-Using Windows 98 and and having disk problems. Tried Defrag command but message came back: "Locked by a disk utility" - I tried restoring DOS System Files using bootable diskette and "SYS C:" command. -Message came back: "Cannot obtain exclusive access to drive" Thanks for your interest.

Hank, If I remember right in Win98: Open "My Computer" Right click on the hard drive, and select properties. Click on the "tools" tab, and there's a button there for the defragger. Which should kick off the ".exe" I've also seen that not work, and what I've doneis manually cleared out my "temp" fold and the "temporary internet files" folder. Sometimes the names in there are too long for 98 defagger to handle.

close all apps before doing this. If defrag goes into loop try to do it in safe mode.

On the subject of defragmenting, I wanted to mention a lightning fast defrag utility called VoptXP. It simply "blows" the Windows defrag away with its speed and configuration ability. Defrag your dirve in just a few short minutes. My drive is done in 3 minutes. Check it out for a 30 day trial at: http://www.vopt.com You will be amazed!

For a FREE fast defragger Download and Install the Win ME Defragger from surecool.com Then in Safe Mode, run Scandisk with auto repair function turned on, before using defrag.

"Locked by a disk utility" Appears to be related to WinME and not Win98? http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q286810

Do you have Norton Utilities? Some of them will cause this. Do this: Start>Run>Msconfig>Startup See if anything is running that might cause this. The Startup and Task Scheduling functions can run things you aren't aware of.