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"Active" hard disk query



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 15th 15, 11:24 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
pjp[_10_]
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Posts: 1,183
Default "Active" hard disk query



I just noticed under Disk Management that one of my external drives is
marked "Active" as well as "Primary" like the other attached drives. I
understand what "Active" means but in this case that has to be wrong as
I'm sure there's no OS to boot on that drive. In fact sure it's never
had one on it.

I've found a page telling me how to remove the "Active" flag using
DiskPart but am wondering if I should as system works and boots fine as
is. I'm assuming no data would be lost doing that.

As a sidenote - wondering if this might be why Backup-Restore won't
create an image on this same drive but will on the others?
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  #2  
Old February 16th 15, 12:50 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul
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Posts: 18,275
Default "Active" hard disk query

pjp wrote:

I just noticed under Disk Management that one of my external drives is
marked "Active" as well as "Primary" like the other attached drives. I
understand what "Active" means but in this case that has to be wrong as
I'm sure there's no OS to boot on that drive. In fact sure it's never
had one on it.

I've found a page telling me how to remove the "Active" flag using
DiskPart but am wondering if I should as system works and boots fine as
is. I'm assuming no data would be lost doing that.

As a sidenote - wondering if this might be why Backup-Restore won't
create an image on this same drive but will on the others?


The way I understand the syntax for System Image, it
captures the system partition, plus others of your
choosing. I think I ran into this, when testing backup
to DVD. I *had* to include the C: partition, which means
it cost me four DVDs minimum to do some testing, and took forever.
It wouldn't do just my little test data partition, which
would have fit on one DVD. So my assumption is, it needs
at least one system partition.

A Windows 7 install, can be one or two partitions. Two partition
installs are used for compatibility with BitLocker full disk
encryption. BitLocker encrypts C:, so your tiny boot partition
(known as SystemReserved) can remain unencrypted and start the
boot process far enough, to decrypt and boot C:. So that takes
two partitions to achieve. If you never use BitLocker, there's
really no reason to have two partitions. And you can actually
shrink a two partition install, down to one again. There's a
recipe for that.

System Images can also be done from the command line. These are
examples from my notes files. The boot partition doesn't have
a drive letter (on purpose), so requires screwing around. To pick
up the boot partition (has a Boot folder), you use a GUID to
pick the volume. As a convenient shorthand (so you don't have to
do it that way), the "-allCritlcal" selects C: and boot partition
if one is present.

*******

This command, backs up a C: and a Boot (SystemReserved), and stores the
resulting .vhd files on F:\

Wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:F: -include:\\?\Volume{C38A95FE-9261-11E1-92E9-806E6F6E6963}\,C: -quiet

This example has some redundancy in the command. The allCritical already
gets C, so no need to list C separately. The output goes on partition E:\

wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:E: -include:C:,D:,F: -allCritical -quiet

This stores C: and Boot on N: . I dropped the "quiet" for this one.

wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:N: -allCritical

You can also restore using wbadmin, and Microsoft has
a web page with many different samples of commands you
can use.

*******

So your theory might have some merit. Maybe an errant boot flag (Active),
is enough to screw up a "basic" backup. Just be sure you understand how that
boot flag got there, before removing it. The boot flag (0x80 Hex), could
be put back with Diskpart from Recovery Console, or using a Linux LiveCD.
So you have lots of options - if you were prepared in advance to repair
broken Windows boxen... You might even do it with PTEDIT32, just for
spice of life reasons. PTEDIT32 allows typing over MBR data fields,
convenient at times. I've swapped partition table entries and put
them back in disk spacial order with this.

This is where I got it, years ago.

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/PTEDIT32.zip

The above post makes no mention of GPT disks. Many details
there will differ, and PTEDIT32 would gag on a GPT disk.
Your 2TB disk could still be an MBR disk. Your 3TB disk could
be GPT, depending on what you used to gain access. I have a 3TB
disk here, and use Acronis Capacity Manager driver, to turn it
into a 2TB physical disk and a 1TB virtual disk. Since that
drive is for backups only, I've never had to face the question
of what happens when mixing ACM with wbadmin...

Have fun,
Paul
  #3  
Old February 16th 15, 12:51 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Stan Brown
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Posts: 2,904
Default "Active" hard disk query

On Sun, 15 Feb 2015 18:24:03 -0400, pjp wrote:

I just noticed under Disk Management that one of my external drives is
marked "Active" as well as "Primary" like the other attached drives. I
understand what "Active" means but in this case that has to be wrong as
I'm sure there's no OS to boot on that drive. In fact sure it's never
had one on it.

I've found a page telling me how to remove the "Active" flag using
DiskPart but am wondering if I should as system works and boots fine as
is. I'm assuming no data would be lost doing that.

As a sidenote - wondering if this might be why Backup-Restore won't
create an image on this same drive but will on the others?


I googled
Windows "active partition"
and about half way down the first page found

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...rk-active.html

which includes the statement "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."

I could be wrong but I don't think there's any connection with
Backup. After all, it backs up your C: drive, doesn't it?

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...
  #4  
Old February 16th 15, 01:07 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Char Jackson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,449
Default "Active" hard disk query

On Sun, 15 Feb 2015 18:24:03 -0400, pjp
wrote:

I just noticed under Disk Management that one of my external drives is
marked "Active" as well as "Primary" like the other attached drives. I
understand what "Active" means but in this case that has to be wrong as
I'm sure there's no OS to boot on that drive. In fact sure it's never
had one on it.

I've found a page telling me how to remove the "Active" flag using
DiskPart but am wondering if I should as system works and boots fine as
is. I'm assuming no data would be lost doing that.


I had a bunch of data disks marked Active a year or so ago and I used
Diskpart to remove the Active flag from all but the system drive. There were
no ill effects. In fact, there was no noticeable behavior difference at all.

As a sidenote - wondering if this might be why Backup-Restore won't
create an image on this same drive but will on the others?


Can't say. I don't use that tool.

--

Char Jackson
  #5  
Old February 16th 15, 12:58 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
philo
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,807
Default "Active" hard disk query

On 02/15/2015 04:24 PM, pjp wrote:


I just noticed under Disk Management that one of my external drives is
marked "Active" as well as "Primary" like the other attached drives. I
understand what "Active" means but in this case that has to be wrong as
I'm sure there's no OS to boot on that drive. In fact sure it's never
had one on it.

I've found a page telling me how to remove the "Active" flag using
DiskPart but am wondering if I should as system works and boots fine as
is. I'm assuming no data would be lost doing that.

As a sidenote - wondering if this might be why Backup-Restore won't
create an image on this same drive but will on the others?


A drive that you do not boot from certainly does not have to be marked
active...but I can't think of any reason it would hurt anything to just
leave it as is.
 




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