Defragmenting problems

I am trying to defragment my hard drive using windows 98 se and it keeps restarting (not that computer but scandisk restarts by checking the hard drive for errors). I have closed and disabled all programs so nothing should be writing to the hard drive. I've also tried running scandisk and that also restarts. I left the defragmenting going for over 2 hours and this is really annoying me. Please help me.

Restart in DOS for scandisk. Type in scandisk/surface.

That may help defrag to work when you get back into Windows.

If defrag still doesn't continue, disable a heap of startup programs, like ICQ, MSN, firewalls, even antivirus!

Just done the scandisk which took a few hours. Now going to try defragmenting.

Add: I just tried defragmenting and it still didn't work. Is there a way I can defragment my hard drive in DOS?

Mine used to do that, then I just hit ctrl-alt-del and stopped EVERYTHING that was there that I could stop without crashing my computer (like Exploror and system tray...) and it worked fine... Then I tried the thing in that was stated in this (http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22383) thread. Now, my computer is REALLY fast and I love it! :classic2:

THe only way to get it working is by disabling every applications running in the background. i.e. Antivirus software (A must). Use Ctrl+Alt+Del to disable the programs except for Explorer.exe.

whenever ur tasks re-start (scandisk or defrag), a good tip is to do it in Safe Mode - and u shouldpreferably try to delete all temp files while u're there (windows / internet)

It works now. I had to close everything apart from explorer.

i have that same problem (about scandisk restarting). next time i scandisk i'll try doing it in dos