I can't defrag, it says to fix errors first. Scan disk can't run all the way, it just keeps restarting and restarting. The same thing happens in safe mode, I've done virus scans and it says everything is ok. Any suggestions???? I'm losing my mind....

you got to many programs runnning in the background press ctrl-alt-delete at the same time and in the tast manager end task all but explorer and system tray then run scan disk.

I have almost the same problem. I can run scan disk and derfag in safe mode but not in regular windows. I also have Norton's speed disk and I can't run it or it's defrag at all. I have done the ctrl alt del exactly like this and it still says another utility program is writing at the same and I still can't so either Windows scan disk or Norton's speed disk to run.

You can scan disk in DOS but you require a start-up (boot) disk. This may do it. Post back if you are not sure how it's done.

Try the Fix ME changes. Usually solves most of this type of problem. However, it does not stop the firewall logging to the disk drive. So you have to disconnect from the Internet and shutdown the AV and Firewall to run a SCANDISK. Or make a Windows ME boot diskette through Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk tab. Use it to boot the system to DOS and run SCANDISK C:

I agree with michael2 answer in running scandisk in DOS mode. I have also had problems running scandisk in both Windows and SafeMode. Problem is there is something writing to disk. I used EnditAll to close most essential programs out and still had problems. When you make startup disk as michael2 says you will need to copy scandisk from C:\system\command. I don't believe when I made the startup disc it included it as one of the files. I believe you should be able to do a copy and paste for this. When you run scandisk it will ask you to (fixit), choose that. It will also see if there are weak areas on your hard-drive and mark appropriate sectors bad. I like it better than Windows scandisk in that you can see first hand exactly how bad your hard-drive is. You may have to do this many time times (Fixit). It seems to take longer in DOS mode. There maybe a switch you can add to automatically fix errors but I haven't used DOS in a while so I don't remember. From the DOS prompt it would be A:\scandisk c: /?. You don't need the question mark or the (/) but that is the switch setting for as I say possibly automatic fixing of errors. Also be aware that Microsoft noticed that Me has a IDE cache problem and that they have a small program now to fix a 2 second delay when Windows shuts down. Scandisk was starting up even though you may have shut down properly.

Sorry that would be C:\windows\command for the scandisk program.