Scan Disk

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Fran - 27 Dec 2005 22:27 GMT

My computer is running very slow. I tried running Scan Disk in Safe Mode,
but it keeps restarting. I tried disabling the screen saving and nothing
else appears to be running in the background. Any help would be appreciated.

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Galen - 27 Dec 2005 23:05 GMT

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

> My computer is running very slow. I tried running Scan Disk in Safe
> Mode, but it keeps restarting. I tried disabling the screen saving
> and nothing else appears to be running in the background. Any help
> would be appreciated.

Have you seen this in your searches?

ScanDefrag - Blue Orb Software:
http://www.blueorbsoft.com/scandefrag/index.html

Back when I was constantly using 9x/ME systems that was the way to go. Some
of the people still using the OSes might have newer/better alternatives.

Signature

Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

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Mart - 28 Dec 2005 10:24 GMT

Fran, you could try running Scandisk in Real Mode DOS. But be aware that you
*might* just have a faulty hard drive and therefore you *may* be putting
your data at risk.

Boot, using your WinMe Startup (floppy) Disk and select 'With CD-ROM
Support' then at the A:\> prompt, type "scandisk c:" (no quotes and note
there is a colon after the letter c) then press Return.

Follow the screen prompts - and for the first time at least, (unless you are
happy that either the disk is OK, or you can sacrifice your data) tell it
NOT to do a Surface Scan. See what it reports and keep a check on its
progress.

If it reports major problems, copy your important data to another drive (or
media) before attempting to write (surface scan) to the disk.

Don't forget to remove the floppy disk BEFORE you tell the machine to
reboot.

Good luck

Mart

> My computer is running very slow. I tried running Scan Disk in Safe Mode,
> but it keeps restarting. I tried disabling the screen saving and nothing
> else appears to be running in the background. Any help would be
> appreciated.

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cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user) - 29 Dec 2005 17:32 GMT

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 10:24:32 -0000, "Mart"

>Fran, you could try running Scandisk in Real Mode DOS. But be aware that you
>*might* just have a faulty hard drive and therefore you *may* be putting
>your data at risk.

Running Scandisk in DOS mode is FAR less risk than running Windows
(which always loads a ton of code files, always writes to the at-risk
C:, and always hammers the HD generally).

DOS mode Scandisk is the preferred approach to a possibly sick HD,
compared to anything Windows-based, if not resorting to 3rd-party
tools. If using 3rd-party tools, bootable diags from HD vendors and
(on XP systems) Bart CDR boot and HD Tune are good approaches.

>Follow the screen prompts - and for the first time at least, (unless you are
>happy that either the disk is OK, or you can sacrifice your data) tell it
>NOT to do a Surface Scan. See what it reports and keep a check on its
>progress.

Before running Windows, you should verify the hard drive's hardware
condition, and DOS mode surface scan is the best way to do that.

Before running diagnostics, it's best to back up your data - but LFNs
make that hard to do outside Windows, which (as mentioned) poses an
unacceptable risk to the HD and file system.

The solution is to use Odi's LFN Tools; specifically, the LFN-aware
LCopy command, e.g. as follows (from DOS mode)...

D:
MD \BAD-HD
LCopy C:\* D:\BAD-HD /A /S

...to copy everything from at-risk C: to additional HD D:

Scandisk surface scan steps through every sector on the HD, from the
start of the volume, to the end. It doesn't thrash the heads or write
to disk, as running Windows would do. So I'd expect it to be safer.

>If it reports major problems, copy your important data to another drive (or
>media) before attempting to write (surface scan) to the disk.

If you see ANY of the following, abort and back up data:
- existing B(ad) cluster blocks
- cluster progress counter stalls or pauses, even if no errors
- explict bad cluster errors

Do NOT beat the HD to death doing diags if you already know the HD is
sick; abort the tests and recover data first!

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Don't pay malware vendors - boycott Sony

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