Inactive primary partition

i played with partition magic and did these things:

i created i: logical drive.
i make it primary partition. and have two primary.
i forced to boot from this i:
so it didn't boot.
now it seems that c: becomes f:
and it seems that inactive but i can view f: and its folders and files.

I don't have diskette driver on my pc. so i don't have boot diskettes I think it is a simple reactivate primary partition command. I consider to install a new xp installation on c: (old f: ) and run partition magic to change f: to c:.

The "active" flag on a partition is only used by bootloaders, it has nothing to do with the visibility of the partition. Yes, Windows enumerates active primary partitions before other primary partitions and such. Gory details here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=234048

You can create a bootable CD containing the Partition Magic boot floppies (need a virtual floppy drive). Or use some other partitioning software to mark the right partition active. See www.ultimatebootcd.com

you can use freeware - Super Fdisk to active or unactive partition.

see: http://www.ptdd.com/active-partition.htm

If you want to do it in windows, you can try Partition Table Doctor

see: http://www.ptdd.com/active.htm