hi I have windows98 which I cannot scandisk neither from the windows98 neither from Dos. I can't defrag either.

What happens when you scan from DOS?

Hi Sandra, sometimes if the Task Scheduler is set to run, scandisk and defrag won't start if you try to start them manually. Right click on the Task Scheduler next to the clock, open it, right click on a Task, click Run and try running your tasks from within the Task Scheduler, if that doesn't do it, restart your computer in safe mode and try to scandisk and defrag from there. Good luck. Bob

Hi Sandra, Do the scanning and defragmenting in Safe Mode. When (or start doing it just before) Windows starts to load, tap the "F8" key until you get a window with the options. That disrupts the normal boot. You're then offered a choice of a bunch of options; Safe Mode is one of them. The advantage when scanning and/or defragmenting is that no drivers are loaded and there is much less of the restarting that occurs in defragmenting. Make sure your screen saver is disabled. You can force Windows to start in Safe Mode by using the startup menu. Power up your machine, and immediately press and hold the CTRL. Key until the text menu appears. Hope this helps! Lorry

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q222469

I know safe mode is the catch all solution to scandisk problems, but in this case it does not run in DOS mode. This means it is not restarting, and safe mode is not necessarily a solution. We need Sandra to respond with more specifics as to what is happening when she scandisks in DOS, and, what happens when she tries to Defrag in windows.