. What is an Active Volume?
- The active volume is the partition or volume on the disk that contains the boot loader — the software that loads the operating system.
- When a PC starts, the BIOS/UEFI hands control over to the boot loader located in the active volume, which then loads Windows.
- Only one volume on a disk can be marked as active.
- Typically, this volume contains the system files needed for start up (e.g., the Windows boot manager).
. Basic Disk vs. Dynamic Disk
Basic Disk:
- Traditional disk type used by Windows.
- Uses partitions like primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives.
- Each partition corresponds to a volume.
- Easy to manage but has limitations in flexibility (e.g., cannot span volumes across multiple disks).
Dynamic Disk:
- Offers more advanced features.
- Supports volumes that can span multiple disks (spanned and striped volumes).
- Uses volumes instead of partitions.
- Supports simple volumes, spanned volumes, striped volumes (RAID 0), mirrored volumes (RAID 1), and RAID-5 volumes.
. Active Volume on Dynamic Disks
- On basic disks, the active volume is a primary partition marked active.
- On dynamic disks, there are no partitions; instead, there are volumes.
- The active volume on a dynamic disk must be a simple volume — meaning it corresponds to a single contiguous area on the disk.
- You cannot simply mark an existing dynamic volume as active if it wasn’t previously the active partition on a basic disk.
- If you upgrade a basic disk with an active partition to a dynamic disk, the active partition converts into a simple volume, which retains its active status, allowing the system to boot from it