"direct access to volume"

[matt]

I'm using XP home. Somehow my computer keeps deciding that
it needs to run scan disk at bootup everytime. I cannot
defragment *ever* because it always says "a disc check is
scheduled." When I boot up and it tries to scan disk it
says "cannot open volume for direct access". I don't know
what this means, but it seems to be at the heart of the
problem.

 

[Rich Barry]

Matt, take a look at Kelly's. http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm
Select C and scroll to
Check Disk Disk Checking runs at Boot.

 

[Guest]

i don't know how to get check disk to run after restarting, but i do know how to stop it from trying to everytime you turn your computer on. you go to the command prompt and type in chkdsk.exe /f and once that comes up it'll say that it can't lock the volume and would you like to schedule a check disk once you restart? put in the letter y and it'll say that it'll run once your computer is restarted. however, when i did that it stopped it from scanning and my computer started up normally. i have no clue why this works, but it did for me. i just thought i'd pass it along. in order to run a scandisk that won't make your PC restart, you check off only the second box in My Computer that says scan for and repair bad sectors and it won't ask to restart. it scans everything except for free space.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your help, guys. But I think I forgot to
emphasize what the real problem was. I have disable scan
disk at boot, but regardless I cannot defrag anyway. That
is my problem, I can't defrag. Because everytime I try to
defrag it says "A disk check is scheduled, cannot run" or
something like that - even though there should, basically,
be no disk check scheduled.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I'm using XP home. Somehow my computer keeps deciding that
it needs to run scan disk at bootup everytime. I cannot
defragment *ever* because it always says "a disc check is
scheduled." When I boot up and it tries to scan disk it
says "cannot open volume for direct access".

This sounds like the problem that arises after installing Zone Alarm
version 5. There is a new download, build 043, now on their site that
is said to resolve the problem; or else go back to the version 4 series