12/6/13

Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Help Forums

Join Forum | Login | Today's Posts | Tutorials | Vista Forum | Windows 8 Forum

Welcome to Windows 7 Forums. Our forum is dedicated to helping you find support and solutions for any problems regarding your Windows 7 PC be it Dell, HP, Acer, Asus or a custom build. We also provide an extensive Windows 7 tutorial section that covers a wide range of tips and tricks.
Windows 7 Help Forums > Windows 7 help and support > Tutorials

Windows 7: Partition - Mark as Active

Recommended Fix: Download Here

Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 >

Partition - Mark as Active

How to Mark a Partition as Active in Windows 7 Published by Jonathan_King 16 Mar 2010

How to Mark a Partition as Active in Windows 7

Information Marking a partition as active on a basic disk means that the computer will use the loader (an operating system tool) on that partition to start the operating system. At various times the need to mark a partition as active arises. This will show you two ways of doing so. Note You must be logged on as an administrator to mark a partition as active. You can't make a logical drive or an extended partition active. Only a primary partition can be made active. There can be only one active partition per physical hard disk. If you have multiple hard disks installed on your computer, it's possible for each hard disk to have a partition set as active. However, the active partition on the first hard disk that your computer's BIOS detects is the one that will start the computer.

Published by

Jonathan_King

Warning Do not mark a partition as active if it doesn't contain the loader for an operating system. Doing so will make your computer unbootable. If you disable the Disk Defragmenter service, then you will get the error below when you try to do anything in Disk Management. If you get this error, then make sure that the Disk Defragmenter service is set to only Manual.

METHOD ONE
Mak as Active in Disk Management www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html
1/9

12/6/13

Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Help Forums

Mak as Active in Disk Management

1. Type diskmgmt.msc into the start menu, and press enter. 2. Right click on the partition you want to mark as active, and select Mark Partition as Active.

That's it! If you can't boot into Windows, use method 2.

METHOD TWO
Mark as Active in Command Prompt
1. Boot into your Windows 7 installation or repair disc.
Tip

If you don't have a Windows 7 installation DVD, you can Create a Repair Disc.
www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html 2/9

12/6/13

Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Help Forums

2. When you get to the language screen, press Shift+F10.

3. Enter diskpart, then list disk after diskpart is loaded.

4. Enter select disk [number of the disk the partition is on].

5. Enter list partition, followed by select partition [partition number].

www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

3/9

12/6/13

Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Help Forums

6. Type active.

There you go! You can now close the command prompt and reboot your computer. Tip You can also use this method from within Windows. Type cmd into the start menu and press enter.

METHOD THREE
Mark as Active in Partition Wizard
1. Download a copy of the Partition Wizard Bootable CD. 2. Boot it up, right-click on the partition, and select Modify>Set Active.

www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

4/9

12/6/13

Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Help Forums

Related Tutorials How to Mark a Partition as Inactive in Windows 7 and Vista Data Partition How to Delete a Partition or Volume in Windows 7 How to Extend a Partition or Volume in Windows 7 How to Create a New Partition or Volume in Windows 7 How to Shrink a Partition or Volume in Windows 7

Download Free PC Software

mobogenie.com/download-pc-software Download Free PC Manager Software. Easy File Transfer. Download Now !
11 Oct 2010 #1

gregrocker

We use this tutorial many times every day to rescue Windows 7.

Tip: Download Windows Repair Tool

Win7 x 6 PC 's 39,853 posts C alifornia, Florida, Boston My System Specs .

16 Jan 2011

#2

www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

NewTo7

5/9

12/6/13

NewTo7
Home Premium 64bit 9 posts

Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Help Forums

Thanks, unfortunately it did not work in my case and in fact MiniTools Partition Wizard is what caused the boot problem in the first place, an installed copy never succeeded in a reboot to copy the partition. FWIW a Paragon rescue disk saw the partition as invalid, although GParted identified it as NTFS.

My System Specs 16 Jan 2011 #3

mjf
Quote: Originally Posted by NewTo7

Windows 7x64 Home Premium SP1 4,268 posts Australia

Thanks, unfortunately it did not work in my case and in fact MiniTools Partition Wizard is what caused the boot problem in the first place, an installed copy never succeeded in a reboot to copy the partition. FWIW a Paragon rescue disk saw the partition as invalid, although GParted identified it as NTFS. Doesn't really explain enough of the background to your problem. I've found the miniTools (installed) version fine for smaller jobs eg. setting partitions active etc. But for anything substantial, particularly partition moves, you should use the Bootable version, with the Windows OS out of the way. Apart from much greater flexibility, the bootable PW has proven more accurate at times in reporting accurate partition information compared with Windows Disk Management.

My System Specs 16 Jan 2011 #4

NewTo7
Quote: Originally Posted by mjf

Home Premium 64bit 9 posts

Quote: Originally Posted by NewTo7

Thanks, unfortunately it did not work in my case and in fact MiniTools Partition Wizard is what caused the boot problem in the first place, an installed copy never succeeded in a reboot to copy the partition. FWIW a Paragon rescue disk saw the partition as invalid, although GParted identified it as NTFS. Doesn't really explain enough of the background to your problem. I've found the miniTools (installed) version fine for smaller jobs eg. setting partitions active etc. But for anything substantial, particularly partition moves, you should use the Bootable version, with the Windows OS out of the way. Apart from much greater flexibility, the bootable PW has proven more accurate at times in reporting accurate partition information compared with Windows Disk Management. Well my particular problem is OT to this thread anyway, and there is always more info whether relevant or not. What you said applies to everything anyway, and yet I've used an installed copy of similar programs if not PW itself to copy partition fine for XP. What I don't understand is why a simple reboot for partition copy has created a situation where the straight forward boot fixes of different utilities will not work.

My System Specs 03 Jun 2011 #5

Shadowjk
Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1 ; Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard 2,101 posts Northamptonshire , England My System Specs 03 Jun 2011

My friend has Ubuntu on a seperate Harddrive and wants to uninstall but doesn't have the Internet or a Startup repair Disk so He was wondering that if he marks his Windows Drive as Active will it get rid of the GRUB Bootloader? Josh

#6

mjf
Quote: Originally Posted by NewTo7

Windows 7x64 Home Premium SP1 4,268 posts Australia

Quote: Originally Posted by mjf

Quote: Originally Posted by NewTo7

Thanks, unfortunately it did not work in my case and in fact MiniTools Partition Wizard is what caused the boot problem in the first place, an installed copy never succeeded in a reboot to copy the partition. FWIW a Paragon rescue disk saw the partition as invalid, although GParted identified it as NTFS. Doesn't really explain enough of the background to your problem. I've found the miniTools (installed) version fine for smaller jobs eg. setting partitions active etc. But

www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

6/9

12/6/13

I've found the miniTools (installed) version fine for smaller jobs eg. setting partitions active etc. But for anything substantial, particularly partition moves, you should use the Bootable version, with the Windows OS out of the way. Apart from much greater flexibility, the bootable PW has proven more accurate at times in reporting accurate partition information compared with Windows Disk Management. What you said applies to everything anyway, and yet I've used an installed copy of similar programs if not PW itself to copy partition fine for XP. My comments apply to everything If you don't want to take the advice re bootable PW don't take it. If other installed programs work then use them. This is a Windows 7 forum not an XP forum.

Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Help Forums

My System Specs 04 Jun 2011 #7

Jonathan_King
Windows 7 Professional x64 13,988 posts Rednecksville

Hi Josh, I'm not sure where the GRUB is installed to. If it's on the same hard drive Ubuntu is installed on, you should be able to just disconnect the drive, mark the Windows partition as active (if it's not already so), and run a startup repair. It's possible a startup repair will be unnecessary, give it a try! If simply marking the partition as active doesn't do the trick, a repair disc can easily be created. See both methods in this guide: System Repair Disc - Create

My System Specs 09 Apr 2012 #8 Method not working.

oxymoron02
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 252 posts United Kingdom

Having severe difficulties getting any of the above (and other related) methods to work. A quick run-down of my partitions: Hitachi is partitioned in two; C: houses Windows 7 and D: houses my old installation of WinXP. WinXP is listed as System,Active (and Primary Partition); while Windows 7 is listed as Boot (and Logical).

www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

7/9

12/6/13

Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Help Forums

When I come to try step one I immediately hit a hurdle; I have absolutely no option to set the partition as active. It's not greyed out, it simply doesn't even exist in the right-click context menu. When I run diskpart and navigate down to the Hitachi, I am met with this.

Partition 1 is Windows XP Partition 0 is Windows 7 Partition 2 is .... Wait- What? Three partitions? Trying to set 0 as active nets me the message "Virtual Disk Service error: The specified partition is not a primary or logical volume." Ok. Balls. Trying to set 2 as active brings further calamity: "The specified partition type is not valid for this operation." Well screw you then, computer.

The startup repair method was similarly unsuccessful, presumably because I had yet to flick the active status over to the Windows 7 partition.

I would love to say that I realise I'm doing something wrong, but being as I can't even perform step one I would hesitate to assume such. Perhaps someone on here can highlight what is causing my computer to be a complete hassle. Thanks, - Oxy

www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

8/9

12/6/13

- Oxy

Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Help Forums

My System Specs 09 Apr 2012 #9

Jonathan_King
Windows 7 Professional x64 13,988 posts Rednecksville

Hello Oxy, Using Partition Wizard, right-click on your C partition, and select Modify > Set Partition as Primary. You should then be able to mark it as Active. While you have Partition Wizard up and running, you might find it fastest just to use that. Good luck, post back any questions you may have!

My System Specs Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 >

Partition - Mark as Active

Recommended Fix: Download Here

Sleep States - See Available Sleep States | DPI Display Size Settings - C hange

Similar help and support threads for2: Partition - Mark as Active Windows 7 Tutorial Partition - Mark as Inactive No active Partition? System does not boots "Mark Partition as Active" How to change active partition without removing data from partition? System does not boot "Mark Partition as Active" . C an't mark OS partition as Active How can i create a new partition to mark it as active ? Category Tutorials Installation & Setup General Discussion General Discussion General Discussion Installation & Setup Installation & Setup

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:56 PM. C ontact Us - Windows 8 Support - Windows Vista Support - Legal - Privacy and cookies - Top

Google+
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft C orporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft C orp. Designer Media Ltd

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

9/9