I have a desktop PC which is a Dell Dimension 3000 series.512 mb Ram running Windows XP HOme edition Svc pack 2. I recently got hit with a nasty adaware. Managed to clear it. I run Spybot/AVG Free Edition and SuperAntispywre. I recently tried to de-frag and it won't allow it. message reads "Disk Defragmenter has detected that Chkdsk is scheduled to run on Volume C Please run Chkdsk /f" If I try to run Chkdsk I get this message "Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked next time the system restarts?" If I say No, it doesn't make any difference to the De-frag message. I have limited tech skills, can someone help me in easy to understand instructions?? Thanks LJ

Have you tried doing YES, then Restart ??? What method are you using to run chkdsk ??? Have you tried do Defrag while you are in Windows Safe-Mode ???

Yep, like Chuck said, choose Yes and restart the machine. /f means fix. Then try defrag again... Skip

The instructions above should solve your problem but if not JKDefrag might help. I use JkDefrag instead of the one provided by MS. It seems much faster and in addition there is a GUI available that allows defrag in the background. Check it out! http://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/

Hi Thanks for all your replies. I did try Yes and then restart. The Chkdsk ran but the window closed so fast I couldn't see if there was any result. Same problem on restart. Just to make sure I am not going mad I will follow your instructions again and see what happens. I will try JKdefrag if the above doesn't work. Thanks so much and I will let you know the result.