maintenance programs dont seem to be working

My computer has been running really slow. I recently had some work done on it to remove spyware. When I run the built in programs, like scan disk after a really short while, I get a message that it has restarted 10 times. but nothing else is running.
I dont think it has done the scheduled maintenance in a long time. I have lots of memory, so thats not the problem. How can I get the default programs to run the way they are suppossed to? You have all been so helpful in the past. Thanks and happy new year!

 

Do you have any kind of anti-virus or monitoring software running during your scandisk/defrag?

 

Thank you for your reply. I do have the Norton program installed. I guess I never thought that I should close it. Do you think that could causee this problem?

 

If it is running in the background then yes, your defrag restarts every time the harddrive contents change and your scandisk will be interferred with by the constant monitoring of your virus software and restart
If you disable it and make sure nothing that will access your harddrive is running in the background (Ctrl+Alt+Del for task manager) you should have no problems

 

Thanks so much! Im going to try it right now. I will let you know!

 

Yahoo, all of the maintence programs worked really well. Except I did get the 10X notice with the scan disc. I turned off the Norton, how can I ensure everything is off? I got a summary the included the information that I have 491 hidden files. What up with that?
Thanks again for your time and expertise.
Im better at baking bread.

 

No prob
If you want to see all of your running processes simply press Ctrl+Alt+Del at the same time (ONLY ONCE, if you do it twice you will reboot)
This will open what is called the 'Task Manager', the only *required* things that must be running are 'Explorer' and 'Systray'. However, some applications and/or utilities may not work if you shut down one of its files in Task Manager. Don't worry though, a simple reboot will reload them

To stop a running task simply select it and click on the 'End Task' button

PS Baking bread should not be underestimated, I personally would blow up the house if I attempted it