I am trying to defrag my laptop but I get the message:

“Disk Defragmenter has detected chkdsk is scheduled to run on the volume (C:).
Please run Chkdsk /f”

When I go to the command prompt to run Chkdsk  /f I get the message:

“Chkdsk connot run because the volume is in use by another system. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system is restarted (Y/N)”

Selecting yes and on a system RESTART I get the message:

“Cannot open volume for direct access”

I have tried running from safe mode, but the system won’t boot into safe mode, it stops while loading system drivers.

I have also tried running the defrag.exe but defrag.exe c: only nets me the original message that chkdsk is scheduled to run…

I am sure this is probably an insanely easy thing to get past, but I just don’t know what to do.

So I am stumped I have checked the task scheduler and there is no task scheduled to run chkdsk there, and my laptop which is horrendously slow and in definite need a of a good defrag won’t defrag.

I use McAfee  for my firewall and virus protection, and I wonder if it is not trying to also run disk utilities, though I do not see any tasks scheduled there either.

I am using Windows XP media edition as my OS

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Frank   
What items are LISTED in Startup ? ?
Boinc manager: which is  distributed computing software used to donate your IDLE computer time to science projects  to predict and design protein structures and protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions.

only runs about 80% of the time.

Winzip.


McAfee Security Center

Install Pending Files.


Sorry for the long delay I have been out of the office for awhile, thank you for the reply.

Disable Boinc
Disable McAffee including email scanning if it's turned on
WinZip also does not need to run at startup

Then try and run chkdsk /r from the Start/Run command prompt...

P.S. You can safely switch off also install pending files....sounds like some Windows updates didn't finish but we need to run chkdsk and defrag first.Thanks again Patio:

I found some information on my problem. Unfortunately it does not look good. Here is a thread I found while searching google....This person pretty much has the exact same problem I do trying to run chkdsk (which seems to be my real problem)

http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/forum/windows-xp/19442-chkdsk-problems.html

for some reason chkdsk can not check the volume of drive C at startup (before windows or any programs are even loaded)
since it can't check the volume it remain checked as needed to be run. since it does not run, defrag can't start because it is waiting for chkdsk to complete.

I am in some kind of borked cycle.

of course I can not find my system CD to see if I can do a repair, but I think that's my next step.Have you tried what was suggested yet and did that produce any results ? ?
Yes, I tried all of them, and a couple others I found on other forums with people with this problem. It looks like I have a corrupted file somewhere. So I get to back up all of my files and do a system re-install.


thank you again Patio.You're more than Welcome...and Welcome to CH !Update:

Well not wanting to do a system REINSTALL (two years worth of work on that laptop), I decided to try something a bit more drastic.

I upgraded the OS to Vista.

I can now defrag the hard drive

The best part is I did not lose any files, so although that fix cost me the price of the Vista upgrade, I am happy I did not have to worry about forgetting something and than losing it.

Love your forum Patio, and thanks for the Auslogics Disk Defrag link.
I let it run over night, there were way too many red boxes for me to wait and watch it. 
Good to hear...now would be a good time to start considering a solid backup strategy for your data...you saw how close you came to having NOTHING.