CTRL+ALT+DELETE shows what is running. But sometimes it's a good idea to run scandisk and defrag in safe mode. You should run a full virus check and check for spy-ware and ad-ware also. Could be something on the system if you can't figure out the running process that's stopping you from running your scandisk. William Pike [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jim Bernhardt Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 2:35 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [PCBUILD] Scandisk & Defrag Hey Guys, I'm trying to help a friend with her computor, the problem is when I try to scandisk or defrag the computor times out because it says a program(s) is writing to the harddrive. I shut down screensaver, all energy saving features, went into msconfig and took out everyting except systray and it still interupts scandisk. My question is how do you check to see what programs are running in the backround...Thanks in advance for any help on this subject...Jim The NOSPIN Group is now offering Free PC Tech support at our newest website: http://freepctech.com The NOSPIN Group is now offering Free PC Tech support at our newest website: http://freepctech.com