avast pro question

[gizmo152]

does avast pro protect the master boot record ?
my laptop crashted after updating avast
but now i can't reinstall my windows because it cannot write to the disk
i've tried with partition magic to remove the partition but get the following error

Error: 58 Unable to write to the boot sector virus protection software mayby running

i've looked in my bios but there is no option for a virus protection so it must be the avast pro ?

[igor]

No, avast! doesn't block boot sector access.

[DavidR]

I can't say for sure, I'm just an avast user, but even if it did protect the master boot record, I don't believe it would stop it from being edited or deleted. As confirmed by Igor.

I'm not sure why you would want to get rid of the MBR as without it your computer is stuffed (sorry about the technical terms). I have Partition Magic V 8.0 and I can't recall any time that I needed to kill the MBR.

[Lisandro]

i've tried with partition magic to remove the partition but get the following error

Do you mean with a floppy or CD loaded? Or running Windows?
Did you create the partitions with PM or another software? Sometimes, PM does not work well with partitions do not created with it (for instance, created with Acronis Disk Director).

[DavidR]

I haven't had a problem creating or modifying a partition using PM since my first purchase of partition magic 3.0 through to my last purchase PM 8.0.

As I said I can't recall ever wanting or needing to delete the MBR, the normal issue if using the fixmbr from DOS to recover from a corrupt or missing MBR.