Hi all,

Had a strange HD problem over the last few days that I was finally (about
15 min. ago) able to solve.  I am posting this to help prevent others from
spending hours and hours on something "simple".

OS - Win 98
Software - Partition Magic 4.01
Hard Drive - Maxtor 8.4GB

Had a hard drive crash a few days ago.  All my data was backed up so no
loss.  Was able to re-partition (1 partition of 8.4GB) and restore my
backup.  All went well.  Installed Partition Magic to set up the multiple
OS system I had prior to crash.  Found that PM was unable to move/resize
existing partition or create new.  All documentation on Powerquest's (maker
of PM) web site pointed to an MBR virus.  No virus found.  Suspected
physical HD problem.  Called Maxtor and everything checked out fine with
their tech support (friendly too!).

I will spare you the rest of the brain-straining details, but basically
traced the problem back to the fact that *somehow* my HD had become
"locked".  Don't ask me how as I thought a "lock" was removed with FDISK.
Actually, I was unaware that "lock" even existed in Windows 9x version of
DOS.  Had to boot to true DOS mode (even restarting in DOS mode didn't
work) and "unlock" the HD.

Incidentally, I found the solution to this problem on Powerquest's web site
in an relatively obscure location.

Can anyone offer an explanation as to why the drive became "locked" and
FDISK did not remove it?

Well, I hope this saves at least ONE person some headaches.


Eric

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