Defrag Hard Drive

[annethebank]

I have win 98. I tried to defrag the hard drive,which is done on a regular basis. This time it opens up the defrag screen and starts to read for errors on the disk drive. It gets to 1% then goes back to start at o%. This was on for about 8 hours and never got past the 1% and kept repeating this process for the whole period.

Is there anyone who has experianced this before or can explain why this occurs or indeed has a solution??

thank you.

 

[TyrantSSV]

Your hard disk probably have an errors, out of enough free space or your system have constantly running software writing data to the disk. To fix the errors run scandisk first. To make more free space delete all temporary files (in c:\windows\temp folder), all temporary internet files (all subfolders in c:\windows\Temporary Internet Files) and files chkXXXXX in c:\. To run system without background mode programs just reboot computer into the safe mode and start defragmentation.

 

[mscallisto]

Method 1

Stop all the memory resident programs first:
Right mouse click each icon on your pallet (lower right hand side of your screen) and click close,quit,stop or exit.

Now run defrag

Method 2

Boot your system in safe mode.
now run defrag.

For both methods reboot normally after defrag


much luck

 

[Jerry625]

Appears to be "something" in a windows program "running" which is causing the defrag to re-set itself. I suggest clearing off any program icon on your task bar (lower right of screen) especially any screen savers which will cause the defrag to pause and re-set itself. Might also set any screen savers time to max. (60 minuets) when you defrag. Any windows program which you have set to "DO IT'S THING" might be the cause for your defrag to keep resetting itself because the dreaded "DRIVE CONTENTS HAVE CHANGED" message appears. I had the same problem with a WEB SHOTS screen saver program which I had downloaded. Once I cleared that off my defrag no longer kept changing drive contents and I successfully got defrag to 100 %. Yes! Do run the scan disc 1st. Happy De-Fraging

 

[Kento]

Did you try defrag in safe mode? And turn off the screen saver. But when you open defrag and click the settings button, is 'check the drive for errors' checked? If so uncheck it.

 

[annethebank]

I have managed to defrag. I tried scan disk but it kept interupting the same as the defrag. I then realised that I had changed the norton antivirus to load when machine turned on. (although I had disabled it on the desktop button before running the above) When i went in to the norton programme and unticked (enable on start up I think) the scan disk & defrag worked perfectly.

Thanks everyone

 

[denzilla]

I had this same problem with win98 se. Everytime I ran a scandisk or defrag it would get interrupted. I tried safe mode with the same problem. Here is how to fix it;

1. turn off screen saver
2. set you power scheme to always on and make sure hard disks, monitor, etc. are set to never turn off.
3. go to run type msconfig
4. disable eveything in the startup. reboot

Run scandisk and defrag. It will finish.

Hope this helps you.

 

[smithles]

Hi.
another possibility (I realise not for you) is an undigestible lump, typically a cd image which is extremely large and defrag permits itself to only move it a tiny distance each time it cycles (usually because not enough free space to completely contain the entire lump). I have seen this situation take twentyfour hours to defrag. Deleting the file cut the time to 30 mins.

 

[TigerFlight]

What they are saying is right. Any prog that cause disk access will cause defrag to restart. Screen saver, Task manager, Virus scanning software and some viruses. There are some that get past the scanning software. Particullarly those that are looking for open networks. Update your virus scanner. Check for viruses. Disable any memory resident progs. Also, the Windows Me version of defrag works sooooooooooo much better and faster the te 98 version. It does work in 98. If you need it, e-mail me.

tiger_flight@yahoo.com

 

[apex1x]

Get norton utilties, the defragmentation program it has is very quick and reliable. ~Apex1x
Sattinger's Law:
It works better if you plug it in.