I can't get ScanDisk nor Defrag. to work. After starting ScanDisk I get a message: ScanDisk has restarted 10 times because another program is writing to this drive. I've disabled my anti virus and firewall, screensaver etc. but they still won't operate I want to run ScanDisk and Defrag. because my system is running very slow and erratic. Any suggestions?? Thank you in advance.

End tasks of everything except explorer and systray using ctrl+alt+del and see if Scan Disk will complete (always run scan disk before attempting to defrag). If no joy, try running them in safe mode.

the same happened to me a while back and i did it in safe mode, and it worked

Turn off your AV software.

Have a look at this post, points 2,4,8,9,10. Make sure you visit Pac's and uncheck lots of things in msconfig to sort the interruption problem, though I see you have tried this to some extent. http://www.burzurq.com/forum/trevtweak.html You can also use a program called End it All which you get here http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,95493,00.asp See RM’s resource post on this topic http://www.computing.net/windowsme/wwwboard/forum/20291.html The above methods, especially the first link, should solve the problem permanently. However, on some PCs there may be a particularly well hidden program causing a problem. In that case, you can also try running scandisk in Dos as described here http://computing.net/windowsme/wwwboard/forum/13355.html response 3 (If you don't know how to create a bootdisk or startup disk: 1. Open Add/Remove Programs properties in Control Panel. 2. Click the Startup Disk tab, and then click Create Disk. 3. Follow the instructions on the screen. ) Or, you can follow the Microsoft advice on how to clean boot before using scandisk or defragmenter http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q186978