Active patition vs. bootable partition

[Charles Sarget]

The terms "active partition" and "bootable" have me confused.
Can a system have two partitions that are designated both
"bootable" and "active", while only one of them is the origin
of the currently running OS?

I used Drive Image to copy the drive on channel 0 (HD0) to
channel 1 (HD1), and I had used Disk Management to create
an "active" partition on HD1 to receive it. I then copied the
image of HD0 to HD1, telling Drive Image to copy the MBR
as well. The result is HD1 with all the files that I can see being
a copy of those on HD0, but Drive Image gives an error msg
saying that "Redundant copies of the FAT do not match the
active FAT". I called the HD1 partition "active" because I'd
like to be able to boot from it if HD0 should fail. Was that a
mistake? Should I have told Drive Image to copy HD0's MBR?
Thanks for any help on this.

#ChuckS#

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

"Active" and "bootable" partitions are synonymous, when it comes
to MS-DOS or Windows-based operating systems. And there can be only
one active partition at any given time.

Bruce Chambers

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[Charles Sarget]

"Active" and "bootable" partitions are synonymous,
when it comes to MS-DOS or Windows-based
operating systems. And there can be only
one active partition at any given time.

Do you mean to say that only one partition that is
bootable can exist in a system? Why is there a boot
sequence for hard drives then?

When you say "...there can be only one active
partition at any given time", do you mean there can
be only one partition with a running OS, or there
can be only one partition with a runnable OS?
IOW, does "active" imply "running OS"?

#ChuckS#

 

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

Only one active partition per boot device. Each physical disk can have
one active partition, but the BIOS must have one only designated as the
boot device.

You have to tell the BIOS where to go next. Therefore there can be only
one boot device and only one active partition on that device.

You can have lots of (primary) partitions with XP installed, but you
need extra software (like the NT boot loader) to decide which to boot.
The NT boot loader or third party software must be on the -- you guessed
it! -- the active partition on the boot device. From that point, control
is with the boot loader.