Partition Utility

[Bob]

Partition Magic 8 is worthless for my system. I have two HD installed
and both have the Active bit set. The BIOS is smart enough to know
that and allows me to choose which one I want to boot from.

Windows is not as smart - it issues a STOP0x9F POWER_FAILURE error
when I shut down, presumably because it gets confused over two
bootable disks.

I do not need the Acxtive bit set on the second disk - it is left over
from formatting it with Western Digital DataLifeguard formatter, which
unfortunately assumes you are preparing the disk for installing
Windows, so it sets the Active bit in advance and does not let you
clear it. Bummer.

Partition Magic 8 can't deal with two bootable disks either. More
bummer.

In the past there was always FDISK, but I haven't used that in over 10
years and would be concerned about using it in today's environment.
Lord only knows what it would do to the partition table.

So I need a utility that will let me clear the Active bit. Any
recommendations?


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English, thank an American soldier.

 

[Peter]

Partition Magic 8 is worthless for my system. I have two HD installed

and both have the Active bit set. The BIOS is smart enough to know
that and allows me to choose which one I want to boot from.

Windows is not as smart - it issues a STOP0x9F POWER_FAILURE error
when I shut down, presumably because it gets confused over two
bootable disks.

I do not need the Acxtive bit set on the second disk - it is left over
from formatting it with Western Digital DataLifeguard formatter, which
unfortunately assumes you are preparing the disk for installing
Windows, so it sets the Active bit in advance and does not let you
clear it. Bummer.

Partition Magic 8 can't deal with two bootable disks either. More
bummer.

In the past there was always FDISK, but I haven't used that in over 10
years and would be concerned about using it in today's environment.
Lord only knows what it would do to the partition table.

So I need a utility that will let me clear the Active bit. Any
recommendations?

If you use Win98SE boot floppy and Fdisk for the sole
purpose of clearing (or setting) active partition flag,
it will be fine.
If you don't like it, use WinXP diskpart.

Knowing Windows sensitivity to newly introduced hard
drives with already present partitions, how did you allow
this to happen?

 

[SloPoke]

(e-mail address removed) (Bob) wrote:

[snip]

So I need a utility that will let me clear the Active bit. Any
recommendations?

Maybe this would work: http://mbr.bigr.net/index.html

_______________________________________________
Colin Sewell mailto:[email protected]
Vancouver, BC

 

[Bob]

If you use Win98SE boot floppy and Fdisk for the sole
purpose of clearing (or setting) active partition flag,
it will be fine.

I happen to have an old 98SE boot disk someone gave me to see inside
NTFS partitions. Ald FDISK is on it. However, FDISK won't let me clear
the Active bit once it is set.

Maybe that's because I took the real boot disk out to avoid a conflict
with legacy utilities and to make sure it didn't get buggered

If you don't like it, use WinXP diskpart.

I am running Win2K but my son is running XP Pro. Where do I find
"diskpart" on his system?

Knowing Windows sensitivity to newly introduced hard
drives with already present partitions, how did you allow
this to happen?

It's a long story and I did not "allow" this to happen. I am
evaluating an Enermax 352 RAID-1/Backup hardware unit. It has the boot
disk and a mirror disk or backup disk depending on how I configure it.
I am using it solely as a hardware backup device so I can take the
second disk out when I am doing disk-related tasks. In this case I
took the main boot disk out too so it doesn't get messed up.

I also have a Kingwin KF-23 removable bay in which I put old drives.
The old drive I have in there now was formatted by Western Digital
DataLifeguard utility which unfortunately assumes the only reason
someone would want to partition/format a hard disk would be to make it
a boot disk for the operating system. Never mind that the more common
reason to partition/format a HD is as an extra "data" disk because
when you install Windows it partitions/formats the disk.

I can't use Partition Magic 8.0 because it brainfarts (as usual) when
it comes across something different from the simplest imaginable
configuration. Although the Enermax disk is not in play, the hardware
apparently presents some kind of profile to Partition Magic which
freaks it out.

I can't get Windows to format it correctly because it too blows its
brains when it had to deal with two Active disks. I get a bad driver
error in the form of a STOP 0x9F POWER_FAILURE error when I shut down.
The MS KB says that's caused by a bad driver. I can only assume that
Win2K has made a bad decision about configuring the driver for that
second disk because it is Active.

Hence the reason I want to clear the Active bit. I do not need it to
be bootable so all I want to do is clear it. But thus far I cannot
seem to find the right utility to do it. I am concerned about the
possibility that FDISK will go nuts if it saw 2 bootable disks at the
same time, and that is why I removed the main boot disk.


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English, thank an American soldier.

 

[Peter]

I happen to have an old 98SE boot disk someone gave me to see inside

NTFS partitions. Ald FDISK is on it. However, FDISK won't let me clear
the Active bit once it is set.

Sorry, you are probably right. I currently don't have a two disk
system around me to check. With one disk FDISK is unable
to clear active partition flag (it can make other partition active,
but that is not what we want).

Alternatively you can use DOS utility called findpart.
http://www.partitionsupport.com/fpart442.zip
Use "findpart tables" to get needed info.
Then,
"set findpart=edit"
"findpart dno pcyl pno - id ......."
all parameters explained in editpart util below:
http://www.partitionsupport.com/epart42.zip

If that is too difficult, you may use Knoppix 3.8.2
boot CD (free download) and PartED,

Or make BartPE CD and use diskpart within.

I am running Win2K but my son is running XP Pro. Where do I find
"diskpart" on his system?
%windir%\system32\diskpart.exe

It's a long story and I did not "allow" this to happen. I am
evaluating an Enermax 352 RAID-1/Backup hardware unit. It has the boot
disk and a mirror disk or backup disk depending on how I configure it.
I am using it solely as a hardware backup device so I can take the
second disk out when I am doing disk-related tasks. In this case I
took the main boot disk out too so it doesn't get messed up.

Is the "boot disk" in Enermax, your primary disk (OS and data),
that you want to backup/protect?

I also have a Kingwin KF-23 removable bay in which I put old drives.
The old drive I have in there now was formatted by Western Digital
DataLifeguard utility which unfortunately assumes the only reason
someone would want to partition/format a hard disk would be to make it
a boot disk for the operating system. Never mind that the more common
reason to partition/format a HD is as an extra "data" disk because
when you install Windows it partitions/formats the disk.

Why are you attaching that "old" disk to your life system?

I can't use Partition Magic 8.0 because it brainfarts (as usual) when
it comes across something different from the simplest imaginable
configuration. Although the Enermax disk is not in play, the hardware
apparently presents some kind of profile to Partition Magic which
freaks it out.

I can't get Windows to format it correctly because it too blows its
brains when it had to deal with two Active disks. I get a bad driver
error in the form of a STOP 0x9F POWER_FAILURE error when I shut down.
The MS KB says that's caused by a bad driver. I can only assume that
Win2K has made a bad decision about configuring the driver for that
second disk because it is Active.

Hence the reason I want to clear the Active bit. I do not need it to
be bootable so all I want to do is clear it. But thus far I cannot
seem to find the right utility to do it. I am concerned about the
possibility that FDISK will go nuts if it saw 2 bootable disks at the
same time, and that is why I removed the main boot disk.

If you don't care about any data on that WD disk, you may
delete partition (FDISKable), intead of trying to make it
inactive. Then recreate it if neccessary.

 

[Bob]

Maybe this would work: http://mbr.bigr.net/index.html

Thanks, I will give it a try.


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English, thank an American soldier.

 

[Bob]

If you use Win98SE boot floppy and Fdisk for the sole
purpose of clearing (or setting) active partition flag,
it will be fine.

If you don't like it, use WinXP diskpart.

I found diskpart for Win2K and installed it. How do I use it to clear
the Active bit? I couldn't find any manual anywhere.


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English, thank an American soldier.

 

[Rod Speed]

I happen to have an old 98SE boot disk someone gave me to see inside
NTFS partitions. Ald FDISK is on it. However, FDISK won't let me clear
the Active bit once it is set.

Maybe that's because I took the real boot disk out to avoid a conflict
with legacy utilities and to make sure it didn't get buggered


I am running Win2K but my son is running XP Pro. Where do I find
"diskpart" on his system?


It's a long story and I did not "allow" this to happen. I am
evaluating an Enermax 352 RAID-1/Backup hardware unit. It has the boot
disk and a mirror disk or backup disk depending on how I configure it.
I am using it solely as a hardware backup device so I can take the
second disk out when I am doing disk-related tasks. In this case I
took the main boot disk out too so it doesn't get messed up.

I also have a Kingwin KF-23 removable bay in which I put old drives.
The old drive I have in there now was formatted by Western Digital
DataLifeguard utility which unfortunately assumes the only reason
someone would want to partition/format a hard disk would be to make it
a boot disk for the operating system. Never mind that the more common
reason to partition/format a HD is as an extra "data" disk because
when you install Windows it partitions/formats the disk.

I can't use Partition Magic 8.0 because it brainfarts (as usual) when
it comes across something different from the simplest imaginable
configuration. Although the Enermax disk is not in play, the hardware
apparently presents some kind of profile to Partition Magic which
freaks it out.

Wot an absolutely brilliant way to design hardware, cant even
use by far the most commonly used partitioning app around.

And dont bother to provide their own.

I can't get Windows to format it correctly because it too
blows its brains when it had to deal with two Active disks.
Bullshit.

I get a bad driver error in the form of a STOP 0x9F POWER_FAILURE
error when I shut down. The MS KB says that's caused by a bad driver.
I can only assume that Win2K has made a bad decision about configuring
the driver for that second disk because it is Active.

Stupid assumption. Much more likely to be a ****ed driver.

Hence the reason I want to clear the Active bit.

And it will be hilarious if that makes no difference.

I do not need it to be bootable so all I want to do is clear
it. But thus far I cannot seem to find the right utility to do
it. I am concerned about the possibility that FDISK will
go nuts if it saw 2 bootable disks at the same time,

Corse it doesnt. Neither does 2K either.

 

[Rod Speed]

Partition Magic 8 is worthless for my system.

Wota well designed bit of hardware if it cant even handle that app.

I have two HD installed and both have the Active bit set.

Nothing wrong with that.

The BIOS is smart enough to know that and allows
me to choose which one I want to boot from.

Windows is not as smart - it issues a STOP0x9F
POWER_FAILURE error when I shut down, presumably
because it gets confused over two bootable disks.

Nope, I often have that situation after migrating to a new bigger
boot drive and usually keep the original around for quite a while
after cloning it, in case the new drive dies. Win doesnt mind at all.

It'll be hilarious if its the flouting of the ATA
standard thats producing that problem.

I do not need the Acxtive bit set on the second disk - it is left
over from formatting it with Western Digital DataLifeguard
formatter, which unfortunately assumes you are preparing
the disk for installing Windows, so it sets the Active bit in
advance and does not let you clear it. Bummer.

Mad to be using something like that in my opinion. 2K can
partition and format a drive fine. The only time thats not ideal
is if you want a bigger than 32GB FAT32 partition on the
drive, 2K is happy to use that but wont create it for you.

Partition Magic 8 can't deal with two bootable disks either.
Bullshit.

More bummer.

In the past there was always FDISK, but I haven't used that in over 10
years and would be concerned about using it in today's environment.

Its still fine if you use the latest version.

Lord only knows what it would do to the partition table.

Nothing bad in that situation.

So I need a utility that will let me clear the Active bit.

No you dont. You need to work out what is producing that
STOP0x9F POWER_FAILURE error when you shut down.
Very likely that standards flouting hardware.

Any recommendations?

Work out what is producing that STOP0x9F POWER_FAILURE error
when you shut down. Very likely that standards flouting hardware.

 

[old jon]

Hi Bob. Just come across this write up. Don`t know whether it helps you with
you error or not

Stop 0x9F messages can occur after installing faulty applications or drivers
or system services. If a file is listed by name and you can associate it
with an application, uninstall the application. For drivers, disable,
remove, or roll back that driver to to determine if this resolves the error.
If it does, contact the hardware manufacturer for a possible update. Using
updated software is especially important for backup programs, multimedia
applications, antivirus scanners, and CD mastering tools. ..J

 

[Bob]

Sorry, you are probably right. I currently don't have a two disk
system around me to check. With one disk FDISK is unable
to clear active partition flag (it can make other partition active,
but that is not what we want).

I went ahead and tried it with 2 disks installed and it still acted
braindead. So I abandoned it.

Alternatively you can use DOS utility called findpart.
http://www.partitionsupport.com/fpart442.zip
Use "findpart tables" to get needed info.
Then,
"set findpart=edit"
"findpart dno pcyl pno - id ......."
all parameters explained in editpart util below:
http://www.partitionsupport.com/epart42.zip

If that is too difficult, you may use Knoppix 3.8.2
boot CD (free download) and PartED,

Or make BartPE CD and use diskpart within.

Someone recommended a nifty utility called MBRWiz. I used the DOS
version because I did not want my main boot disk in the machine. It
worked just fine - now Windows doesn't go schitz on me.

Here's the procedure:

0) I removed all references to the driver for that disk in Win2K with
Add/Remove Hardware, View Hidden.

1) I partitioned/formatted the disk with from DOS Western Digital
DataLifeguard, which unfortunately sets the Active bit (really
braindead for a major HD manufacturer).

2) I used MBRWizD to clear the Active bit.

3) I made sure the Award BIOS knew the correct hard disk to boot from
(Advanced BIOS features). After preparing the disk with WD DLG, the
BIOS prefers to boot from it.

4) I started Win2K which installed the proper driver because the
Active bit was clear.

5) I rebooted Win2K to establish the new disk. No problems with
shutdown, no STOP 0x9F POWER_FAILURE, no double disk icons, no ZIP
Drive icon.

Windows is truly a stupid piece of shit not to be able to deal with 2
active HDs at the same time.

%windir%\system32\diskpart.exe

I looked there in my Win2K installation, but it was not there. So I
went to the support MS website and found the version for Win2K. Now
all I need to do is figure out how to use it. I could not find a
manual.

Is the "boot disk" in Enermax, your primary disk (OS and data),
that you want to backup/protect?

Yes. It is my only disk. The second one is extra - in a removable bay.

Why are you attaching that "old" disk to your life system?

If you are talking about the removable disk, I am not attaching it to
any life system. I am using it for scratch space.

If you don't care about any data on that WD disk, you may
delete partition (FDISKable), intead of trying to make it
inactive. Then recreate it if neccessary.

Create it where? Somehow the Active bit stays set even when I delete
the partition.

To get this to work properly, I have to create the partition and do
the format with WD DLG. Then I have to clear the Active bit with
MBRWizd. Then I have to tell the BIOS what disk to use for booting.
From there everything behaves normally.




--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English, thank an American soldier.

 

[Bob]

Wot an absolutely brilliant way to design hardware, cant even
use by far

Look, shit for brains, nobody asked you to troll this thread.

Your credibility around here has plummeted straight to Hell. Nobody in
his or her right mind pays any attention to you. You are just a psycho
as far as any reasonable person goes.

PM8 does not work with the Enermax box present because the Enermax is
doing low level disk activity as long as it is plugged in. PM8 can't
handle that. PM* is a basic piece of shit.

the most commonly used partitioning app around.

I guess 50 million flies can't be wrong about shit.

And dont bother to provide their own.

The problem is putting 2 Active disks in Windows. The fact that PM8
can't deal with it is irrelevant. Once the Active bit is cleared,
Win2K behaves properly.

Bullshit.

Look, shit for brains, nobody asked you to troll this thread.

Your credibility around here has plummeted straight to Hell. Nobody in
his or her right mind pays any attention to you. You are just a psycho
as far as any reasonable person goes.

Stupid assumption. Much more likely to be a ****ed driver.

DUH. It is a Win2K driver from MS. It is ****ed over because Win2K
can't deal with 2 Active disks at the same time. Once you clear the
Active bit on the second drive, Win2K works just fine.

And it will be hilarious if that makes no difference.

Well, shit for brains, it made all the difference in the world. Now it
works.

I get the last laugh, shit for brains. You need to go crawl under the
rock you came from.


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English, thank an American soldier.

 

[Bob]

Hi Bob. Just come across this write up. Don`t know whether it helps you with
you error or not

Stop 0x9F messages can occur after installing faulty applications or drivers
or system services. If a file is listed by name and you can associate it
with an application, uninstall the application. For drivers, disable,
remove, or roll back that driver to to determine if this resolves the error.
If it does, contact the hardware manufacturer for a possible update. Using
updated software is especially important for backup programs, multimedia
applications, antivirus scanners, and CD mastering tools. ..J

Thanks for the heads up, but I found those instructions on MS KB. I
tried some of it but that was not the problem. The problem is that
Win2K sees two HDs with Active bits set so it has to decide some kind
of power down scheme, and with 2 boot disks it panics.

The problems I encountered were solely caused by 2 Active drives. Once
I cleared the Active bit all the problems went away.

This may be worth knowing for those who do a clone on a second HD and
then put it in using a removable bay to retrieve parts of the disk.
Acronis sets the Active bit so the clone will be bootable.


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English, thank an American soldier.

 

[Peter]

I found diskpart for Win2K and installed it. How do I use it to clear

the Active bit? I couldn't find any manual anywhere.

I am afraid that option won't work in Win2K version of Diskpart.

Use WinXP Diskpart ver.5.1.3565; there is an INACTIVE command.

 

[Peter]

Is the "boot disk" in Enermax, your primary disk (OS and data),

Yes. It is my only disk. The second one is extra - in a removable bay.


If you are talking about the removable disk, I am not attaching it to
any life system. I am using it for scratch space.

"scratch space"? Which disk are you booting from if you
want to use that "scratch space" disk?

Create it where?

Boot Win98SE, use FDISK to work with WD drive.

Somehow the Active bit stays set even when I delete
the partition.

That is weird. How many disks do you have in your system when
you perform FDISK partition remove for WD?

To get this to work properly, I have to create the partition and do
the format with WD DLG. Then I have to clear the Active bit with
MBRWizd. Then I have to tell the BIOS what disk to use for booting.
From there everything behaves normally.

Quite elaborate process. Why do you have to use WD DLG
to create partition and format WD disk? What kind of disk
is that?

 

[Rod Speed]

I went ahead and tried it with 2 disks installed
and it still acted braindead. So I abandoned it.

Someone recommended a nifty utility called MBRWiz. I used the DOS
version because I did not want my main boot disk in the machine. It
worked just fine - now Windows doesn't go schitz on me.

Here's the procedure:

0) I removed all references to the driver for that disk
in Win2K with Add/Remove Hardware, View Hidden.

1) I partitioned/formatted the disk with from DOS Western
Digital DataLifeguard, which unfortunately sets the Active
bit (really braindead for a major HD manufacturer).

Stupid to continue to use it then when 2K can do what you want.

2) I used MBRWizD to clear the Active bit.

3) I made sure the Award BIOS knew the correct hard disk
to boot from (Advanced BIOS features). After preparing the
disk with WD DLG, the BIOS prefers to boot from it.
Bullshit.

4) I started Win2K which installed the proper
driver because the Active bit was clear.

There arent different drivers that depend on the active bit.

5) I rebooted Win2K to establish the new disk. No problems
with shutdown, no STOP 0x9F POWER_FAILURE,
no double disk icons, no ZIP Drive icon.

That last stuff indicated you actually had a
mangled 2K config that was the actual problem.

Nothing to do with the active bit at all.

Windows is truly a stupid piece of shit not to be
able to deal with 2 active HDs at the same time.

Corse it can, I do it all the time, mainly because its
the simplest way to handle a main boot drive failure,
just select the other drive in the bios to boot from.

The only odd effect I have seen with one system that
turned out to be an intermittent short to case with the
motherboard which sometimes made the main boot drive
invisible to the bios is that the bios would then automatically
boot the other active hard drive without even any warning
and you'd get heaps of alarms going off in Outlook
because it hadnt been booted for quite a while.

I looked there in my Win2K installation, but it was not there. So I
went to the support MS website and found the version for Win2K. Now
all I need to do is figure out how to use it. I could not find a manual.

Cant have looked very hard.

Yes. It is my only disk. The second
one is extra - in a removable bay.

If you are talking about the removable disk, I am not attaching
it to any life system. I am using it for scratch space.

Create it where? Somehow the Active bit
stays set even when I delete the partition.

Corse it cant. Its the PARTITION thats
marked active, not the physical drive.

To get this to work properly, I have to create
the partition and do the format with WD DLG.

Nope. 2K can partition and format a drive.

Then I have to clear the Active bit with MBRWizd.

Nope, 2K can handle more than one
drive with an active partition on it fine.

Then I have to tell the BIOS what disk to use for booting.

From there everything behaves normally.

Just one way of getting that result. A very crude and kludgy way.

 

[Rod Speed]

Look, shit for brains, nobody asked you to troll this thread.

Your credibility around here has plummeted straight to Hell.
Nobody in his or her right mind pays any attention to you.
You are just a psycho as far as any reasonable person goes.

Ad hominem and flagrant hypocrisy noted. Yet again.

PM8 does not work with the Enermax box present because the
Enermax is doing low level disk activity as long as it is plugged in.

Just goes to show how terminally stupid that approach is then doesnt it ?

And you're wrong, any RAID system does that too, and PM8 handles that fine.

PM8 can't handle that. PM* is a basic piece of shit.

How odd that it can handle RAID systems fine.

I guess 50 million flies can't be wrong about shit.

Even you should be able to do better than that pathetic excuse for shit.

The problem is putting 2 Active disks in Windows.

Nope, that works fine.

The fact that PM8 can't deal with it is irrelevant.
Once the Active bit is cleared, Win2K behaves properly.

You didnt JUST reset the active bit on one of the drives.

Look, shit for brains, nobody asked you to troll this thread.

Your credibility around here has plummeted straight to Hell.
Nobody in his or her right mind pays any attention to you. You
are just a psycho as far as any reasonable person goes.

Ad hominem and flagrant hypocrisy noted. Yet again.

DUH. It is a Win2K driver from MS.

You dont even know that when you clearly didnt
bother to mention the ZIP drive detail initially.

It is ****ed over because Win2K can't
deal with 2 Active disks at the same time.

Wrong. As always.

Once you clear the Active bit on the second drive, Win2K works just fine.

You didnt JUST reset the active bit on one of the drives.

Well, shit for brains, it made all the difference in the world.
Now it works.

You didnt JUST reset the active bit on one of the drives.

I get the last laugh,

Only in your pathetic little drug crazed redneck fantasyland.

shit for brains. You need to go crawl under the rock you came from.

Ad hominem and flagrant hypocrisy noted. Yet again.

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks for the heads up, but I found those
instructions on MS KB. I tried some of it

Not what matters until later.

but that was not the problem.

Wrong again.

The problem is that Win2K sees two HDs with Active
bits set so it has to decide some kind of power
down scheme, and with 2 boot disks it panics.

Wrong. 2K works fine with two drives with active bits set.

The problems I encountered were solely caused by 2 Active drives.

You dont know that.

Once I cleared the Active bit all the problems went away.

You didnt JUST reset one of the active bits.

You actually DELETED THE DRIVERS FOR ONE OF THE DRIVES.

This may be worth knowing for those who do a clone on a second HD
and then put it in using a removable bay to retrieve parts of the disk.

Nope, that works fine, 2K doesnt care about the two drives with
the active bit set, which Acronis obviously realises even if you dont.

Acronis sets the Active bit so the clone will be bootable.

And it works fine that way.

And True Image has another option that allows the preparation
of a new drive that you dont want to be bootable too. And it doesnt
set the active bit with the partitions you put on that drive either.

 

[Bob]

"scratch space"? Which disk are you booting from if you
want to use that "scratch space" disk?

I am booting from the Enermax disk. The one that was giving me trouble
because the Active bit was set is in a Kingwin KF-23 removable bay.

Boot Win98SE, use FDISK to work with WD drive.

I have a solution now with MBR Wizard.

That is weird. How many disks do you have in your system when
you perform FDISK partition remove for WD?

Only that disk.

Quite elaborate process.

Not really. I load DLG to do the partition/format. That's actually
faster than loading PM8. I then load MBRWizd. You always have to check
the BIOS if you have two disks or more. Most people don't because the
BIOS has chosen their real boot disk. But somehow my BIOS picks the
newly partitioned/formatted disk. Once I set the BIOS up properly I
never have to fool with it until I present a new partitioned/formatted
disk. Since I do not have all that many disks to play with, that will
be very rare.

Why do you have to use WD DLG
to create partition and format WD disk?

I can't get Windows to do it properly if the Active bit is set. PM8
has a problem with the Enermax sometimes. It's too flaky to rely on.
With DLG I can get the job done with no muss, no fuss. I just have to
clear the Active bit which entails a simple additional step.

What kind of disk is that?

Caviar, circa year 2000 era.

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Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English, thank an American soldier.

 

[Bob]

Stupid to continue to use it then when 2K can do what you want.

You are the stupid one. 2K can't do what I want. It may do what you
want, but then you are too stupid to realize that 2K or XP is not
really doing what you think you want.

Bullshit.

You are the one who is full of bullshit. I know what my BIOS says. It
says that it wants to boot from the disk I just partitioned/formatted.

There arent different drivers that depend on the active bit.

You don't know what you are talking about.

That last stuff indicated you actually had a
mangled 2K config that was the actual problem.

Nothing to do with the active bit at all.

As always you are again full of crap. I fixed the problem by clearing
the Active bit. Windows attached the proper driver and all is working
as expected.

Corse it can, I do it all the time, mainly because its
the simplest way to handle a main boot drive failure,
just select the other drive in the bios to boot from.

You do stupid things all the time so I would not pay any attention
much less give any credence to your stupid ways of dealing with
computer problems.

The only odd effect I have seen with one system that
turned out to be an intermittent short to case with the
motherboard

You are over the top.

Don't be surprised if I ignore any posts from you. I don't have time
to deal with someone who is obviously suffering from a psychosis.


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English, thank an American soldier.