To identify which partition in the MBR is active, you should look for:

Question

Options

• AThe "Active" tag in the partition record
• BThe "Running" tag in the partition records
• CThe hex "80" tag in the MBR
• DYou can't discern the active partition unless the operating system is loaded and active

• A
  16% (7)
• B
  7% (3)
• C
  73% (33)
• D
  4% (2)

Explanation

In the MBR partition table, each of the four partition entries begins with a single status byte: 0x80 flags that partition as bootable/active, while 0x00 means inactive - this is a raw binary convention baked into the MBR specification, readable by any tool that can inspect disk sectors without an OS running.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A & B - There is no human-readable text label like "Active" or "Running" stored anywhere in the MBR; the information exists only as a hex byte value, so these are fabrications.
• D - The whole point of the MBR is that the BIOS reads it before any OS loads, so the active partition is fully identifiable at the raw disk level using tools like hexdump, dd, or a forensic imager.

Memory tip: Think "80 = Boot" - 0x80 in hex equals 128 in decimal, and it's the one non-zero status byte in the partition table that tells the BIOS "start here." If you ever see 0x00, that partition sits on the bench.

No community discussion yet for this question.