[Skatanic871]

I've been trying for months to run the disk defragment utility on my hp laptop (running xp). Its been consistently saying "run check disk first", but when i do run the check disk, it says it has no way to access all the files, and to run it when windows restart. i've tried doing it in safe mode, but it didnt do the trick.

thanks ahead of time

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Hi Skatanic871, Welcome to geeks to go. I all ways back up
my files before any repair.
Ok try this make sure you are in a user account with administrative rights

To check for a Dirty Bit, first. Click Start, then Run, type cmd, and
click "Ok". At the command prompt, type fsutil dirty query c:
(This queries the drive and will tell you if it is dirty).
Whats it say? if its yes do this

This step is important as this is where the dirty bit gets unset.
Then click Start, then Run, bring up a command prompt by typing cmd
in the Open box, and click "Ok". At the command prompt, type chkdsk /f /r c:
and press "Enter" to manually run a full chkdsk operation. (you may have to accept
having this run on boot by typeing "Y" and pressing "Enter")
This should take you through 5 stages of the scan and will unset
that dirty bit. (This is a very thorough check and will take quite a while...be patient.)
Finally, type fsutil dirty query c:, press "Enter", and Windows will confirm
that the dirty bit is not set on that drive.
Now reboot again and see if chkdsk still runs on bootup

Now if that don't work then try this
This should repair corrupt system files
Start, run,type in sfc \scanow
make sure you leave a space after sfc.
then press enter. You will need your XP CD for this
file protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar,
when the bar goes away, reboot

[Dwight]

Hi Skatanic871, Welcome to geeks to go. I all ways back up
my files before any repair.
Ok try this make sure you are in a user account with administrative rights

To check for a Dirty Bit, first. Click Start, then Run, type cmd, and
click "Ok". At the command prompt, type fsutil dirty query c:
(This queries the drive and will tell you if it is dirty).
Whats it say? if its yes do this

This step is important as this is where the dirty bit gets unset.
Then click Start, then Run, bring up a command prompt by typing cmd
in the Open box, and click "Ok". At the command prompt, type chkdsk /f /r c:
and press "Enter" to manually run a full chkdsk operation. (you may have to accept
having this run on boot by typeing "Y" and pressing "Enter")
This should take you through 5 stages of the scan and will unset
that dirty bit. (This is a very thorough check and will take quite a while...be patient.)
Finally, type fsutil dirty query c:, press "Enter", and Windows will confirm
that the dirty bit is not set on that drive.
Now reboot again and see if chkdsk still runs on bootup

Now if that don't work then try this
This should repair corrupt system files
Start, run,type in sfc \scanow
make sure you leave a space after sfc.
then press enter. You will need your XP CD for this
file protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar,
when the bar goes away, reboot

[Skatanic871]

this is the message that comes up:

c:\documents and settings\user\chkdsk /f /r c:
the type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? <Y/N>

i diddnt try the second thing because im not sure if that message is expected or not. the disk defrag wont let me because i need to run the scan disk, but then the scan disk wont run. even if i do it manually.

[Skatanic871]

i did, and when i restarted, the volume was not checked.

[Dwight]

HI Skatanic871, This should repair corrupt system files
Start, run,type in sfc \scanow
make sure you leave a space after sfc.
then press enter. You will need your XP CD for this
file protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar,
when the bar goes away, reboot