HDD Policies tab is greyed out

I have recently tried to compress a very large set of files with StuffIt, but at random points during compression I get an error saying that a device attached to the system is not functioning, followed by a tray popup saying "Windows - Delayed Write Failiure".

I've troubleshot the problem on Microsoft's website, and it specified that I try turning off write behind cache for the HDD.

Only problemis that the Policies tab on all my harddrives is disabled for some reason, effectively locking the write caching option on and I cannot change it. Even though I'm sure my account has full administrative privilleges I have also tried rebooting into Safe Mode and logging into the default Administrator account, but the two options in the Policies tab are STILL greyed out.

I am running Windows XP SP2 with all the latest windows updates and hardware drivers installed.

Can anyone please help me?