I've just modified my bootstrap i'm currently working on and a the 16-bit *.com file I wrote to manage disks, sectors, usb, fire wire ect no longer works (compatability issue). Does any one know of any windows 10 API that I could use, or point me to an app that can write/read sectors. hehe

thanks Hack1532

FYI: non-Windows OSes are never running at the same time as Windows (regardless of the version). you need to include a driver for each of the device types you want to support. due to the nature of a "hobby" OS you're not gonna find anything you can just "plug in". BTW: NOTHING that works in Windows is going to be usable in your OS without heavy modifications to it.

I solved the problem by booting Mini-XP 32-bit from USB. My 16-bit *.COM files work correctly.
ie: MAKEBOOT.COM
RAWWRITE.COM

I was able to build my little OS just fine under 32-bit Win OS,

You can open a file name called "\\.\PhysicalDriveN" where N is the drive number and read/write data to that. Writing should be fine for all non-system drives in Win7 and up. For XP writing also works on the system dive so you need to be careful you don't kill your boot HDD.

You need to be careful about writing to your boot HDD on 7, too. I was trying to write a floppy image to a USB floppy with some third party software, and it overwrote my boot HDD instead. Luckily the partitions were still intact.