Cant defrag my hard drive

When I try to defrag the hard drive I get a message that says "defragmentation of disc C: has been abourted due to inconsistencies that were detected in the file system. Please runCHKDSK or SCANDISK to repair then run disc defragmenter again". I try to run CHKDISC and a screen pops up for about 15 seconds seems to go thru the motions the pops off. It goes so fast that I cant read what it says. I try to defrag it again and it says the same thing. Any ideas what I can do? Thanks Larry P4 2.66 120 hd

best bet do an offline scan of the disk. or right click the c drive go to prop then hit the tools tab and see if you can do a full scan or check all options, if its xp or higher then it will ask you to check at next reboot. also chkdisc stores info found in a scan in the event viewer via control panel (once again xp or higher) administrative tools or just right click my computer and goto manage to find it. hope this helps a little

Its XP home. I will try these ideas. Thanks

Drives usually fail, but aboslutely, they can wear out.

If it's just a matter of some inconsistencies on the drive, that's an easy fix. However, drives are pretty cheap these days. Your aggravation with your drive may be worth a new drive.