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Write protection

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13 replies

by teejays

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Bought a 40gb 2.5 hard drive second hand for my daughter in laws laptop , when I am trying to load windows se onto it it tells me the disk is write protected and cannot continue, can I remove this, if so can somebody please tell me how, Many thanks

13 replies

by rob miners

the original owner has password protected the Drive. As this is a site for professionals and we do not support Hacking, Cracking we are unable to tell you how to perform the operation. If it is legitimate your local PC Tech should be able to fix it for you.

by teejays

I find it offensive that your are implying the disk is not legitimate. I purchased the disk in good faith from a local trader who I have used before without problems. I do not expect any so called "professional" to hack or crack the disk. I am not a computer buff just somebody trying to help somebody and upgrade a laptop, just needed a bit of advice. I now know where NOT to ask

by ghostbrowser

Some computer bios's
Have a setting which stops the boot sector from being changed
Some times called virus protection

by meridenscrafts

You can go into the stepup, F1,F2,F3 change and disable the Virus protection. I had a computer, that had that inside the setup. So he is right could be that is getting in your way, be sure to check your jumpers, I have bought all kinds of Drives on Ebay,and got some real good deals too 6.00 or 10.00 some 50.00 if it was big. Your setup can cause you. And for the smart alleck a lot of us are not professionals with just practiced for years reading and playing with junk computer, laptops,programs,networking,etc. Practice makes perfect. I started at 30 years old, And built my own computer, I am self taught trial and error.

by xwindowsjunkie

I apologize for the "pirate" snipper since its probably not in his abilities to apologize for himself. Especially since it seems as if he doesn't know what he's writing about.

W9X needs access to the MBR (Master Boot Record) which is generally the first sector on the drive. Turn off Virus protection for the drive in the BIOS and you'll likely have access to drive. If it comes back and reports same thing again. Try turning off laptop completely, some drives will not reset until power is removed from them. Western Digitals especially. If you try after that and BIOS has virus protection off then the drive's MBR is damaged. There is a way to fudge the drive partition table but that requires more tools then you probably have at hand.

by teejays

Thanks to everybody (except the so called "professional") for your help, I shall try the Bios settings and see where I get to

by older mycroft

The dealer ( yeah, the one that you've used before ) SHOULD be a professional and as such, should not have sold you a HD - second hand or not, that was not fit for purpose.

To do that, he would be in contravention of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (Revised 2002) and you would be perfectly within your rights to take it back to him and demand that he makeit good or return whatever moolah you paid for it.

I'm for the professional route all the way. And if the amateurs on this system don't like it well, tough luck and shame on them!

by rob miners

As this disk came out of a secondhand laptop I thought it had protection enabled on the drive.

As this is this persons first Post and asks a questionable question I thought it was an appropriate answer.

I didn't set out to offend anyone I was just stating a fact.

If I got it wrong so be it. I apologise.

by older mycroft

I reckon the original poster got the wrong idea and took out his frustration on you, instead of realising his first port of call should have been the guy he paid the money to.

If I ran an outlet selling second-hand HDs I wouldn't place them in my shop window without first checking to make sure they actually worked. It is also an unwritten law that if HDs are to be recycled they should first be wiped clean, ...and THAT task, was down to the dealer.

The only reason you were on the receiving end of his scorn is that you posted the fitting reply before I did.

by rob miners

trying to keep the peace. Looks like he got sorted out. All came to a good end.

Thanks for the support Mate
PS Thats Aussie for friend

by teejays

Today I returned the disk to the dealer from whom I purchased, the dealer who donates most of his spare time repairing old computers for under privilaged children in his area. I explained what was happening and also showed him the replies to my question on this site. He tested the disk and realised he had sold me a damaged disk by mistake and promptly replaced it. The laptop has now been upgraded and my daughter in law is happy. People donate their old computers, monitors, printers scanners laptops to this man and he does what he can with them we also buy items from him to help out with some of the costs he incurrs. He is trusted and admired by many people

by meridenscrafts

We don't like to throw out the old computers. Go to the store and spend all our money trying to buy a new one, we will spend, and spend getting parts to prove to ourselves we can do upgrades. So we will bypass and do it ourselves. It does not mean we are pirates. WE are just trying to save money.

Go for it.

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