Firstly here's my setup ; P4 1.8gig CPU 640meg SDram C:/ - 40gig 7200 ata 133(NTFS) D:/ - 20gig 5400 ata 100(NTFS) 40x12x40 CDWR 16x DVDROM ATI Radeon 7000VE 64MB DDR Soundblaster Live Value 56k V90 internal modem Running ; W2k pro-SP2 Norton systemworks 2003 ZA Pro MemTurbo ModemMax Anti-Trojan Watch .... and other stuff which would seem irrelevant to my problem, which is - I'm trying to convert D:/ back to FAT32 with Partition Magic 8 so I can install W98SE to it for playing games but every time I've tried to convert it ; upon reboot the conversion fails and I get an error message "Error 58.Unable to write to boot sector.Virus protection software may be running." I tried doing a selective startup with msconfig and disabled everything except the system.ini file but still I get the same error message.I checked in the PM user guide and wouldn't you know it , the error explanations list to 56 then jump to 100 for some reason so no help there. Does anyone have an idea what's causing the error and have a solution? Oh, for those sitting there saying "why doesn't he just backup what's on D:/ to C:/ then format D:/ with Computer Management or something", C:/ doesn't have enough space left to backup what's on D:/ without me deleting stuff from both drives to make the backup smaller and then create more room on C:/to accomodate it. Any help or ideas would be most appreciated. Cheers Nick

open up taskmanager and kill almost every process thats in there (in particular anything resembling antivirus) and then retry

Doesn't work like that.It has to do the conversion on reboot and must be loading something at startup prior to attempting to convert the format but if I stop the system.ini from loading as well won't the whole thing just stall and not go? Nick

You're going to want a blank partition to install 98 on, so you should just use Partition Magic to create a new partition at the beginning of the D drive.

I will Ger but first I have to be able to convert the drive back to FAT32

Presumably there is 'no virus util' running in the bios? Also perhaps you could dis-able any installed A/V software that may come in at boot-up; maybe even temporarily uninstall it? This may be the item that's giving you the problems. Other thoughts: You have PM8x. Perhaps something along the following will allow what you want? 1) Use it to "reduce current - active - Primary partition" (on present Master) and thus allow you to create a (new) Primary partition on the first/Master drive - ahead of current W2K. It could be around 2Gig. or so - may be somewhat more? Make it 'active' and format as fat32. You can then install '98/Games there; afterwhich run W2K setup and use the Repair routine to restore the W2K boot/start-up files, also to reset mbr to W2K version ('98 will have reset it to '98 version). This will establish a dual-boot. The '98 Primary will/must now remain as the 'active' Primary. '98 will arrive as C: when you boot to it; also W2K will still arrive as C: when you boot to it - thus preserving its path statements... This should not require you to use the PM Boot-magic util/options. Also since D: = ntfs '98 will not see it. W2K will (still) see it as D: ? 2) Similarly you could create the 'new' Primary on D: (again 2Gig or so - fat32, and ahead of current ntfs Primary. Then using PM's Boot-magic util/options install '98/Games; use Boot-magic to select which OS to boot? Not quite sure how drive letter for D: (ntfs) will fare in this approach but it may not become an issue? 3) And this is a real fudge/fiddle-approach (similarly #4); but it may allow? Use PM to create a 'new' Primary partition on D: . Create it 'behind/after' present Primary. You will have to use PM to shrink the size of current D: Primary to allow new Primary to exist... Depending on how much data there is on D: at present either make 'new' Primary large enough to accomodate all the data etc. in current Primary on D: , or as large as you can manage. Format it as fat32 using either PM/W2K/'98 boot-disk (whichever you feel will work best/easiest for you). Copy/tranfer contents of original D: Primary to new Primary (or as much as you can 'squeeze in'...). Verify it's still accessible from W2K. If you had to leave some some data behind in original partition, then (you can now) reduce size of original partition (there will now be free-space there?) and expand/increase size of 'new' partition; transfer more (balance of) data across. Again verify it's OK in 'new' partition via W2K, then delete ntfs Primary on D: , via W2K Disk Admin or PM. This 'empty space' can then be incorporated (via PM) into the 'new' Primary. Note: Transfer data across via W2K obviously. Once you have the 'new' partition on D: it's mainly a matter of shuffling sizes between old/new Primaries (on D: ) to accomodate data... Once you have all data across in 'new' Primary, and have deleted original, you then create another Primary ahead of current 'new' (now the only) Primary. Make it large enough to accomodate '98 for games use. Convert previous 'new' Primary to Extended - for data only. Install '98 to 'latest' Primary. Use Boot-magic to allow choice of OS to boot. 4) This option may be preferable/safer to (3) above...: If you were to make the (first) 'new' partition an Extended partition initially - as opposed to a Primary (and obviously after the existing D: Primary) - then once you have transferred all data across, the remaining 'original' Primary can be reformatted as fat32 for '98/Games use? Remember to verify regularly (each time you make a transfer) that you can access data via W2K - in its now location before proceeding further. You could perhaps copy 'chunks' over; verify it's OK, then delete from original location? This Extended partition approach removes the need to convert the balance of first 'new' Primary on D: from Primary to Extended as outlined in (3) above. Saves a step or three? W2K Disk Admin will allow/should you to reformat the balance of original D: ntfs Primary as fat32, prior to installing '98 I think that PM includes a util to sort out drive letter changes - when/should they occurr? I haven't much used PM's Boot-magic so I'm not totally au-fait with how it goes in etc...; but any of the above may allow what you want? Hope the above isn't too confusing... and it gives you some possible solutions? If at all possible... - perhaps back-up/copy data (or at least critical) off the system entirely?

Go to your BIOS Setup screen and find the option that says "Virus protection" or something like that. Make sure this is disabled because this will stop any other program from modifying the Boot Sector which is what might be happening.