Partition - Mark as Inactive

I'm glad it could help David. :)

I'm just about ready to pull out what's left of my hair and then throw my PC through a closed window, because I cannot get Windows to recognize any hard drive to create an image. This includes drives that have never been used as a system drive. I've cleared and recreated partitions, I've tried both GPT and MBR, I've run "clean" in diskpart (no help), I've run "inactive" in diskpart (it tells me the partition is already inactive), and everything else I've found here, the Microsoft forum, and elsewhere. Nothing is making Windows find an external drive for creating a system image. The only thing it will turn up is my burner, and that won't do the trick for me.

I've also read that Partition Wizard can make this happen, but I can't see how. I have the latest version of that software.

I've had some serious frustrations lately with Windows, and I think this one tops them all.

I'll post some screen shots if I can remember my Photobucket login.

Please help?

So it does not show up in Disk Management ?

Hello Chris, :)

If you haven't already, you might test the hard drive with a program like SeaTools to make sure it's not failing or already dead.

SeaTools | Seagate

AddRAM said:

So it does not show up in Disk Management ?

It shows up in Disk Management, and as long as there's a partition it shows up in Windows Explorer, but Windows backup will not report it as a destination for the image.

Brink said:

Hello Chris, :)

If you haven't already, you might test the hard drive with a program like SeaTools to make sure it's not failing or already dead.

SeaTools | Seagate

That's a good idea, but I've tried this with three different drives, none of which has ever been a system drive, and they all fail to show up in Windows Backup.

I have a feeling I'll need to use a third-party program to create an image.

cpmusic said:

I have a feeling I'll need to use a third-party program to create an image.

Macrium Reflect would be a good choice if you do.

Imaging with free Macrium

Brink said:

cpmusic said:

I have a feeling I'll need to use a third-party program to create an image.

Macrium Reflect would be a good choice if you do.

Imaging with free Macrium

Thanks! I just downloaded it and made a rescue disk, and I'll give the image a whirl tomorrow.