A question about Norton Disk Doctor

[UltramarineX]

Hello, this would be my second posted question today. Anyways, I wanted to scan my hard drive using Norton Disk Doctor (from Norton Systemworks 2002). But when I check/click the "fix errors" button, and press the "Diagnose" button to scan my disk, a window pops up saying: "The Operating System, or another process, currently has exclusive access to this drive, or some of its files. Norton Disk Doctor cannot continue with a repair under these conditions. A repair can be scheduled to occur the next time you restart the system."

Now, I know that you can fix errors using Disk Doctor without restarting the computer (which I've done on other computers), so why won't it do so on my computer?

My computer's specs are:
Pentium 4 2.4GHz
MSI 648 Max series motherboard
512MB PC2700 DDR-RAM
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro video card
40 GB Hard Drive (make unknown)
Windows XP (with Service Pack 1)

Thanks in advance for any help.

[alc6379]

This just sometimes happens on XP machines. It's usually because some process or service is using a file on the drive.

Does it work okay once you reboot?

[UltramarineX]

Unfortunately this problem of having to reboot my computer to fix errors still happens after the reboot.

I heared from someone that this problem may occur because of the way my hard drive is partitioned. Can anyone explain if that's true?

[DMR]

Although unlikely, you would have to tell exactly how your drive is partitioned in order for us to see if that's an issue.

I'm with Alex (alc6379) on this one though- it does sound as though some other running process is keeping the virus scan from doing its job. Can you run a sucessful scan if you boot into Safe Mode?

[alc6379]

Or, another thing you can do is to disable all of your startup items using MSCONFIG temporarily. Click on Start -> Run, then type msconfig in the box, and hit OK. When that opens, there are some options there under the General tab. Click on Selective Startup, then uncheck "Load System Services" and "Load Startup Group Items". Click OK, and reboot when prompted to. When the system restarts, there will be next to nothing running in the background, and that should allow you to run the scan. Once you've finished scanning, open msconfig back up, and then change the Startup Type from Selective Startup to Normal Startup, click OK, and reboot again.

[UltramarineX]

Oh, this is not a virus scan. It's just checking if there's anything wrong with my hard drive. In any case, Disk Doctor won't run properly even in safe mode.

[alc6379]

Oh, this is not a virus scan. It's just checking if there's anything wrong with my hard drive. In any case, Disk Doctor won't run properly even in safe mode.

Fully realized from the outset that you're referencing a disk drive integrity check. What errors do you get from Safe Mode? Additionally, did you try my above suggestion?

[DMR]

Sorry, my bad- I didn't mean to say "virus" scan; just a finger-foul on the old keyboard.

:p

[UltramarineX]

Or, another thing you can do is to disable all of your startup items using MSCONFIG temporarily. Click on Start -> Run, then type msconfig in the box, and hit OK. When that opens, there are some options there under the General tab. Click on Selective Startup, then uncheck "Load System Services" and "Load Startup Group Items". Click OK, and reboot when prompted to. When the system restarts, there will be next to nothing running in the background, and that should allow you to run the scan. Once you've finished scanning, open msconfig back up, and then change the Startup Type from Selective Startup to Normal Startup, click OK, and reboot again.

I tried out your method, but unfortunately it still gives me that message box.

[alc6379]

Okay, then go back into MSCONFIG, and change it to Diagnostic Startup, instead of Selective Startup, then restart. That way, EVERYTHING will be turned off, and nothing should be accessing your disks.

If that doesn't work, you may need to run chkdsk /r from Recovery console on your drive, as there may be something else going on. If that doesn't work, then you might want to backup your data, and consider performing an OS reinstallation.