I do not have the problem.
Too bad you did not post under General Questiohns, I would have gotten credit for a post (Just kidding, I really do not care).
I always have a lot of programs running, but they do not seem to interfere with Defrag or Scandisk.
Only programs which read/write to the disc will cause this problem, so obviously you cannot be running VB, a word processor, AOL, et cetera. I assume you know that but I mentioned it, just in case.
I have 3 physical disks, and my Swap file is on different disc than Windows and most of my software. Perhaps this is why I do not have the problem.
The first suggestion could result in solving the problem and making your system run a little faster all the time. The last idea is easier to do.
If you have enough programs running to result in the use of the Swap file, this will cause the problem. You could check what gets started automatically when Windows comes up. A lot of these are not necessary. Some Software developers are just arrogant and think their software should always be sitting in memory.
Click on the following- Start, Programs, Accessories.
- System Tools, System Information
- Tools, System Configuration Utility
- Startup Tab
All that clicking will give you a list of what gets started automatically. Some leave memory after doing something, others stay in memory. If you can identify anything that does not look necessary, Uncheck it, making a list of items unchecked, so you can restore your system if something goes wrong (you might uncheck something critical). Do not worry about permanently messing up your system. It is easy to use the config utility to undo whatever you did.
The above might fix your problem. You could also try the following.
When you want to run defrag & scandisk, you could restart your system and use F8 to come up in safe mode or come up to a DOS Command Prompt. I think (am not sure) that Defrag & Scandisk will run from safe mode and/or from a DOS Prompt. If they do run that way, not much should be running concurrently.