How to Fix the “Mark Partition as Active” Option Greyed Out in Windows?

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to mark a partition as active on my Windows PC, but the option is greyed out. I don’t want to risk losing any data while fixing this.

Has anyone faced this issue before? What’s the safest way to enable this option and mark a partition as active without causing data loss? Step-by-step instructions would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

Tagged: Windows

Windows PC/ Laptop

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Mira Lennox Lennox

Participant

September 26, 2025 at 7:24 am

The “Mark Partition as Active” option is usually greyed out because Windows won’t let you change the system, boot, or recovery partitions from within Disk Management. To safely mark a partition as active without losing data, first back up any important files. Then use Diskpart from an elevated Command Prompt:

Open Command Prompt as administrator.

Type diskpart and press Enter.

List disks with list disk and select your disk: select disk X (replace X with your disk number).

List partitions with list partition and select the one you want to mark as active: select partition Y (replace Y with the partition number).

Type active and press Enter.

After this, close Diskpart and restart your PC. Only mark a partition as active if it contains a bootable operating system; marking the wrong partition can make Windows unbootable. Always back up files before making changes to partitions.

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