Cannot run scandisk or defrag

[H Peckham]

  - I try to run scandisk and it says something like "scandisk has restarted 10 times due to something writing to drive" - I am trying to optimize my c: local hard drive.  how do I figure out what is writing to the drive so I can correct it!

Thanks - H

[dl65]

H........Which operating system are you using and have you looked in the device manager to see whats running ?

let us know

dl65  

[chade]

I'd say he's running almost any version of Windows, and has his swap file turned on.  This is a common error with Windows running scandisk - as it runs the swap file changes (the hard disk gets written to), and scan disk has to reset...repeat until scandisk decides its had enough (after 10 resets).

Try disabling your swap file, rebooting, and starting the check again.  In Win XP to disable the swap file:

Right Click My computer -> Properties (or Control Panel -> System)
Goto Advanced Tab
Under 'Performance' click Settings
Choose the Advanced Tab
Under 'Virtual Memory' choose Change
Click on 'No paging file' then choose 'Set'

Reboot windows...do not open any programs.
Close all programs, including virus checkers etc in the system tray. I recommend disabling your network (via settings or by physically pulling the plug) before doing this - can never be too safe

Start your disk check again.

Once you're done - dive back into virtual memory settings and reenable your swap file (paging file) - either choose 'system managed' or a reasonable custom size (I have mine on 512 initial 512 max custom size - this keeps the swap file a static size which can boost performance).

Reboot.

You're done!  

Should be very similar in Win2K - if you have a previous version let us know if you can't find the swap/page file settings.

[merlin]

its amazing how lazy one can be>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;222469