My XP system won't defrag/scandisk!! HELP! Using Diskeeper Workstation 8.0.478

[NFS4]

OK, I just did a clean install of of Windows XP and installed DKW as I always do. Well, I set it to do a boot-time defrag with all the options checked (included a Scandisk before hand).

But it WON'T do a Scandisk and it won't defrag. When it reboots to do the Sandisk, it says "Volume cannot be accessed, may be locked by another operation..." Then it tries to go through with the defrag and it says "Volume is Locked"

Then when I get into windows and try to do a defrag from there, it says that it can't do one b/c Scandisk has to be run and is asks me if I want to schedule a boot-time Sandisk. And thus starts the never ending loop of going NO WHERE!!

I don't have anything out of the ordinary installed so I don't know what's up. I tried uninstalling DKW and that didn't help. I tried reinstalling DKW, no go. When I go to try to do a boot-time defrag now, the chkdsk option says this:

"CHKDSK is currently set to run on this volume, either by the operating system, or by an application."

 

[8ballcoupe]

I use Diskeeper with WinXP, too, but an older version than yours. I occasionally run a boot-time defrag, but never with the chkdsk option checked. I just use boot-time defrag to perform directory consolidation, to defrag the MFT, and to reduce paging file fragments. I believe I tried to use the chkdsk option once a long time ago with a Win2K system and didn't like what happened.

Why not just run chkdsk on your own, then after booting into Windows setting up the boot-time defrag to happen without chkdsk?

To try to restore the behavior of autochk / chkdsk to normal you might try typing this command at a CMD prompt:

chkntfs /D

That should take you back to square one and allow you to proceed normally -- I hope.

Ernie

BTW, your drive isn't using any unusual partitioning arrangement like a third party partition / boot manager or an overlay, is it? I would be really careful about using boot-time defragging in such a case. (And by "careful" I mean that I think I just wouldn't do it.)