Fixed Disk Boot Sector

Common Options : Normal, Write Protect

Quick Review

This BIOS feature provides rudimentary anti-virus protection by write-protecting the boot sector.

If this feature is enabled, the BIOS will block any attempt to write to the boot sector and flash a warning message. This protects the system from boot sector viruses. Please note that it offers no protection against other types of viruses.

If this feature is disabled, the BIOS will not block any writes to the boot sector.

This feature can cause problems with software that need to write to the boot sector. One good example is the installation routine of all versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 95 onwards. When enabled, this feature causes the installation routine to fail.

In addition, many hard drive diagnostic utilities that access the boot sector can also trigger the system halt and error message as well. Therefore, you should disable this feature before running such utilities, or when you intend to install a new operating system.

Please note that this feature is useless for hard drives that run on external controllers with their own BIOS. Boot sector viruses will bypass the system BIOS with its anti-virus protection features and write directly to the hard drives. Such controllers include additional IDE, SATA or SCSI controllers that are either built into the motherboard or provided via add-on cards.