you could try running "chkdsk" and see if that helps.. otherwise, i would look in microsoft's knowledge base and see what some of the articles there say about not being able to run disk defragmenter..

 

i wonder if maybe the problem is that your harddrive is going bad.. you could try running some diagnostics to see if it indicates a problem with the harddrive..

 

you could consider trying reformatting your harddrive.. if you are going to do that, you should back up anything that you want to save, like your "favorites"/"bookmarks", documents, software licenses, etc..

 

also, if you are going to reformat, be sure that you know how to reconnect to the internet, like installing your dialup modem drivers if you use a dialup modem, or installing your "network adaptor" drivers, if you have to install those.. the "network adaptor" is your "NIC" card..

 

and be sure to have a firewall running before reconnecting to the internet.. if you have win xpsp2 installed, the windows firewall will be running-by-default..

You can try chkdsk /f which will,or should fix any errors.In the command prompt.Start>run>chkdsk /f

 

NOTE the space between k and /

 

Defrag probally isn't worth anything thing today and I don't even really bother with it.There are third party programs available,such as disk keeper and perfect disk,I don't know if they are freebies.

 

 

I find that disabling unnecessary start up programs and clearing temp files works just fine.

 

http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/04/12/slow_computer_speed_up_your.htm

 

I use ccleaner slim build version which has no yahoo tool bar and is english only.Everytime I shutdown I run ccleaner.

 

http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

 

 

If there are other programs running this will conflict with the defrag process.

 

Try running defrag in safe mode and you may see a difference.

 

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm

 

Tom