Printable View
I've been trying to get a computer of mine to defrag for about a week now, and it just plain out refuses to cooperate. It starts defragging fine, but then around like the 30% area it stops, give me a message like "drive's contents have changed, restarting defrag..." and starts from zero again. I've tried about everything I can think of including closing everything but explorer in the tast menu. Any help is greatly appreciated.
What OS are you using? Have you tried formatting from DOS?
aahh.. simple.. turn off everything that is running.. (except ur OS LMAO)
i normally take off my firewall, my internet, and my screen saver... (tho u can leave ur screen saver on).. when ur defraging.. leave your computer as it is.. dont surf or do anything.. coz everytime u do something, your pc will write some of your works to the HDD.. hence your defragger detects changes on the HDD and starts all over again.
have u tried defragging in safe mode?
Syini666,
sounds like you've still got something running in the background.. just because its not in the Task Manager, doesn't mean it aint there....
That's the best way to defrag in M$-Windowz...Quote:
And also run a scandisk before... it helps a lot... =c)
____
mOTA
How would I find out what else could be running once I close down all the junk in the task manager. The computer in question runs either Win98SE or Win98Plus, and im unfamiliar with those strains of Windows.
Good advice on safe mode and scandisk.
doing ctrl+alt+del once gives you basically all the background apps, but dont do it twice LOL
yeah leave explorer and even systray there in the list and the general rule of defrag/scandisk etc is to close all apps before starting.
hope this helps you :)
Defragging in safe mode is the easiest way to do this.
If you want to do it from a normal Windows98 startup then there are two things which may well give you a problem:
Your screen saver (found under Start/Settings/Control pannel/display) - set it to None,
Your swap file (found under Start/Settings/Control pannel/System/Performance/Virtual memory) - tick the box marked 'Disable virtual memory (not recommended)' which requires a restart of Windows.
Run Defrag, and then restore your screen saver to whatever it said originally & the virtual memory settings with 'Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings (recommended)'
Instructions for booting in safe mode...: http://service.gateway.com/gateway/s...+18997,00.html
Just hit F-8 on start up and boot into safe mode and run it. Because in normal mode background programs and tsr's cause defrag to reset itself and won't run. Most of the cause for this is some app that runs in the background and also some apps that run in the system tray. Realone plyaer is one culprit for this.
the reason your contents change is that uve got running programs, eg virus scanners, firewalls and yahoo, ive given out this adivice hundreds of times, but if u wanna defrag/scan disk to get teh best results, close all the apps in the bottom right, and make sure ur off the net, this will stop scandisk and defrag restarting all the time.
i have do do that all the time whit my winME problems
preep
Have found some services will be running.. these will not show in Task Manager.
for some reason some times Windoze will write to the Hdd, normaly Swap file.. this is why among many other reasons it is best to reun defrag in safe mode.. Another reason is some device drivers will do the same..
If you still have problems defraging in SafeMOde.. you have a machine like my daughter..it is bloody psycotic.... But a new video card seems to have tamed it for now (even Defrag only restarts once or twice now instead of 30 or 40 times)
Ok I know no help.. just my simple explaination
cheers.
yes safe mode is nice but if u want u can if u are on xp or nt or 2k go to the task manager adn kill all process that arent runned by "system" and explorer which is runned under u
Hi all !!
To see all process running on win nt 9x and 2000 try using
(frome the read me.....Process Explorer for Windows NT/2000/9x
Copyright (C) 1998-2001 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals
www.sysinternals.com
works good for me. hope that helps
I disabled the virtual memory once and the computer wouldn't even boot.Quote:
Your swap file (found under Start/Settings/Control pannel/System/Performance/Virtual memory) - tick the box marked 'Disable virtual memory (not recommended)' which requires a restart of Windows.
Run Defrag, and then restore your screen saver to whatever it said originally & the virtual memory settings with 'Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings (recommended)'
Just closing any unnecessary aps should do it. Something's
gotta be runnung that you don't know about.
:cool:
i'm very surprised that no one has mentioned using the Voptme defragger.
it's 10 times faster than winblows defragger and has options for shutting down
all other running apps.
there is also a good defragger called PerfectDisk 2000 ..
sorry i don't have any links handy.. search for with google
or try downloads.com or zdnet.com/downloads
That can happen if you have a small amount of RAM, but anything over about 64Mb should be OK. If your PC won't boot, then you can always restart it in safe mode, and change the virtual memory settings back again. Speaking from personal experience, shutting down all your apps does not work in all cases, as you still have some background OS activity taking place, which can cause Win98 to access your swap file. This assumes that the drive you are defragging is the same drive as the one that your swap file is on.Quote:
Originally posted here by rcgreen
I disabled the virtual memory once and the computer wouldn't even boot.
Just closing any unnecessary aps should do it. Something's
gotta be runnung that you don't know about.
:cool:
The only very minor advantage of doing it this way is that you remove the swap file from the disk that you are defragging, which gives a slightly better result.
Ive used diskeeper before and it appeared to be fast as well.
never heard of voptme before I'll have to check that out sumdumguy.
Safe mode is your best bet, but contents in the c:\windows\applog folder can cause some issues as well. Task monitor tracks what programs are loaded and records it in the applog folder. Defrag then uses this information to provide special optimization for the most used programs. There are some advantages to letting those files stay in the applog folder but I've seen them cause some defrag issues if they become corrupt, not to mention the folder can get huge! You can safely delete the contents of this folder and at the next boot task manager will start creating the log all over again.
Hope this helps
TC
Yeah, it was a 486 with 24 megs trying to run WIN98.Quote:
Originally posted here by darkes
That can happen if you have a small amount of RAM, but anything over about 64Mb should be OK. If your PC won't boot, then you can always restart it in safe mode, and change the virtual memory settings back again. Speaking from personal experience, shutting down all your apps does not work in all cases, as you still have some background OS activity taking place, which can cause Win98 to access your swap file. This assumes that the drive you are defragging is the same drive as the one that your swap file is on.
The only very minor advantage of doing it this way is that you remove the swap file from the disk that you are defragging, which gives a slightly better result.
Nowadays, I run a fixed size swapfile and it never
causes trouble with defrag because it can't move
or become fragmented in the first place
Even if some prog was accessing it, Defrag would ignore it.
:cool:
on thing to also check is check to see if your hard drive or moniter is set to powersaving mode. It is under the screen saver settings and make sure they are off or it will do that to you.
look really.. don't worry about anything else.. just try voptme.
Me i go with T.C.
I use norton speeddisk and always turn off my screensaver
Works for me
Mike
I have had similar problems before, and have actually answered this question on AO before....when you defrag, or perform any operation that will take a bit of time (download, wipe, backup, etc.) TURN YOUR SCREENSAVER OFF and don't touch the keyboard or mouse (after a cold reboot). Inconvenient, maybe...but it gets done.
Ouroboros
If you keep having problems, I'd go with Diskeeper (www.diskeeper.com). I used to have similar problems, but after installing Diskeeper, I haven't had any problems. There's a (I think 30 day) trial on the web site which you can use to check it out... Just my suggestion. Otherwise, like everyone else, says, do it in Safe Made or DOS).
AJ
disk keeper is great because it will still continue to defrag even if the hard drive is changed
I'm surprised no one suggested what I have found to be the easiest solution to the Windows Defrag/ScanDisk problem.
1. Open SystemInfo/MSInfo found in [Programs\Common\MicrosoftShared\MSInfo\MSInfo32.exe].
2. Go to "Tools".
3. Open "System Configuration Utility".
4. Select "Selective Startup".
5. Uncheck "Load startup group items".
6. Click "Apply".
7. Click "OK".
8. In the popup window asking "do want to restart your computer now?" click "Yes".
After the reboot, run ScanDisk then Defrag. When you're done . . .
A. Go back into SystemInfo/MSInfo.
B. Go to "Tools".
C. Open "System Configuration Utility".
D. Select "Normal startup".
E. Click "Apply".
F. Click "OK".
G. Answer "Yes" to "restart your computer now?".
If your Defrag is slow, try the one in Windows ME, which you can usually find listed on-line as "newdefrag.zip" (if MS hasn't shut down all available downloads - I found copies at Lurkhere.com and Wilders.org). For a faster ScanDisk, if you know anyone with Windows ME, then get a copy of the scandskw.exe program. Rename the one you are using now (e.g. oldscandskw.exe) found in Windows folder and place the ME version in its place. I can't tell you where to find one on-line, as I've been unable to find one, so you will have to rely on getting if from someone you know. To make things easy - put a link to SystemInfo/MSInfo your Desktop, so you don't have to hunt for it each time. You'll find enough other programs under "Tools" as well as needed system information (shown in the opening window which can be further broken down in the left pane) that it definitely comes in handy. By using the steps outlined above, you shouldn't have to worry about shutting down screen savers, power management, not touching your keyboard/mouse, etc. I hope this is helpful and if you have any questions or problems, please don't hesitate to ask.
V.