Thanks for your reply, you have made me realise something, I have the lastest purchased version of photo mechanic, I have recently updated my PC, I have two hard drives installed in my tower, one had the operating system and installed programs with XP the other had working files, web stuff, photographs etc, so if there was a problem with the C drive my images would be better protected, after a month images are backed up and moved on to two mirrored external drive.
this week I took out the C drive and replaced it with a clean, larger drive and installed a fresh purchased copy of Windows 7.
Everything installed correctly, I then re-connected the second internal drive and it was recognised as such. I have moved photo jobs from the last couple of days on to that drive ready for editing. BUT now I come to select and edit the pictures ( i'm only just catching up on my work as of last night ) I find the drive is write protected ??!!!!?!
It wasn't under XP, I have googled this and it seems a few other people have found after installing Win 7 a drive has become write protected, isthis a 7 issue or setting?
I cannot format the drive as it contains valuable work, any idea how I can unlock the drive?