A partition on a USB stick cannot be marked as active.

Matthew Wai · 11 Mar 2020

Code:

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     Z                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media
  Volume 1     C   Windows 10   NTFS   Partition     80 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 2         Recovery     NTFS   Partition    528 MB  Healthy
  Volume 3     D   Data         NTFS   Partition    385 GB  Healthy
  Volume 4                      FAT32  Partition     99 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 5     E   Device       NTFS   Removable   7387 MB  Healthy
  Volume 6     F   EXTRA        FAT32  Removable     22 GB  Healthy
  Volume 7     G   Windows ISO  NTFS   Removable   6153 MB  Healthy
  Volume 8     I                       Removable       0 B  No Media
* Volume 9     H   USB Drive    FAT32  Removable     28 GB  Healthy

DISKPART> select volume H

Volume 9 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> list partition

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset  
-------------  ----------------  -------  -------
* Partition 1    Primary             28 GB      0 B

DISKPART> select partition 1

There is no partition selected.

DISKPART> active

There is no partition selected.

Please select a partition and try again.

DISKPART> select partition 1

There is no partition selected.

Does anyone know why partition 1 cannot be selected? I want to mark it as active.
The partitions on other devices can be selected as usual.
Partition 1 is shown as "Healthy" on Disk Management, but "Mark Partition as Active" is greyed out"

A partition on a USB stick cannot be marked as active.-disk-management.jpg

zbook · 11 Mar 2020

What is the reason for attempting to make the partition active?

What cannot be done with the drive in its current form?

Bree · 11 Mar 2020

Matthew Wai said:

Does anyone know why partition 1 cannot be selected? I want to mark it as active.

You selected Volume 9, this isn't the same as selecting a partition.

Try it this way instead, using the appropriate numbers in place of #:

LIST DISK
SELECT DISK #
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION #
ACTIVE

Matthew Wai · 11 Mar 2020

@Bree,

Code:

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          465 GB  1024 KB        *
  Disk 1    Online         7388 MB      0 B
  Disk 3    No Media           0 B      0 B
  Disk 4    Online           28 GB      0 B

DISKPART> select disk 4

Disk 4 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
* Partition 1    Primary             28 GB      0 B

DISKPART> select partition 1

There is no partition selected.

DISKPART> active

There is no partition selected.

Please select a partition and try again.

Bree · 11 Mar 2020

It is possible for a usb to have a partition that uses the whole of the available space without having ether an MBR or a GPT partition table. A usb can often be supplied by the manufacturer partitioned in this way. See this post for an example of a usb without a partition table.

Bree said:

Notice the subtle difference (info courtesy of MiniTool Partition Wizard) between these two apparently identical Lexar 8GB USBs (both were from the same multipack). The first is as it was originally formatted by Lexar, the second is after using the MCT (so it now has an MBR). In particular, look at the partition type and first physical sector.

Cumulative Update KB4048955 Windows 10 v1709 Build 16299.64

An MBR partition table is required in order to mark a partition Active. Use Diskpart's CLEAN command to remove the existing partition, then create a new partition using Diskpart or Disk Management. This will create an MBR partition table.

Matthew Wai · 11 Mar 2020

Ironically, MiniTool Partition Wizard Free shows "USB Drive" as "Basic MBR" and "Active".

A partition on a USB stick cannot be marked as active.-minitool-partition-wizard-free.jpg

SIW2 · 11 Mar 2020

did you try

sel dis 4

lis par

A partition on a USB stick cannot be marked as active.-lispar.jpg

Matthew Wai · 11 Mar 2020

SIW2 said:

did you try

sel dis 4

lis par

Code:

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt  
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---  
  Disk 0    Online          465 GB  1024 KB       *  
  Disk 1    Online         7388 MB      0 B  
  Disk 2    Online           28 GB      0 B  
  Disk 3    No Media           0 B      0 B

DISKPART> sel dis 2

Disk 2 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> lis par

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
* Partition 1    Primary             28 GB      0 B

DISKPART> sel par 1

There is no partition selected.

SIW2 · 11 Mar 2020

The free and offset readings are strange 0B

the hp usb format tool might be worth a try

TV2 · 11 Mar 2020

I once created a bootable USB for a utility to test RAM. There were warnings that the creation would affect the use of the drive in Windows afterward. I can't recall exactly what they were. But after I was done with the utility I wanted to use the drive again for normal storage and, as promised, there were problems getting it to be recognized in Windows after deleting all the files.

To fix it I did a Clean All from Diskpart, then initialized and formatted it from within Windows.
It has worked normally ever since.

Note that this will erase all data on the drive.