Help with defrag problem - please.

[kneelsit]

Not really a search engine problem I know, but I would really appreciate help from any expert on the forums who can suggest a solution to a defrag problem I am having with my machine at the moment (short of a complete re-format of my drive).

Each time I try to do a defrag I get the window come up which says "drive contents chanaged - restarting" and then text appears which states " 0% complete".
Tried for over 7 hours last night and still the same problem - seems to be stuck in a sort of loop.

Can any knowledgeable member out there please suggest a remedy? Any help greatly appreciated.

[cyanide]

Hi Greg,

Probably belongs under IT...

You should provide a little more information, like what operating system are you on?

There are 2 main things that I know of that will solve your problem.

1. Have you run scandisk? That should be done first.
2. Do you know where your 'Temp' directory is. It should be emptied on a regular basis (monthly is good). First you should re-boot your PC so it's clean. Find the Temp directory (don't delete it). Rename it to Temp1021 (today's date), then create a new folder called 'Temp'. So basically you're emptying the Temp directory without deleting everything.

The reason I suggest this, instead of deleting, is on occasion it contains important files. After a month, if your pc is running fine, you can safely delete it and then repeat, because the Temp directory will havemore junk in it.

On Windows 98 C:/Windows/Temp
On Windows 2000 C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp

[kneelsit]

Many thanks for that Cyanide. My apologies, I should have given more info. I am running Win 98 and thanks for that tip about the Temp file - very good advice.

Will go in and try that now .

[cyanide]

Originally Posted by kneelsit

Many thanks for that Cyanide. My apologies, I should have given more info. I am running Win 98 and thanks for that tip about the Temp file - very good advice.

Will go in and try that now .

No problem!
Most likely that's your problem.

Most people don't know about the Temp directory.
I've seen some that get to be 50 or 100mb full.
Basically it contains junk files.
Whenever you install, uninstall or your pc crashes, junk files get thrown in there.

If you get the chance, I would highly recommend you upgrade to atleast win2k. IMO you would need atleast Pentium II 333mh, 256 RAM
It's much more powerful, faster and no blue screens of death!

[Sualdam]

When I used Windows 98 (and Me too, I think - not sure about that one) I had the same problem.

In my case, the problem was that tasks were running in the background that were accessing the disk during the defrag - which is exactly what the message was telling me.

Solved (in my case) by shutting all those down.

[Islands]

[quote="cyanide
If you get the chance, I would highly recommend you upgrade to atleast win2k. IMO you would need atleast Pentium II 333mh, 256 RAM
It's much more powerful, faster and no blue screens of death![/quote]

Cyanide,
Do you know if win2k is fully compatible with apps running on win98? We know some of our stuff won't work on XP so we've been reluctant to upgrade. In fact we still run one win95 box because of a pretty good investment in stuff that can't be moved.

Mel

[cyanide]

Hi Islands,

Yes good question.
It's been my experience that most programs that run on Windows 98 will also work on Win2k.
But I've heard that some will not.

Unfortunately, your best bet is to check the docs of your programs, make sure you back up your drive.
I recommend also to do a fresh install of win2k instead of a direct upgrade from win98.

It's tedious and takes more time, but worth it in the long run. If you do a direct upgrade, you could run into driver troubles as well as a sluggish system.
And yes expecially some of the older programs won't work on WinXP

[sparky_t]

Hi,

I've found that the typical reason for defrag not running is the screensaver or av software are still switched on. Switch 'em off should solve your prob!

Sparky