Defrag claims not enough memory

[AndyWatt]

Hi All,

I've just been trying to run defrag on my girlfriend's Windows 98SE PC, but it claims not enough memory (defrag error 9), despite 98% of resources being free. It has 256MB RAM so this really doesn't seem to me to be the root cause. It does have McAfee AV installed, but I disable that before defragging as I know that does cause errors.

Can anyone suggest a remedy or point me at a thread that does?

Many thanks,

Andy
"Logic is invincible because in order to combat logic it is necessary to use logic." -- Pierre Boutroux
"Why does my program keep showing error messages every time something goes wrong?"

 

[ski]

How much free space is on the HD?
How much 'Unused Physical Memory' is shown in System Monitor?
What is the size of the HD, and what is the minimum cluster size that it's using? (You can determine the min. cluster size by right clicking on a 1 KB file, clicking Properties, and on the General tab check the 'Bytes Used', i.e., '8192 Bytes Used' indicates an 8 KB min. cluster size.)

 

[docdebit]

Have you tried doing it in safe mode? I find that going into safe mode to defrag and scandisk eliminates a lot of conflicts for me.

drdebit

 

[AndyWatt]

Thanks for the responses.

I'll be trying them a bit later...

What has me stumped is that it worked fine last week. Grr.

I was particularly impressed my MS's KB article. Solution: Upgrade to XP.

Andy
"Logic is invincible because in order to combat logic it is necessary to use logic." -- Pierre Boutroux
"Why does my program keep showing error messages every time something goes wrong?"

 

[cdogg]

You might still be able to grab a copy of the defrag.exe used in Windows ME which was finally improved over the older Win95/98 defragmenter. Just search around on the net, rename the one you have in your Windows folder to defrag.old, and simply place the new one there.

If your system resources are 98% free and you're still getting that message, then it may be a false error caused by a damaged FAT or conflicting app running in the background. Definitely reboot into safe mode and run both scandisk and defrag.

Of course, you could always go with 3rd-party defragmenters from either Mcafee or Symantec.


~cdogg
[tab]"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab][tab]- A. Einstein

 

[76777677]

Hey hey!Most win errors come with bad or corrupded memory!Download this progra(Gold Memory in

http://www.goldmemory.cz/).See

the read me file & to everything whtas saying.Run this program and you see REALLY whats happends in your memory.

 

[AndyWatt]

Sorry for the delay in responding - I've a had a cold. (Sniff)

I think I'll take a deep breath and install Norton on the machine in question and try again. At least Norton attempts to optimize the swap file.

I'm afraid I'm deeply suspicious of anything to do with ME - one of my customers has a couple of these beasties. And guess which ones cause all the problems? Let's just say it ain't Win98, NT or XP.

What mystifies me is that my desktop pc, also Win98SE has a 40GB HD and has never complained. I would blame MS if I could be bothered to.

Andy
"Logic is invincible because in order to combat logic it is necessary to use logic." -- Pierre Boutroux
"Why does my program keep showing error messages every time something goes wrong?"

 

[docdebit]

Just to prepare you for the worst, sometimes when norton is installed following mcafee it balks because mcafee was not uninstalled completely enough for it-you then have to help out the automatic uninstall a bit.

I think that going to safe mode to run scandisk and defrag is a common recommendation in these threads. Given the complexities of hardware and software and their relationships, it doesnt seem to me that one should assume their computer is broken just because they have to do these tasks in safe mode.


drdebit