"Eric" <Eric@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A17C20C0-1274-44E3-99EE-6E06D7C2F7AE@microsoft.com...
> Does anyone know whay "Set partition to active" is about under Disk
> Management?
> I accidently select this option for [D: drive], hopefully, it does not
> cause
> any damage so far. I would like to know what this option is about and how
> to
> disable this option.
> Does anyone have any suggestions?
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions
> Eric

I would deny any use by any user to computer management, thus, disk
management, period.

The active bit, when set for a partition (only one can be set per physical
hard drive at any given time and must be a primary partition), directs the
system to look at that hard drive for boot files in a specific location
specified by that partition. If those files do not exist or the pointer for
boot files does not exist, the PC cannot continue.

As with all versions of windows, the actual boot files are located on the C:
partition. Not to be confused with the XP definition of windows boot
partition. XP calls the boot partition where the boot files and boot
partition are located, the system partition. If you're confused, so was I
when I first saw this. I'm still confused about the descriptor "boot" and
"system". Seems intentional to me.
Dave