Hey it happens to the best of us – you right-click and click something that just “felt” like the right one because you were moving too quickly…
First, don’t re-boot if you can help it. The solution is much easier that way. If not, you’ll have to read down further for the solution.
If you haven’t re-booted yet
- Click start, run, type “cmd”, press enter
- Type “DISKPART”
- Type “LIST DISK”
- Look for the drive that you know is the one with the partition you marked active, you’re going to have to rely on the size of the disk
- Type “SELECT DISK n” where n is the number of the disk
- Type “LIST PARTITION”
- Look for the partition you marked active. Again, you’re going to have to rely on size. If there’s only one it’s easy.
- Type “SELECT PARTITION n” where n is the number of the partition
- Type “INACTIVE”
- You’re in the clear now, you can close the two command windows and re-boot safely
If you HAVE re-booted…
Well you need access to another computer and internet connection. Follow my instructions for creating a Windows XP boot CD and use the same “DISKPART” instructions above to perform the same procedure. You need to follow the instructions on that page for making a CD, not a USB, because the CD will give you all the tools you need, including DISKPART. Diskpart will be one of the options in the menu when you boot off that CD.
Domarius - Technical 