What does 'Set Partition as Active' do?

[Memo]

So I just formatted and was renaming my drive letters and I accidently clicked "Set partition as Active" in the disk management of XP. I have no idea what it was and when searcing for information on it all I found was procedures on HOW to set it as active. I also see now way to make it Inactive as don't know if I messed something up or not.

[bachviet]

I think the partition has to be "active" so it could be booted but I could be wrong.

[SmokeyDP]

I think the partition has to be "active" so it could be booted but I could be wrong.
This is correct with older operating systems. I am not sure if XP still requires the main partition to be marked as Active. I imagine it would as I think the active partition is what the BIOS looks for at boot time. XP might set it by default when you install it though.

[Memo]

Well right now my main partition is set as 'System' and my backup hard drive where I store movies/music is being set as 'Active' - I guess this is bad?

[DaFunkyUnit]

http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_01.htm


Any primary partition that has an operating system installed on it may be designated as the Active partition simply for the sake of convenience in making it the Boot partition. Active partition and Boot partition mean the same thing.


i'm guessing that it wouldnt make difference if you're 2nd-ary drive was set active, as long as it doesnt have any boot files on it. although, down the road, if you decide to put another OS on that drive, you can... :shrug: