Hi,

Here's my situation. When I'm surfing the internet and a page is loading I get a blue screen saying "Unable to write to disk in drive C, data or files may be lost". I had this problem a long time ago and it was due to a virus. It doesn't look to be a virus this time but I'm not sure. When I try to defrag it stops and I get the error "DEFRAG004" and it tells me to run ScanDisk. But ScanDisk gives me the following message:

ScanDisk could not write to this disk because it is write protected. Remove the write-protect tab, reinsert the disk, and then restart ScanDisk

I went to the Command Prompt Start-up and ran the surface scan. The scan stops when it gets to C:\WINDOWS\ALLUSE~1\APPLIC~1\AOL\C_AMER~1.0\PHXBKU P. It says this file is damaged and cannot fix it. The closest I could find to this file was a folder on my computer at C:\WINDOWS\All Users\Application Data\AOL\C_America Online 9.0\phxbkup. But when I try to delete this file even in Safe Mode it says "Access denied" and to check if it's either write-protected or being used.

Is there a way to delete this file? Or fix these error messages without deleting it?

Not a problem! I listen to everybody and am wrong as often as I am right! Damn!
But in 2005 I was using AVG Free edition for quite a while and finally decided not to remain a freeloader and forked out the money to buy AVG Professional from them instead, the latter version promptly picked up three virus's and two Trojans immediately.
I guess I tend to think why any company would offer the same application for nothing to everybody and also ask them to pay for pretty much the same version as well!
Doesn't make sense to me!
I just helped out an old dear of 78 with her PC who was using another well known brand (Kapersky something.......?) and had all sorts of problems with her PC. We bought Panda Platinum Security for her and turned up five virus's and one Trojan! All fixed!
A quick search on Google will confirm that AVG is lacking in some areas i.e.
http://www.freewaregenius.com/2006/1...ree-antivirus/
The following is an extract of the review:

"The free version of AVG is stripped of the spyware/adware detection component of the paid version. You could download and install this seperately, but the free version is significantly handicapped. This is not a huge concern, since there are many freeware antispyware programs that you could install seperately that offer excellent protection"

Hi cuttlefish,

Whilst your advice seems to be sound I must take you to task over your last comment

There are many here who use free AVs and, whilst "paid for ones" often offer more "bells and whistles" freeware like AVG has an excellent reputation and receives very few complaints.

I hope you don't mind me putting in my 2 pennies worth

Let me firstly say that I am NOT an expert in the following area and some of the more knowledgeable members here may (rightly) sledge me for this advice but as you have had no replies to your problem, this is worth a try................
Not 100% sure it will work in your case but I have occasionally used the START x RUN x CMD to get into the old DOS type format on the black screen.
Then use the command cd.. a couple of times to get back to your basic C drive.
Then type DIR /P (there is a space after DIR)
Once in there, you will see lots of "DIR" locations...... to get into the one you want you have to then type say as an example:
cd Documents and Settings x ENTER
The "cd" simply says change directory and you then continue this technique til you get down to the level of where your problem file lives.
Once you find it, type del and then the entire name of the file you want to delete x ENTER.
It is very important on this screen to use upper and lower case exactly as you see it and type very carefully with spaces etc.
You are not out of Windows even in this area so deleting the file may still not be possible even there...................
Have you tried copying the problem file name to a Google search?
You might be surprised at the response(s) - you may not be the only one with the drama!
Also, what sort of virus program are you running?
If a "freebie" chuck it out and buy a decent one - the "paid for" ones work much better!