When I attempt to defrag my hard drive I receive this message "cannot defragment this drive now because it has been locked by a disk utility" IDNo: DEFRAG00105 Also I cannot run scandisk - same response. How do I unlock drive???

you will have to find and disable or stop that disk utility program.

Response 1 is good advice. It sounds like maybe you have a hard drive that IS or WAS owned by a company which did not want anyone messing with their hard drives. Yes, check for and find out how to unlock the disk utility. But also, something else I would check. Check out your BIOS and if your BIOS has a SECURITY section in it...this MIGHT be where you are being locked out. If there is a disk protect option in BIOS SECURITY, disable it. Now, here is another thing to try, I bet you don't have the foggiest on WHAT FILE is doing it to the hard drive. I bet you lunch that it is being initialized as Windows boots up. Now, what you can do is, after POST Test with the BIOS has initialized and BEFORE it says, Windows Is Loading, press down on the F8 Function key until a DOS menu comes up, giving you the choice to go thru a step-by-step bootup of Windows. I think this is number 3 or 4 on the menu list. Pick this one. Now, Windows will begin to load, executing ONE command at a time, in which you have to type [Y] to execute it. Before you type the Y, (saying YES), write the name of each file down as it comes up. This way, you will have a complete list of all the files that are executed during bootup of Windows. Just proceed then to say yes to each command and let windows boot up. Take especial note of any file that is executed that is a BAT (batch) file or an EXE file. Make sure, of course, you have made a Windows Startup Disk (see Windows Help on how to do this), just in case something happens so you can get back into Windows. Now, what I would try is, goto Windows Explorer and use the FIND function and find each file with a BAT or EXE extension. One at a time, click on each file and see if it does something...A BAT file can be associated with notepad so that you can see what is written in the BAT file. The reason why to click on the EXE file is to see if something is initialized or some kind of program BEGINS, which may be the disk locking utility allowing you to disable it. Its just a wild guess on my part, but its worth a try. You might also try purchasing a copy of Norton Utilities which has an excellent disk defrag program called Speed Disk. You may be able to defrag the hard drive with this utility, or it may be able to help you to figure out what to do to get the disk unlocked.

Response 1 is good advice. It sounds like maybe you have a hard drive that IS or WAS owned by a company which did not want anyone messing with their hard drives. Yes, check for and find out how to unlock the disk utility. But also, something else I would check. Check out your BIOS and if your BIOS has a SECURITY section in it...this MIGHT be where you are being locked out. If there is a disk protect option in BIOS SECURITY, disable it. Now, here is another thing to try, I bet you don't have the foggiest on WHAT FILE is doing it to the hard drive. I bet you lunch that it is being initialized on Windows boots up. Now, what you can do is, after POST Test with the BIOS has initialized and BEFORE it says, Windows Is Loading, press down on the F8 Function key until a DOS menu comes up, giving you the choice to go thru a step-by-step bootup of Windows. I think this is number 3 or 4 on the menu list. Pick this one. Now, Windows will begin to load, executing ONE command at a time, in which you have to type [Y] to execute it. Before you type the Y, (saying YES), write the name of each file down as it comes up. This way, you will have a complete list of all the files that are executed during bootup of Windows. Just proceed then to say yes to each command and let windows boot up. Take especial note of any file that is executed that is a BAT (batch) file or an EXE file. Make sure, of course, you have made a Windows Startup Disk (see Windows Help on how to do this), just in case something happens so you can get back into Windows. Now, what I would try is, goto Windows Explorer and use the FIND function and find each file with a BAT or EXE extension. One at a time, click on each file and see if it does something...A BAT file can be associated with notepad so that you can see what is written in the BAT file. The reason why to click on the EXE file is to see if something is initialized or some kind of program BEGINS, which may be the disk locking utility allowing you to disable it. Its just a wild guess on my part, but its worth a try. You might also try purchasing a copy of Norton Utilities which has an excellent disk defrag program called Speed Disk. You may be able to defrag the hard drive with this utility, or it may be able to help you to figure out what to do to get the disk unlocked.

Response 1 is good advice. It sounds like maybe you have a hard drive that IS or WAS owned by a company which did not want anyone messing with their hard drives. Yes, check for and find out how to unlock the disk utility. But also, something else I would check. Check out your BIOS and if your BIOS has a SECURITY section in it...this MIGHT be where you are being locked out. If there is a disk protect option in BIOS SECURITY, disable it. Now, here is another thing to try, I bet you don't have the foggiest on WHAT FILE is doing it to the hard drive. I bet you lunch that it is being initialized on Windows boots up. Now, what you can do is, after POST Test with the BIOS has initialized and BEFORE it says, Windows Is Loading, press down on the F8 Function key until a DOS menu comes up, giving you the choice to go thru a step-by-step bootup of Windows. I think this is number 3 or 4 on the menu list. Pick this one. Now, Windows will begin to load, executing ONE command at a time, in which you have to type [Y] to execute it. Before you type the Y, (saying YES), write the name of each file down as it comes up. This way, you will have a complete list of all the files that are executed during bootup of Windows. Just proceed then to say yes to each command and let windows boot up. Take especial note of any file that is executed that is a BAT (batch) file or an EXE file. Make sure, of course, you have made a Windows Startup Disk (see Windows Help on how to do this), just in case something happens so you can get back into Windows. Now, what I would try is, goto Windows Explorer and use the FIND function and find each file with a BAT or EXE extension that you found on your list at bootup. One at a time, click on each file and see if it does something...A BAT file can be associated with notepad so that you can see what is written in the BAT file. The reason why to click on the EXE file is to see if something is initialized or some kind of program BEGINS, which may be the disk locking utility allowing you to disable it. Its just a wild guess on my part, but its worth a try. You might also try purchasing a copy of Norton Utilities which has an excellent disk defrag program called Speed Disk. You may be able to defrag the hard drive with this utility, or it may be able to help you to figure out what to do to get the disk unlocked.

endefeecter & Jim Clark Tried your solutions with no results in unlocking drive. This computer was not a Company computer. This problem occured after loading and using McAfee Office 2000 software. I contacted McAfee and they did not provide me with any solutions. I since unloaded that software. Also when the error message comes up there are no utilities running. Thank-Yoy though for trying to help out. Charlie

I got the solution to the problem. It was simple commands "unlock c: /unlock c:". Thanks to Bill Watts Sr.