"Locked" Hard Drive (C:)

[Ayman Altounji]

When I go and run Scan Disk, I get a message that says, "Scan Disk cannot continue because a program such as a disk utility has locked this drive. Close the program or wait for it to finish. Then re start Scan Disk." It has been 456 days since I last ran Scan Disk. I cannot run Disk Defragmenter either. I do not have a disk utility installed nor do I have one open. I tried closing all open programs, but it still doesn't work. When I turn off my computer incorrectly (blue Scan Disk screen come on during boot-up) Scan Disk works fine, but it finds errors and says I can only repair them in Windows. How do I "unlock" my hard drive? Thanks in advance -Chris-

P.S. This thread has been moved from Disk to Microsoft > general. - hp forum moderator