HRESULT 0x80042438 (VDS_E_ACTIVE_PARTITION): meaning and diagnosis

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VDS_E_ACTIVE_PARTITION an active partition was detected on the selected disk, and it is not the active partition used to boot the currently running OS.

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VDS_E_NO_FREE_SPACE	VDS_E_PARTITION_OF_UNKNOWN_TYPE

VDS_E_ACTIVE_PARTITION

VDS_E_ACTIVE_PARTITION means the operation detected an active partition on the selected disk. On legacy BIOS/MBR systems, the active partition can be part of the boot path, so changing the layout can make the machine unbootable.

What to do

Identify the current system and boot partitions before changing the disk.
Do not alter active flags or migrate the layout on a production boot disk without recovery media and a tested backup.
Confirm whether the machine uses BIOS/MBR or UEFI/GPT before applying a migration plan.

Virtual Disk Service is a legacy COM API. On Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 and later, inspect and manage supported storage through the Storage Management API and the Storage PowerShell cmdlets.

Microsoft: Get-Partition

Microsoft: DiskPart

Microsoft: VDS error codes

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