How can I un-mark a partition as active?

Question

Overview: I use a backup storage enclosure with 6 backup drives incrementally backup up and taken off-site. One day I noticed that the backup process was failing. I logged onto the server that is connected to the drives. I then noticed that none of the backup drives were currently mapped when the next one numerically should have been.

At first I chalked it up to a simple mistake of not mapping the drive previously. However, when I had attempted to map the drive BAK6 I received an error of: "parameter incorrect". BAK6 also had a specific flag of "active" in it's Status" where all the others are simply "Primary Partition".

I was able to map the other drives fine so I mapped BAK1 to E. When I removed and re-added the drive physically it auto mapped E to BAK6 unmapping it from BAK1. Then, BAK1 could not be mapped giving the same error. I ended up restarting the server and things started working again but now BAK6 is still marked as active.

Question: How do I remove this flag of active from the drive?

Answer 1

1.) Start>Run..

2.) “CMD”

3.) “diskpart” to load up the utility

4.) “list disk” to list all the disks

5.) “Select disk X” where X is the desired disk

6.) “list partition” to list partitions on the selected disk

7.) “select partition X” where X is the desired partition that is currently marked active

8.) “inactive”

Answer 2

Although not listed in the document below, use the switch inactive. I can't be 100% sure that still works for 2008, but it does for XP/Server 2003. You could also use 3-rd party tools like Acronis Disk Director.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415