Weird HD issue...

emeritus · December 24th, 2004

I have 3 Hard Drives. Maxtor 40 and 80, and a Hitachi 120. Now the 40 is the boot drive, and I have don't have a problem booting the system up. The issue, is that all 3 hard drives are listed as active, when only the 40 should be active. How can I change the status of the other 2 drives, without losing the data?

**dreamliner77** · December 24th, 2004

Partition Magic should be able to help you out.

emeritus · December 24th, 2004

Partition Magic isn't helping, it lists the drives as active, but I can't change it.

Elektro Slime · December 24th, 2004

what exactly do you mean by active?

Tweakfiend · December 24th, 2004

Originally Posted by emeritus

I have 3 Hard Drives. Maxtor 40 and 80, and a Hitachi 120. Now the 40 is the boot drive, and I have don't have a problem booting the system up. The issue, is that all 3 hard drives are listed as active, when only the 40 should be active. How can I change the status of the other 2 drives, without losing the data?

For " active" read Accessible....... or dont you want the other 2 accessible after boot up ?

emeritus · December 24th, 2004

By 'active' I mean the system sees all of my my hard drives as boot drives when only one contains the OS and is bootable. Only one partition or drive in a system, is supposed to be active, (unless you have a multi OS system). I actually have solved the issue, I found a Powerquest utility called PTEdit32, in otherwords, Partition Edit 32bit. It worked great. Now my drives are listed properly. Thanx for the responses.

**Zedric** · December 24th, 2004

I've never come across this as being an issue. If there are other active partitions than the boot partition, so what? As long as they are not in the boot list, they won't be booted. Right?

emeritus · December 24th, 2004

Actually, I did run into a problem once with this. I rearranged my hard drives, and it tried to boot off of one of the other drives instead of my C drive, which it then saw as D. If the other drives were not active, it would not have happened. It kept on giving me the NTDLR missing error, because my system got confused. I had to disconnect the other drives and boot up the system then turn it off and reconnect the drives before it would work correctly. Thats when I noticed that all the drives were active.

**Zedric** · December 25th, 2004

Ah, but then they were in the boot list.

December 24th, 2004	Top \| #1
emeritus Beware the Monkeys!!! Joined: January 2004 Location: Oakdale, CT Posts: 326 Reputation: 200 Power: 107	Weird HD issue... I have 3 Hard Drives. Maxtor 40 and 80, and a Hitachi 120. Now the 40 is the boot drive, and I have don't have a problem booting the system up. The issue, is that all 3 hard drives are listed as active, when only the 40 should be active. How can I change the status of the other 2 drives, without losing the data? eVGA 780i (nForce v15.17) Intel Q9450 Quad-Core (Running @ 3.2Ghz w/1600Mhz FSB) Zalman CNPS9700 LED CPU Cooler OCZ Platinum PC2-8500 4Gb DDR2 RAM (4x1GB, Dual Channel) eVGA 8800GTS(G92) 512 x2 SLI (GeForce v177.79) Samsung 750Gb SATAII HD x2 LG GSA-H55N/L DVD+/-RW x2 Thermaltake Armor VA8003BWS Black Case Ultra X3 1000W PS Windows XP:Pro SP3 Gateway FHD2400 24" 1920 x 1200 LCD

December 24th, 2004	Top \| #2
dreamliner77 The Analog Kid Joined: March 2002 Location: Red Sox Nation Posts: 4,653 Reputation: 1111 Power: 182	Partition Magic should be able to help you out. "You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight." -Neil Peart of RUSH

December 24th, 2004	Top \| #3
emeritus Beware the Monkeys!!! Joined: January 2004 Location: Oakdale, CT Posts: 326 Reputation: 200 Power: 107	Partition Magic isn't helping, it lists the drives as active, but I can't change it. eVGA 780i (nForce v15.17) Intel Q9450 Quad-Core (Running @ 3.2Ghz w/1600Mhz FSB) Zalman CNPS9700 LED CPU Cooler OCZ Platinum PC2-8500 4Gb DDR2 RAM (4x1GB, Dual Channel) eVGA 8800GTS(G92) 512 x2 SLI (GeForce v177.79) Samsung 750Gb SATAII HD x2 LG GSA-H55N/L DVD+/-RW x2 Thermaltake Armor VA8003BWS Black Case Ultra X3 1000W PS Windows XP:Pro SP3 Gateway FHD2400 24" 1920 x 1200 LCD

December 24th, 2004	Top \| #4
Elektro Slime Harware Guru Joined: November 2004 Location: Just due South of Heaven Posts: 334 Reputation: 290 Power: 97	what exactly do you mean by active? My blog [Under construction] Check out my intel overclocking guide here.

December 24th, 2004	Top \| #5
Tweakfiend OSNN Senior Addict Joined: January 2004 Location: UK Posts: 340 Reputation: 202 Power: 108	Originally Posted by emeritus I have 3 Hard Drives. Maxtor 40 and 80, and a Hitachi 120. Now the 40 is the boot drive, and I have don't have a problem booting the system up. The issue, is that all 3 hard drives are listed as active, when only the 40 should be active. How can I change the status of the other 2 drives, without losing the data? For " active" read Accessible....... or dont you want the other 2 accessible after boot up ?

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December 24th, 2004	Top \| #6
emeritus Beware the Monkeys!!! Joined: January 2004 Location: Oakdale, CT Posts: 326 Reputation: 200 Power: 107	By 'active' I mean the system sees all of my my hard drives as boot drives when only one contains the OS and is bootable. Only one partition or drive in a system, is supposed to be active, (unless you have a multi OS system). I actually have solved the issue, I found a Powerquest utility called PTEdit32, in otherwords, Partition Edit 32bit. It worked great. Now my drives are listed properly. Thanx for the responses. eVGA 780i (nForce v15.17) Intel Q9450 Quad-Core (Running @ 3.2Ghz w/1600Mhz FSB) Zalman CNPS9700 LED CPU Cooler OCZ Platinum PC2-8500 4Gb DDR2 RAM (4x1GB, Dual Channel) eVGA 8800GTS(G92) 512 x2 SLI (GeForce v177.79) Samsung 750Gb SATAII HD x2 LG GSA-H55N/L DVD+/-RW x2 Thermaltake Armor VA8003BWS Black Case Ultra X3 1000W PS Windows XP:Pro SP3 Gateway FHD2400 24" 1920 x 1200 LCD

December 24th, 2004	Top \| #7
Zedric NTFS Guru Joined: January 2002 Location: Sweden Posts: 4,006 Reputation: 890 Power: 175	I've never come across this as being an issue. If there are other active partitions than the boot partition, so what? As long as they are not in the boot list, they won't be booted. Right? Did I help you? Please use the reputation system. Click the icon on the left! Proud host of the OSNN.net folding sigs. Want one? Check the folding thread! http://zedric.no-ip.com/

December 24th, 2004	Top \| #8
emeritus Beware the Monkeys!!! Joined: January 2004 Location: Oakdale, CT Posts: 326 Reputation: 200 Power: 107	Actually, I did run into a problem once with this. I rearranged my hard drives, and it tried to boot off of one of the other drives instead of my C drive, which it then saw as D. If the other drives were not active, it would not have happened. It kept on giving me the NTDLR missing error, because my system got confused. I had to disconnect the other drives and boot up the system then turn it off and reconnect the drives before it would work correctly. Thats when I noticed that all the drives were active. eVGA 780i (nForce v15.17) Intel Q9450 Quad-Core (Running @ 3.2Ghz w/1600Mhz FSB) Zalman CNPS9700 LED CPU Cooler OCZ Platinum PC2-8500 4Gb DDR2 RAM (4x1GB, Dual Channel) eVGA 8800GTS(G92) 512 x2 SLI (GeForce v177.79) Samsung 750Gb SATAII HD x2 LG GSA-H55N/L DVD+/-RW x2 Thermaltake Armor VA8003BWS Black Case Ultra X3 1000W PS Windows XP:Pro SP3 Gateway FHD2400 24" 1920 x 1200 LCD

December 25th, 2004	Top \| #9
Zedric NTFS Guru Joined: January 2002 Location: Sweden Posts: 4,006 Reputation: 890 Power: 175	Ah, but then they were in the boot list. Did I help you? Please use the reputation system. Click the icon on the left! Proud host of the OSNN.net folding sigs. Want one? Check the folding thread! http://zedric.no-ip.com/

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