Defragment does nothing?!

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Robert Macy - 27 Sep 2005 02:54 GMT

Win98SE historically ran a defragment on the C: drive, but now sits for
hours throwing the confetti into the air, collecting it, but NEVER
advancing into any amount of completion.

Even displaying full details shows a large blank screen.

Any ideas?

- Robert -

Reply to this Message

Don Phillipson - 27 Sep 2005 12:38 GMT

> Win98SE historically ran a defragment on the C: drive, but now sits for
> hours throwing the confetti into the air, collecting it, but NEVER
> advancing into any amount of completion.

1. Did you beforehand remove all junk files (in the
Recycled bin, Temp. Internet Files etc.) and run
SCANDISK ?
2. Do you have enough free space on the drive
(min. 30 per cent of largest logical drive) ?
3. Did you reboot into Safe Mode before running
DEFRAG ?

Signature

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Reply to this Message

Robert Macy - 27 Sep 2005 18:56 GMT

Don,

Thank you for your response.

1. Recycle bin is kept very empty. temp didn't contain anything. I
delete all internet files every chance I get and I keep only 16
cookies.

2. I've used only 4 GB of the 40GB drive.

3. Am I supposed to be in SAFE mode for defrag? Wasn't the last time.

Is it possible that something is running but is not listed?

- Robert -

> 1. Did you beforehand remove all junk files (in the
> Recycled bin, Temp. Internet Files etc.) and run
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> 3. Did you reboot into Safe Mode before running
> DEFRAG ?

Reply to this Message

Don Phillipson - 27 Sep 2005 19:36 GMT

> 3. Am I supposed to be in SAFE mode for defrag? Wasn't the last time.

Safe Mode loads Windows with the minimum of drivers
(e.g. CD drives may become inaccessible, special mouse
configs are unavailable) thus is the preferable mode to run
any HD utility --- especially DEFRAG.

> Is it possible that something is running but is not listed?

We can check for ourselves via MSINFO32.EXE which
lists everything (e.g. DLLs. The Ctl-Alt-Del panel lists
only EXEs currently running.)

Signature

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Reply to this Message

Robert Macy - 27 Sep 2005 20:22 GMT

Defrag works now [after 4 month hiatus] and just finished running.

Didn't need to run it in SAFE mode.

Didn't know about MSINF032.EXE. Thanks, put that on the desktop

- Robert -

Reply to this Message

wistful - 27 Sep 2005 23:25 GMT

Robert,

Can you identify what caused your final success?
I've had "defragment" on a Google Alert for a while, because I had
similar problems on my machine's C: drive. In my case, Windows
Defragmenter would alternate between scanning the FAT and processing
files.
I speculated that it was hitting the swap file and having to restart.
But that seems unlikely, because most Windows 98 installations would
have a swap file on drive C:.
Scandisk would work when run from MS-DOS prompt, but not always from
Windows desktop. Maybe it would have been useful to try from Safe
Mode.
The problem persisted after a transfer to a larger disk and an increase
in disk space for the partition (through Norton Ghost and Norton
Partition Magic, respectively).

On more than one occasion, I got a 'blue screen of death', during
defrag, so I'm wondering whether there was a file system error not
detected by ScanDisk. I probably still have the problem, but am a
little too anxious to return to that point.

David

> Defrag works now [after 4 month hiatus] and just finished running.
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> - Robert -

Reply to this Message

Robert Macy - 28 Sep 2005 00:43 GMT

Cannot identify specifically. The old "changing too many things at
once" problem.

I'm leaning towards the "My Documents" containing too many files
theory, since that is really the only thing that has changed over time,
accumulating more and more files.

I was suspecting virus or spyware, but can't find anything running
inappropriately. Nor, several dummy folders with eye catching names
for a virus, folder names like "Shared Files" etc. were never being
touched.

I too have had ScanDisk miss a problem with a HD. ScanDisk said,
"Healthy, use this disk". yet, I could not use it, passed 7.5 GB !

The HD error showed up everytime using the older, obsolete, outdated,
not worth anything, chkdsk. Go figure.

Will keep watching and let people know if keeping the file empty solves
my problem.

- Robert -

Reply to this Message

Rex - 28 Sep 2005 14:35 GMT

to avoid future probs, you may want to grab yourself a copy
of winM.E's defrag, it is far superior to 98's.
there are many articles on the net to back this up, but microsoft
representitives in these newsgroups arent allowed to tell you this.

go figure, and yet its for the good of the consumer

Reply to this Message

Robert Macy - 28 Sep 2005 18:42 GMT

Rex,

Thank you for your response.

I did a search, took way too long to find a source. Had to trip over
the websites charging money for the WinME defrag.exe

But finally found a copy and tried it. It is impressively faster.

Thank you again.

- Robert -

Reply to this Message