Defrag won't fix it.

[Julio]

This has happened on more than one PC that I support in the office. The user complains about poor response time, etc. I try a defrag, which tells me to do a scandisk-thorough. I do the scandisk, attempt the defrag again, and the stupid program tells me to do another scandisk.
What's up with this ?
The only option I know to get around this is a reformat.

[johnqp]

I'm not sure if I had the same problem as you but it was similar in the sense that scandisk indicated it finished but defrag indicated errors still existed. Scan disk would then find one errror, fix it and indicate all was well. It went back and forth like this until I went to scandisk and checked "automatically fix errors" and in advanced options selected "delete cross linked files" and "free lost file fragments" When I ran scan disk again, it took quite some time and the log indicated a great deal of errors were found and corrected.
Also I do the "Alt Ctrl Delte" thing and shut down everything running in the background that is non essential.
I'm not sure if this can help you but good luck any way!

[darkmallard]

1. Boot into Safe Mode, open Scandisk, but don't scan

2. Go into Advanced and select "Delete Cross-linked Files" and "Free lost file fragments" (like johnqp said), but ALSO select "Always Display Summary"

3. click OK, select "THOROUGH" and "Automatically Fix Errors"

4. start the Thorough Scan. When it is done (usually after a few hours) review the Summary window and look for "Bytes Bad Sectors."

If there are any bytes in Bad Sectors, that means there is physical damage to the hard disk and you should probably get it replaced fairly quickly.

If there are NO bytes in Bad Sectors when it completes the Thorough Scandisk, then you should stay in SAFE MODE and run Defrag. It will complete.

[Julio]

Thanks all. I will give it a try.