Dan,

This is a well known problem experienced with Win ME/XP.

As you righly surmized, the problem is due to the SFP/System File
Protection feature.

The solution is to change the extension of your database file from
'.gdb' to '.fdb' -- The extension doesn't matter at all to FB/IB.

The .gdb extension has been registered by Microsoft as requiring
protection and there is no way to unregister it.

You can, in the case of XP, turn-off the SFP feature (this is NOT
available to ME).

--
Sean Leyne

There is nothing wrong with Interbase,
that can't be fixed with Firebird.
www.FirebirdSQL.org