HDD write protect error?

I haven't seen the PC yet, so I'm working on "second hand" info. But here is what I've been told:

My housemate installed a new NIC into his father's PC. He rebooted into Win98 and Win98 found the card and strated to install drivers. A further reboot was required. On final reboot, Win98 tried to update system config, but returned an error something like "write protect error drive c:".

By all accounts, my housemate has tried installing a brand new HDD and still gets same problem. He also says he's tried resetting BIOS settings (although I'm not sure exactly what he's done).

I've not been able to take a look at it yet, and it may be an easy one. But while I'm at work can anyone give me some ideas to take home with me? Anyone seen it before? Is it fixable?

My housemate seems convinced the HDD controller on the mobo is fried.

Cheers guys.

Dammit. Sorry guys - this is in totally the wrong place.

Er... I kind of want to post this topic in the correct plave but I know th emodeators hate it when you get multiple posts all over the place.

Er... Um... Not sure what to do now.

Ah well. If anyone can still help, I'd be grateful :)

No problem. I'll move it to the HDD/IDE forum. ;)