Thanks Daniel and Bengy.. (Bengy, I didn't know you were Canadian as well.. :)
I switched from ICD 6.5.5 to Centek's Cécile--the same things happen. I wiped my boot partition and re-re-re-re-re-installed a fresh copy of MagiC 6.01 but again, no joy..
I'll give AHDI a shot.
One more thing: MGCOPY will halt an awful lot and I can't even open the application installer..