(disk mngmnt) running defrag ....

[jin29_neci]

can you help me out guys,
Im always having a problem with my hardrives in my cybercafe.

When I tried to defrag all the drives it seems not finishing its task. It says that run scandisk to check for errors. However, I tried to run the Scandisk but suddenly I already took an hour to wait to finish the scandisk but it seems that is not finishing its task.

Is there a problem in my physical drive or just that my software is not in good condition or maybe may drive is full but I know its not that full guys..
Im using windows me.

Any suggestions guys regarding disk management or hard drivre management or links
my cousin told me to use PARTITION MAGIC( sad to say Im not that experienced in Partition Magic) and he also told me to use Norton Ghost 2004 or 2003 . is good guys > any post wil do ..

Im really having a hard time formatting my harddrive, I have a lot of experience that the pc hangs when booting, can't defrag the certain drive... It makes me nuts...

Any suggestions guys regarding disk management, or how to maintain a disk or how to maintain a good disk .

THANKS GUYS.
sorry if I had a lot of questions, its that just Im the only one managing my cybercafe. That's why really having a hard time when maintainig the shop..

[nihil]

OK,

We seem to have quite a few issues here.

1. Windows ME is an old operating system, and you should be looking to upgrade it at some stage. I appreciate that it is probably quite adequate for a cyber cafe, but it is a stand alone home OS and is not as potentially secure as the NT family. In particular, the defragmenter takes forever, as you have discovered.

2. The fact that your defrag won't complete suggests that you are probably clogged up with malware of various sorts which kicks in from time to time and forces the defrag to restart and eventually stalls it. Please boot into SAFE MODE (hold down the upper shift key whilst it is booting). Then run scandisk, followed by defrag.

3. You need around 20-25% free space to run a good defrag. I would look at getting a third party defragmenter..........Diskeeper is the one I use, but there are others. They are all better than the standard Win ME tool. If you go into Windows Explorer and right click on your HDD then select "properties" it will tell you how much free space you have.

4. Partition Magic and Norton Ghost are reasonable tools, but I do not think that they will help you with your particular problem.

5. Look at your startup file. You only want stuff you really need to load on bootup.

6. What Av and Firewall software are you running?...........is it up to date?

7. Have you applied all the Microsoft Windows patches?

NOW!...................you are a cyber cafe.....................that is a business, so before anyone suggests that you get all sorts of "free for PRIVATE USE" software........don't bother, it would be illegal. You are going to have to spend some money, but I am sure it will be worth it for the peace of mind, and a relatively smooth running business.

Please try the safe mode scandisk and defragmentation, and let me know what happens..........I will come back with some suggestions for what to do next, and software that might be useful.

Please don't forget to give me the firewall and AV information.

Good luck