Scan Disk mistery activity

[GeorgeR]

For the last few months, every attempt to run the MS utility Scandisk is interrupted by a message indicating that there is a program trying to write to disk. After 10 startups, Scan Disk gives up.
When I run this utility I disable the Firewall, Norton's Virus check, and the last time I terminated every program but Explorer that shows up when clicking on Ctrl+Alt+Del.
I run Windows ME.
What is this activity?

[mjc]

What version of Windows?

Have you tried running scandisk in "Safe Mode"?

[Steve]

Hi George,

Heh heh, I think mjc missed that Windows ME mention. ;)

It's hard to say what is writing to the disk. It might be a screen saver. Like mjc said, running scandisk in safe mode solves most of these problems. :)

[GeorgeR]

Sorry for not mentioning as much as I could.
I do not use Screen Savers, or Power-saver or schedule any maintenance.
Also, I am cable-connected. I know that they do periodic checking for active ports, but I do not believe that they are active on my hard drive.
At one time I wondered if Win ME Recover was doing some activity but I normally can tell when Win ME is storing check points.
I guess that I will try doing it under Safe Mode. What gets me is that for over a year, I managed to perform Scandisk without any interruption.
Thanks for the recommendations.

[Steve]

Hi George,

If scandisk ran fine the way you have always done it, and now it doesn't, some detective work is in order. What has changed? Have you changed any configurations? Downloaded any programs? Added any hardware? Things don't usually change by themselves. Keep searching 'till you find what happened. Or just try it in safe mode... ;)

Good luck. :)

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Are you still connected to your cable when you try? I wonder if port attempts cause it.

Also have you run a spyware scan?

[GeorgeR]

Yes, I am connected to the cable modem. Do you think that port checking will cause my system to report to Scandisk that a program is writing on my hard drive? I do have Spyware checking but I also disabled before running Scandisk. As I said, only Explorer was left running.

[rahulkothari]

George, i think some or the other program pops up and hence you can't continue defrag. Also many programs load at start-up.... most of which are useless.

This site (http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm) provides guidance on the usefulness or not of these programs, and removal procedures when recommended.

Also check out this one (http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm). This site basically categorises start-up programs into "have to load at start-up", "not needed" and "your choice".

There are few programs which do not display their ugly-faces in the ctrl+alt+del list.... also, there are some (i think) which do not understand the polite language of ctrl+alt+del's "end-task" ... so an all in one cure for such creeps is EndItAll (http://home.ptd.net/~don5408/toolbox/enditall/).

BUT DO TRY SCANNING IN SAFE-MODE FIRST BEFORE PLAYING WITH THE ABOVE STUFF.