My post has disappeared.........? Okay, I'll try again.


In the last 3 days....

Sunday night ----- SCANDISK (took about 8 hrs)

Monday ------------- DEFRAG. (6 hours)

Monday night ------ SCANDISK (during the night) in Safe Mode

Tuesday ------------- DEFRAG. (3 hours) in Safe Mode


What could cause the computer to be so fragmented??? When I defrag. on an old 486 I have, it only takes minutes...

 

Chfiter - I rarely save any files. My son plays alot of Star Craft, and I mainly use it for reading at many sites, as well as playing Yahoo chess. So I'm not sure why the drive is so fragmented.

Streaker - The McAfee was already installed when I purchased my Hewlett Packard Celeron 533 from Future Shop about a year ago. Also, I downloaded and ran the AdWare you suggested. Thanks!

Nashcat - I can't seem to find a Windows 98 CD.....I'm wondering if I was ever given one when I bought the PC.

Slipshot - I've been running the scandisk and defrag. in Safe Mode.

Thanks again. Much appreciated.

Marie

 

The drives fragment because of the way a 32 bit OS stores info. As it seeks the info it needs say open/use/close Paint Shop when you close that program, it deposits bits of bytes each place it sought out bytes. NTFS format doesn't have defrag like ME etc as the NTFS format allows for larger packets and a much cleaner files system. This sounds a little odd I know and can get much more tech than this but I must admit some of it is still a little hard for me to grasp and I have been working ont his junk for 20 odd years. Anyway defrag and scandisk are a weekly must for 9X os's. If you are having to use defrag/scndisk in safe mode you have a possible severe problem. Anytime you have to come up in safe mode there is a real problem, could be a driver etc. In you case I would bet it's the anti virus or screen saver you are using. Talk to us, what is on yer mind

 

It really sounds like you have something running in the background causing problems. Three things to try

1. Down load the McAffe DAT files on a friends computer and copy them into your McAffe directory. If I remember right from earlier post you have the software but you haven't updated lately. The new DATs will let you scan for all the new viruses.

2. Do a control-alt-delete and write down all the programs that are running. Start using the End Task button until everything except "Explorer" has been stopped. (You'll have to do a ctrl-alt-delete between each End Task) When just explorer is running then run the defrag and scandisk. Also, send us a copy of the list of the programs that are running that you can't identify.

3. Create a "StartUp Disk" and use it to boot the computer and run scandisk and defrag from it. Go to Control Panel, Add Remove Programs, Start up Disk Tap, put a blank floppy in the computer, and press Create Disk. Once the disk is complete, reboot and let the computer boot from that disk. Once you get to the C:\ prompt type scandisk and once that is finished type degrag.

 

Hi, One of the biggest causes for fragmentation in Windows 95/98 is the swap file. The swap file was a way to make Windows look like it was multitasking, when in fact it can't.
while NT will run seperate programs in a seperate space and truely multitask, and Linux/Unix flavors can do this easily Windows actually keeps all the work it has done on "back ground" applications (the one your not currently in) saved to your swap file.
The easieat way to alleviate this is to
1> get a second hard drive and transfer the windopws swap file (usually labeled as win386.swp) to the second drive.
2> Manage your own settings, this way the swap file is the same size and same memory locations.
Go to start > settings > control panel
choose the system applet
click on the performance tab
Choose virtual memory
Choose "let me specify my own virtual memory settings"
Choose the Hard disk (either a second drive, or the non system disk partition)
Set the minimum and maximum to the same size, I suggest 256
hit ok
hit ok
restart your PC.
Run Scandisk < standrad>
Run defrag <all the way through no matter your percentage>
you will find speed increasing slowly and less fragmentation

 

Yea Joe I run a seperate drive for the swap file. I should have mentioned that. Was tired sorry, thanks for the save!

 

I first installed win95 and had been runnning 3.11 and a Dos box for my games. It was great!
The over time it sucked more and more until I found that posated in a group. I guess it was too much for mighty MS to admit their paging sucked!
lol