Defrag/Scandisk Problems

Running Windows 98 on a Gateway G6-350

Defrag grinds away with no results "Checking Drive For Errors." I've let it run for an hour... no resutlts.

Scandisk keeps restarting.

Same cause/problem? Your help is always appreciated.

 

1. Too much crap on your startup. Go to start, run, type in msconfig. Go to the startup tab, uncheck all of the bs such as aol and the sort. LEave explorer checked and anything that looks pertinent. In the end, you should only have one, or two checked at the most. Restart computer. Relaunch defrag.

2. If this doesn't work, start the computer up into safemode, you do this by pressing probably the f5 key, although it could be the f8 key, if those don't work try pressing the other keys at startup. Go into safemode, run your defrag, then shutdown and restart manually.

 

Well not exactly too much stuff on startup. Just something running while defrag is running, messing with the disk.

You don;t have to change your startup at lall.

Either boot up in safe mode and run defrag, or manually turn off all or almost all of the programs running in the background. However, before doing this, I would disconnect your internet connection. Either remove the network cable, or disconnect the phone line.

 

My .02, but quite the contrary, you should ALWAYS start with removing items from the startup. The average user accumulates more junk in the startup than what is needed. All of this junk is loaded into your ram (memory) upon startup. It's likely that one of these programs that have been loaded is what is interfering with your scan disk. Remove anything that doesn't look right. Items in your startup seriously will interfere with the way, and the speed that your computer runs at once it becomes overloaded. Generally you don't have to worry about this if you are not having problems. However, in your cirumstance, this is the very first place you should look at, as doing otherwise would be treating the symptoms, and not the problem.

 

Thank you very much for your help. The solution worked perfectly. I tried the first suggestion first. Cleaning out the startup. Ya know, this is the first time I can remember defraging/scandisk without the computer continually restarting. "Dziekuje"

 

I agree that you should remove unneeded items from startup, but this may not be enough (in some cases) to allow defrag to run. There is also the risk that someone may unwittingly remove something that they really do need running and mess up their system.

My suggestion will always work. Turn off background processes and/or run defrag in safe mode.

The issue is not what starts at boot time, but rather what is running when you try to run defrag.