Partition Utility

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.

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?

(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
Vancouver, BC

On Sat, 28 May 2005 08:44:24 -0400, "Peter"
wrote:

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.

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.

On Sat, 28 May 2005 07:59:59 -0700, SloPoke
wrote:

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

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.

On Sat, 28 May 2005 08:44:24 -0400, "Peter"
wrote:

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.

"Bob" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 28 May 2005 08:44:24 -0400, "Peter"
wrote:

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.

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.

Bull****.

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.

and that is why I removed the main boot disk.

Bob wrote in message
...

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.

Bull****.

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.

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