BleepingComputer.com: Defrag

A few days ago I tried to run scandisk and defrag and get this message every time:

Windows cannot defragment this drive now because it has been locked by a disk utility. Quit any utilities that may have locked this drive, and then try defragmenting the drive again. ID No:DEFRAG00105

I've poked around the internet and tried running them in safe mode, but it doesn't work. I haven't tried DOS because I don't know how. Really don't understand it because it's never happened before. I'm running Norton System Works 2005 on Windows ME. I always have and suddenly this came up. I've tried shutting down all running programs through control alt delete and even disabled startup items in msconfig, but nothing works. Can't imagine what utility has locked it. Neither Norton nor Windows defrag and scandisk work.

Any ideas?

There is a support document that covers this problem on the Microsoft Support website.

MS Support Site

Let's us know if that helps you, or you need us to point you in another direction.

Good-luck.

JC

The report tells me how to go about repairing the file allocation tables and in order to do it, I need a windows startup disk. I went to create one and it's telling me that a file wasn't found and I need to put the Windows Millenium disk in to continue, but I don't have one, so I guess that's out. The rest of the report just talked about system works 2000 which i don't have.

Guess that won't work.

There is a web site that you can download Windows boot disks, including a Windows ME bootdisk.

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

JC

This post has been edited by Joshuacat: 05 October 2005 - 07:52 PM

Here's where I start showing my computer illiteracy There's a Windows ME OEM and a Windows ME Custom, No Ramdrive....dunno which one.

chance:

Try this direct link - ME Boot disk

We are here to help, so feel free to post any question that you have.



JC

Joshuacat, on Oct 5 2005, 10:23 PM, said:

Thank you for the direct link. I downloaded it and sent it to a floppy, but when I tried to reboot with the disk, I got this: Invalid system disk, replace the disk and press any key

The Microsoft Article is wanting me to start my computer into DOS mode using a Windows ME Emergency Boot Disk (EBD) in order to repair the file allocation table, though I'm not sure that's the problem, I just wanted to try it.

This post has been edited by chance: 12 October 2005 - 12:45 PM

Are you sure you did this correctly?
I just tried it on mine, this is what I had to do...

You need to download the BootME.exe file to your C:\ drive.(anywhere except the a: drive)
Double click the BootME.exe file.
It will automatically create a boot disk for you.

Follow the steps described below from MS:

Quote

Let us know if that worked for you. Thanks.

Thank you so much JC

I ended up figuring it out before I saw your recent post about how to create the disk....I was right clicking on the boot file and going to 'send to' drive A floppy instead of double clicking the file to open it

So I created the boot disk and went into DOS and used scandisk. The file allocation tables were fine but lots of problems were found when I did a surface test on drive C. I had it fix the problems, restarted the computer and now am able to defrag! Thank you so much for all your help and pointing me in the right direction

Excellent!!

Thanks for letting us know.

Take care,