Drive "C" write protected

Downloaded Runtime Drive Image on Dell 2400 PC, also PE Builder.
Followed instructions to do a back up of "C" drive but get this error
"Write Protected Error", tried "Retry Sectors" option but get I/O error: "Write Protected Disk reading sector 0 on C". Tried search and could not find any help for this particular problem. As a side note....Made a backup using same program on a home built PC I have in the basement. Anyone familar with Drive Image XML and might know why drive "C" would show write protected when trying to make image of C drive. Thanks in advance

Sector 0 is your "boot block". Check your bios to see if you have the machines "Anti-Virus" enabled (or a function similar to protecting the boot sector or Master Boot Record).

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Dan Penny
I have looked in the BIOS and cannot find anything about "anti-virus" being enabled or disabled, also unable to find anything concerning master boot record or boot sector.
The only place I see anything about Anti-Virus is in Windows Security Center and unable to turn it off. I exit the AVG program I run but the Anti-Virus still shows "ON" in Security Center. What am I over looking.
Thanks for your help.

It has to be one or the other. (Bios or A_V program.)

I find it strange that there is no provision for boot sector protection in your bios. (Unless your motherboard is more than eight or ten years old, or, your machine is a proprietary machine (Brand name; COMPAQ, Dell, IBM, Leneovo, Gateway, etc) and has a unique bios.)

If you're certain that the write protect isn't at the machine level, then Stop your A_V and see if that helps.

If you are connected to the internet "full-time/always on", physically disconnect your LAN or Modem cable from the machine.
Click Start, Run, and type in services.msc and hit ENTER (Click OK). Maximize the window. Look for the entries for AVG. You should have two to four entries. Two will probably be set to Manual (Startup Type) and one or two will be Started (Status).

Right click the "Started" entries and choose STOP. This should stop your A_V. Try running your backup program again.

To re-enable, reverse the above or reboot.

Post back with your results.

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Location: Alberta, CanadaD-A-L Hardware Scan

I did as you suggested and stopped AVG services from services .msc
This did not help still getting the "C" is write protected.
The make of the computer is a Dell 2400. Thanks again.
Thanks again

I have seen a similar problem on a friends PC a while back - he couldn't copy from/to floppy's or Cd's. Someone suggested to me at the time to fdisk the boot record (fdisk/mbr from command prompt and reboot - can't remember if there is a space before the back slash).

I didn't fully understand the implications of doing it then (apart from refreshing the master boot record), and still don't know them now, so maybe Dan Penny or another of the Full time techies can give you a bit more advice on that before you go ahead and run that as it might make things worse...

Hope you get it sorted...

Fdisk went out with Win9x.

Boot the machine with your XP CD.

If/when you're told to "Press any key to boot from CD", hit the Space bar.

At the 'Welcome to Setup' screen, press r for Repair.

When the machine is done loading, (just for good measure) type in;

Chkdsk /f

When it's finished, then type in;

Fixmbr

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It's a good day when you learn something
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Location: Alberta, CanadaD-A-L Hardware Scan

Dan Penny,
Will try this and post results back asap. Probably will be Wednesday when I get to try this.

Dan Penny
I must have did something wrong because I had to reformat the hard drive and do a new installation of XP home edition.The PC froze up and would not do anything. Tried to do a repair of existing OS but all the PC would do when it completed was just Restart, restart, restart.
Tried the backup program after a new install and it works like it is supposed to. Thanks for all your help.

Sorry to hear you had to go through all that. The course of events now precludes finding the original fault.

Glad you're up and running with the programs "behaving" as they should though.

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Location: Alberta, CanadaD-A-L Hardware Scan