unmark old partition as active

Just curious. Is there a way to do it without wiping data.

beenthere wrote:
> "cdoc" wrote in message
>
>> Hello
>> I have just installed a new hard drive and move the smaller active drive
>> which had xp pro on it to a slave drive.
>> Now of course I have an active partition on the new drive and one on the
>> old drive.
>> How can I unmark the old primary partition and set it as not active.
>> Thanks
>>
> Don`t worry about it.
> Your machine won`t boot from it.
> A hidden file on your C: drive called boot.ini determines how
> your system boots.
>
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: unmark old partition as active 

"cdoc" wrote in message

> Just curious. Is there a way to do it without wiping data.
>
> beenthere wrote:
>> "cdoc" wrote in message
>>
>>> Hello
>>> I have just installed a new hard drive and move the smaller active drive
>>> which had xp pro on it to a slave drive.
>>> Now of course I have an active partition on the new drive and one on the
>>> old drive.
>>> How can I unmark the old primary partition and set it as not active.
>>> Thanks
>>>
>> Don`t worry about it.
>> Your machine won`t boot from it.
>> A hidden file on your C: drive called boot.ini determines how
>> your system boots.
>>
>>

Use a program like dd (I'm not sure what the windows equiv is) to copy the
MBR, edit it changing the single bit (I think) that marks it as active using
a Hex editor and write it back. You can use a Linux livecd and a floppy or
FAT32 partition. A mistake will wreck the partition and make the disk
unreadable (but not unrescuable). You will need to read partition table
specs to know which bit to change. There are other ways. I think the full
version of Winhex could do it.

There is not much point doing this.
 >> Stay informed about: unmark old partition as active