unmark old partition as active

  • Thread starter Thread starter cdoc
  • Start date Start date
C

cdoc

Hello
I have just installed a new hard drive and move the smaller active drive
which had xp pro on it to a slave drive.
Now of course I have an active partition on the new drive and one on the
old drive.
How can I unmark the old primary partition and set it as not active.
Thanks
 
cdoc said:
Hello
I have just installed a new hard drive and move the smaller active drive
which had xp pro on it to a slave drive.
Now of course I have an active partition on the new drive and one on the
old drive.
How can I unmark the old primary partition and set it as not active.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Don`t worry about it.
Your machine won`t boot from it.
A hidden file on your C: drive called boot.ini determines how
your system boots.
 
cdoc said:
Just curious. Is there a way to do it without wiping data.
Click to expand...

Use a program like dd (I'm not sure what the windows equiv is) to copy the
MBR, edit it changing the single bit (I think) that marks it as active using
a Hex editor and write it back. You can use a Linux livecd and a floppy or
FAT32 partition. A mistake will wreck the partition and make the disk
unreadable (but not unrescuable). You will need to read partition table
specs to know which bit to change. There are other ways. I think the full
version of Winhex could do it.

There is not much point doing this.
 
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