Partition Utility

On Sat, 28 May 2005 15:24:49 -0400, "Peter"
wrote:

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.

Thanks for the heads up. I am using MBR Wizard - it works just fine
for my purposes.


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
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If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English, thank an American soldier.

Bob wrote in message
...
Rod Speed wrote
Bob wrote

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 procedu

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.

You are the stupid one.

Ad hominem and flagrant hypocrisy noted. Yet again.

2K can't do what I want.

Lie. It partitions and formats drives fine.

And doesnt set the active bit in an extra drive
when its partitioned and formatted for data.

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.

How odd that they both do it fine for me.

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.

Bull****.

You are the one who is full of bull****.

Ad hominem and flagrant hypocrisy noted. Yet again.

I know what my BIOS says.

I doubt it. You cant even manage to work out that 2K
handles two drives which both have an active partition fine.

You cant even manage to work out that you did more
than JUST toggle the active bit on one of the drives.

It says that it wants to boot from
the disk I just partitioned/formatted.

More pig ignorant bull****.

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.

You don't know what you are talking about.

That particular pig ignorant claim of yours is
completely trivial to prove is just plain wrong.

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.

As always you are again full of crap.

Ad hominem and flagrant hypocrisy noted. Yet again.

I fixed the problem by clearing the Active bit.

Lying again. You clearly did a hell of a lot more
than JUST toggling the active bit on one of the drives.

Windows attached the proper driver

There arent different drivers that depend on the active bit.

and all is working as expected.

You clearly did a hell of a lot more than JUST
toggling the active bit on one of the drives.

And carefully deleted all that from the quoting,
I have restored it, so you can lie yet again.

Windows is truly a stupid piece of **** 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.

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.

Ad hominem and flagrant hypocrisy and
flagrant dishonesty noted. Yet again.

Have you the remotest concept of how pathetic you look in
the eyes of those who KNOW that they have used 2K fine
with more than one drive with an active partition on it ?

Obviously not, you presumably are actually that stupid.

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.

Ad hominem and flagrant hypocrisy and
flagrant dishonesty noted. Yet again.

Don't be surprised if I ignore any posts from you.

You have always been, and always will be completely and utterly
irrelevant. What you might or might not claim to ignore in spades.

We have seen you desperately attempt to lie your way
out of your predicament time after time after time now.

I don't have time to deal with someone
who is obviously suffering from a psychosis.

Any 2 year old could bull**** its way out of
its predicament better than that pathetic effort.

You're the rabid psychotic redneck, and everyone has noticed.

"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.

Is the "Enermax disk" the one which has OS and data
to be backed up?

Boot Win98SE, use FDISK to work with WD drive.

I have a solution now with MBR Wizard.

I know, you said that. But I'm trying to figure out
why you can't boot Win98SE floppy and FDISK
your WD Caviar 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?

Only that disk.

That might be the reason. Maybe with two disks you would be
able to clear active partition flag on WD drive (second disk).

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.

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.

If you keep running Windows from your primary aka
"Enermax disk" while doing this WD procedure,
you potentially introducing system changes to your
primary environment. That might be dangerous. I would
try to avoid that as much as possible.

That is why I suggested booting DOS, BartPE or
Knoppix to perform disk operations on your
"scratch disk".

BTW, how do you do your backup?

On Sat, 28 May 2005 18:39:03 -0400, "Peter"
wrote:

Is the "Enermax disk" the one which has OS and data
to be backed up?

There is no backup operation involved in the problem I faced. However
the answer to your question is that there are normally two disks in
the Enermax unit. You can configure it two ways: RAID-1 or Backup. I
use it only for backup. The source is cloned to the target inside the
box - an operation that is essentially transparent to the operating
system.

Boot Win98SE, use FDISK to work with WD drive.

I have a solution now with MBR Wizard.

I know, you said that. But I'm trying to figure out
why you can't boot Win98SE floppy and FDISK
your WD Caviar drive.

It's probably because I am so paranoid about using FDISK that I did
not try out all the possibilities. It has been over 15 years since I
used it, and it was braindead then.

That might be the reason. Maybe with two disks you would be
able to clear active partition flag on WD drive (second disk).

I got adventurous (after making a clone backup) and tried to use FDISK
with two disks in. But I could not figure out how to change the Active
bit.

If you keep running Windows from your primary aka
"Enermax disk" while doing this WD procedure,
you potentially introducing system changes to your
primary environment. That might be dangerous. I would
try to avoid that as much as possible.

I boot to DOS while doing the DLG partition/format and the MBR Wizard.

That is why I suggested booting DOS, BartPE or
Knoppix to perform disk operations on your
"scratch disk".

BTW, how do you do your backup?

The Enermax unit does it automatically in h/w. I set a scheduler and
the unit takes over. After the backup is finished, the target is
isolated from the circuits inside the Enermax until it is time for
another backup. I can do as few as one backup per month at one
specific time (top of any hour) or I can do it twice daily at the top
of any two different hours.

I could just as well do RAID-1 and pull one of the disks for a shelf
archive. But that means I have to interact once per backup period.
With the automated backup I can set it and forget it. I have it set
for 4:00 am Daily. On Sunday when I do my major maintenance I will
make the backup disk a weekly archive by putting it on the shelf and
rotate the 3 disk set thru the machine. IOW the boot disk becomes the
weekly archive, the backup becomes the boot disk and the week-old
shelf archive becomes the backup disk.

In addition I have a clone disk created with s/w in the Kingwin KF-23
mobile bay. That sits on the shelf for a monthly archive in case
something major happens to the Enermax h/w. Then as mentioned I have
an old small WD Caviar disk I keep in the Kingwin for scratch pad
purposes. For example, if I accidentally deleted something from my
boot disk, I can swap it with the last daily backup and copy the lost
item to the scratch disk, then put the original boot disk back and
cooy it from the scratch disk.

If Enermax would make a mobile rack that accepted the RAID-1/Backup
trays, then I could do that recovery in one step instead of the two
required now. I have already let the Product Manager at EnermaxUSA
know about this need for a static mobile bay. Enermax makes mobile
bays and sells them to Kingwin (or maybe vice versa or there is a
third party) because one of them is identical with the Kingwin. It's
all one big happy family in Taiwan anyway.

There are a couple of purposes behind doing backups this way instead
of the conventional "ghost" method. 1) I want a h/w solution. I do not
trust s/w, not after Power Quest routinely botched everything they
ever made. Symantec did us all a favor putting them out of their
misery. 2) I want an automated procedure, one that does not demand
that I stop what I am doing and dedicate hours to what is basically
one of the most boring tasks in computing. I'd rather watch grass grow
or paint dry than watch Drive Image churn away making half-assed
clones for hours.

On Sun, 29 May 2005 00:45:00 GMT, (Bob)
wrote:


I got adventurous (after making a clone backup) and tried to use FDISK
with two disks in. But I could not figure out how to change the Active
bit.


As someone has already pointed out, Win2k does not have any
problems with multiple drives having active status (bit). I
don't have a solution for you but do feel you're barking up
the wrong tree here.

On Sun, 29 May 2005 01:42:50 GMT, kony wrote:

As someone has already pointed out, Win2k does not have any
problems with multiple drives having active status (bit).

Who said that? Ask him if he did the entire procedure as I did it, or
he is just pontificating.

I don't have a solution for you but do feel you're barking up
the wrong tree here.

I know what happened.

1) Remove the primary master boot disk. Don't confuse DLG about which
disk to partition/format.

2) Install the other drive as secondary slave.

3) Partition/format the secondary slave disk with DataLifeguard. The
Active bit will be set.

4) Install the primary master boot disk.

5) Make sure the BIOS doesn't try to boot off the secondary slave.

6) Start Win2K. It will tell you that you have a new device and to
reboot. Do so.

7) You will get a STOP 0x9F POWER_FAILURE BSOD.

Now start over but do things differently this time.

1) Remove the secondary slave disk.

2) Start Win\2K and remove the driver that was associated with the
secondary slave disk. Start fresh.

3) Remove the primary master boot disk. Don't confuse DLG about which
disk to partition/format.

3) Install the secondary slave disk.

4) Partition/format the secondary slave with DLG.

5) Use MBR WizD (DOS version) to clear the Active bit.

6) Install the primary master boot disk.

7) Make sure your BIOS doesn't try to boot off the secondary slave
disk.

8) Start Win2K. It will tell you that you have a new device and to
reboot. Do so.

9) Notice that you do not get any STOP BSOD.

10) Restart Win2K and notice that the secondary slave disk is properly
mounted.

That's how it happened. I don't care what anyone else says. I was the
one doing this and I kept close track of each step. I can duplicate
the entire procedure and have the same thing happen again.

Bob wrote in message
...
kony wrote

As someone has already pointed out, Win2k does not have
any problems with multiple drives having active status (bit).

Who said that?

Me.

Ask him if he did the entire procedure as I did it,

What you may or may not have done is completely
irrelevant to whether 2K doesnt have a problem with
more than one physical drive with an active partition on it.

or he is just pontificating.

Nope, like I said, its what I normally do when upgrading drives,
have multiple physical drives with an active partition on it and
have observed that 2K doesnt give a damn about that.

I don't have a solution for you but do feel
you're barking up the wrong tree here.

I know what happened.

But since you didnt actually try JUST toggling the active bit on
just one of the physical drives AND DIDNT CHANGE ANYTHING
ELSE AT THE SAME TIME, you have absolutely no basis what
so ever for your pig ignorant claim that 2K cant handle more
than one physical drive with an active partition on it.

And many of us know damned well that 2K handles that fine.

1) Remove the primary master boot disk. Don't
confuse DLG about which disk to partition/format.

2) Install the other drive as secondary slave.

3) Partition/format the secondary slave disk
with DataLifeguard. The Active bit will be set.

4) Install the primary master boot disk.

5) Make sure the BIOS doesn't try to boot off the secondary slave.

6) Start Win2K. It will tell you that you have a new device and to
reboot. Do so.

7) You will get a STOP 0x9F POWER_FAILURE BSOD.

Now start over but do things differently this time.

1) Remove the secondary slave disk.

2) Start Win\2K and remove the driver that was
associated with the secondary slave disk. Start fresh.

3) Remove the primary master boot disk. Don't
confuse DLG about which disk to partition/format.

3) Install the secondary slave disk.

4) Partition/format the secondary slave with DLG.

5) Use MBR WizD (DOS version) to clear the Active bit.

6) Install the primary master boot disk.

7) Make sure your BIOS doesn't try to boot off the secondary slave
disk.

8) Start Win2K. It will tell you that you have a new device and to
reboot. Do so.

9) Notice that you do not get any STOP BSOD.

10) Restart Win2K and notice that the
secondary slave disk is properly mounted.

That's how it happened.

All completely irrelevant to your stupid pig ignorant claim
that 2K CANT HANDLE MORE THAN ONE PHYSICAL
DRIVE WITH AN ACTIVE PARTITION ON IT.

I don't care what anyone else says. I was the one doing
this and I kept close track of each step. I can duplicate
the entire procedure and have the same thing happen again.

Easy to claim. Until you actually do that, WITH A CLEAN
INSTALL OF 2K, YOU DONT EVEN KNOW THAT THAT
PROBLEM WOULD SHOW UP AGAIN.

Presumably you actually are so stupid that you cant
manage to grasp the basics of what it takes to prove
your pig ignorant assertion that 2K cant handle more
than one physical drive with an active partition on it.

You havent even eliminated the possibility that its
something that DataLifeGuard does thats the problem.

And even someone as stupid as you should be able to
grasp that your pig ignorant assertion can be tested
any time by just taking your working config AND JUST
TOGGLING THE ACTIVE BIT ON AGAIN AND SEE
IF 2K AGAIN HAS THE PROBLEM THAT YOU SAY.

You're no rocket scientist, you clearly havent actually got
a clue about the most basic concepts of rigorous testing.

Bob wrote:
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?

I'm late to the thread, but I did want to mention the easiest way I have
ever found to clear an active bit: Download BootItNG from
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com. You also need to download their free
makedisk utility from the free utilities section. Put makedisk in the
same folder as BING. Make either a bootable floppy or a bootable ISO.
Boot to that disk. When the opening screen appears, hit cancel and then
OK. That will put you into the maintenance mode. Click on Partition
work. Select the second drive, probably HD1. Click on View MBR. To clear
the Active bit, click on the partition, hold the LEFT shift key, and
click Set Active. The bit will clear. I love the program. It's a free
download and worth the time to try.

On Sun, 29 May 2005 12:33:29 GMT, mcp6453
wrote:

I'm late to the thread, but I did want to mention the easiest way I have
ever found to clear an active bit: Download BootItNG from
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com. You also need to download their free
makedisk utility from the free utilities section. Put makedisk in the
same folder as BING. Make either a bootable floppy or a bootable ISO.
Boot to that disk. When the opening screen appears, hit cancel and then
OK. That will put you into the maintenance mode. Click on Partition
work. Select the second drive, probably HD1. Click on View MBR. To clear
the Active bit, click on the partition, hold the LEFT shift key, and
click Set Active. The bit will clear. I love the program. It's a free
download and worth the time to try.

Thanks for the recommendation.


--

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.

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Bob wrote:
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?

Use Linux fdisk if you don't trust MD fdisk. Comes e.g.
on a Knoppix CD-only linux that will not touch your drives unless
told to. I have never had it screw up anything.

You can also try GNU parted which can fit on a bootable floppy.

For both consult Google as to where get them.

Arno