USB Hard Drive Set to Active ; Cannot Partition

[ghostbuster]

I recently bought a Western Digital 80 Gb external usb
drive for my laptop.
It is formatted in FAT32.

After connecting the USB Hard Drive to my USB Port.
I right clicked on "My computer "
Then i clicked on "Manage".

Then a new window opened and i see
Computer Management (Local)

Under this there are three Links

System Tools
Storage
Service and Applications

On clicking the "Storage"
I see
Removable Storage
Disk Defragmenter
Disk Management

I clciked on the "Disk Management".
On the right side i saw two disks
----------------------------------------------------------
------------------
---------------------------------
Volume | Layout | Type | File System | Status | Capacity
| Free Space |
----------------------------------------------------------
------------------
-----------------------------------

C: Partition Basic NTFS Healthy (System)
F: Partition Basic FAT32 Healthy

I right clicked on the F Drive and clicked on the "Mark
partition as active"
Then the status of the F Drive changes as follows
----------------------------------------------------------
------------------
---------------------------------
Volume | Layout | Type | File System | Status | Capacity
| Free Space |
----------------------------------------------------------
------------------
-----------------------------------
C: Partition Basic NTFS Healthy (System)
F: Partition Basic FAT32 Healthy (Active)

I did so as i thought before using i am supposed to make
it active.
But later on i read some articles and got to know there
was no need of
setting it as active.
Now i am not going to install any operating system on
this drive.

1. CAN ANYONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO MAKE IT BACK TO ITS
ORIGINAL STATE ?

2. DID I DO ANYTHING WRONG WHEN I SET IT TO ACTIVE ?

3. IS IT GOING TO EFFECT MY HARD DRIVE USAGE IN ANY WAY ?

Now i have converted it to NTFS using Partition Magic
with 4K clusters.
I wanted to Split the partitions but The option in the
Partition Magic 8.0
shows the
"Split Partition as dimmed " for my Drive F ?

I CANNOT USE THE PARTITION MAGIC TO CREATE PARTITIONS.

1. IS IT BECAUSE I MADE THE DRIVE F AS ACTIVE ?

2. CAN I NOT PARTITION MY HARD DISK NOW ?

PLEASE REPLY TO ALL MY QUSTIONS.

Thanks.

 

[Bob Harris]

My understanding is that a PC should never have more than one active
partition at a time, otherwise there may be confusion.

If you an not fix this from within XP, try going outside of XP.
Specifically, try running the XP recovery console directly form the XP
CDROM. It has an assortment of disk tools that are the functional equivalent
of FDISK and FORMAT, but friendlier. One in the recovery console, type HELP
for more info. To get help about a specific command, type the command,
space, and a quesiton mark.

Recovery console links:

http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm (near bottom)

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm

 

[GB]

thnaks bob
your reply seems encouraging.

After going through the links you gave i came acrros
another link .
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=228004

If you would go thru that one line suggests
"""
If the partition that has been incorrectly marked as
active is a FAT, FAT32, or NTFS partition, you may be
able to correct the problem by using the Windows Recovery
Console.
"""
Now i went thru the link you gave and tried but i am
unable to fins how to make the USB drive as inactive.

Should i delete the partition on the Drive F: ?
What do you think ? The 80 Gb has no partitions and is a
single partition only.

Do you think that is a good idea ?

Hoping to hear from you soon.

GB

 

[StephenB]

Should i delete the partition on the Drive F: ?
What do you think ? The 80 Gb has no partitions and is a
single partition only.

Do you think that is a good idea ?

You changed the file system to NTFS. You can only have doen this if
there was a partition on the drive and it was ready for business. You
have 1 large partition on the drive. Since there are no files on the
drive, I would use Partition Magic to delete the partition and create
new ones as desired. That would resolve your "active" problem as the
partition will be gone. I would also recommend that you read the
Partition Magic documentation in detail before you mess up your drive
again.
-steve