a data destructive way. Finally, install the drive without a DDO using your operating system partitioning and formatting process, and restore the data to that area from the other drive or CDs