Defrag problem

[riggie]

Hi all,
Can anyone help me with a defrag problem on windows 98.
When I start running the defrag program it begins checking the drive etc, but the % complete indicator never moves so I don't know if the program is working correctly.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to fix this?
P.S. please don't get to technical.
regards
riggie

[Sar]

If it's a big hard drive (20Gb+) then it will take ages to do, especially in Win98. I tried doing mine last night on my 30Gb primary drive, but got fed up after 15 mins waiting :)

[Mister666]

Yeah, defrag takes bloody ages sometimes the bar and percentage won't budge for up to 15 mins (usually around 10-15%) and it will seem like nothing's happening but as long as the hard disk LED is on (or flashing) then it's working and you'll just have to leave it to it. :rolleyes:

Mine takes 4 hours+ and its only a 6.4Gb!!! :eek:

You could try getting Norton Speed Disk (which is part of Norton Utilities) as it's a damn site faster than defrag.

I'll move this over to the Helpdesk Forum as some of me pals in there may have some other tips. :E

666:devil:

[DaiSuki]

I've never managed to let Windows '98 finish a defrag yet - whereas Windows '95 took data in big chunks at a time, '98 insists on taking a block at a time... I've never seen it get past about 13% on my 10.2GB drive (that took about half an hour - and bear in mind that it starts at about 10% after it's done the error checks).

You should probably knock off all your screensavers, power savers, etc. , before you start it, though - it'll not speed up the process, but it will help to eliminate the possibility that you'll get to 80% then it'll say "Drive's contents changed - restarting". I know ScanDisk does that, I'm not sure if Defrag does as well.

I'd just not worry about it, if I were you - defragging's more bother than it's worth these days.

[-=Apex=-]

I'd get speed disk. if like me you have a set swap file say 300meg then what it does is move this to the start of the drive for faster access. You can make it put certain folders,files and so in in different places. I find it a lot faster and it does indeed speed my machine up a bit.

On the windows defrag try turning and anti virus prog off check to see if you have the options check drive for errors turned off too thats in the advanced options on defrag plus if you have office 97 or 2000 on your machine i sugest you turn find fast off

My computer

Controll pannel

Find fast

File

Close and stop

Hope it helps

:)

[CON JOB]

You must stop all other programs running in the background
while doing either a scandisk or a defrag.
Any programs writing to the disk while the disk tools are
running will cause problems.

[Dusk]

One of my work machine will only run defragmentor if I start up in Safe mode. Other wise it just does nothing at all :) Althought the other machine runs itevery time with no problems. Stoopid PCs :)

[xu]

best time to defrag is when ur in bed:) works a treat cos u aint bored waitin for it to finish.

just select all drives and if u want to make sure its doing sommat pick the SHOW DETAILS button then u can see wats its doing.
i have a 6gb + 4gb and it takes around 2 - 3 hrs to do both but i defrag mine every 3 or 4 days,normally while sleeping:E

[WillyPete]

there was another post like this. You might have the same problem where the Anti virus package locks up the Scandisk and Defrag tools in Win. As it scans or defrags, many files get opened, prompting the AV to scan them, causing excessive workload and hanging of the application.
Very common problem with McAffee.
Turn them off or disable them for the duration of the cleanup.

As for the percentage, if the hanging occurs before 10 percent, then it's because another app is writing to files or reading from them. (like the AV packages). After 10% Win stops reading files and starts shuffling them. If you have it restart a lot, it's due to your system power settings or screensaver. Both use the HD for operation or put it in standby, interrupting the file shuffling and causing a restart. Disable both for the duration. It'll normally tell you the drive's contents have changed.

These problems will normally occur when defragging your systems operating system partition. If you have everything on one partition, learn your lesson now and learn to split you drive up. If you have another partition, try defragging that first.

[riggie]

Hi All,
Thanks for all your advice peeps, its good to know there,s helpful people out there
cheers
riggie

[offcut]

Remove all the little icons on the bottom left of your taskbar infact remove as much that is running in the background as you can "FINDFAST" is the biggest problem.

When I do a defrag I do it before I go to bed and its all done when I get up

[Nicksta]

If you're happy using DOS there's a much more efficient way to defrag.

Edit /window/system.ini and under the [log] section (it'll be at the top), change:

shell=explorer.exe

to

shell=defrag.exe

Reboot and when windows loads only the defrag tool will be loaded - no screensaver, sounds etc. There's a definate speed increase doing it this way and it avoids background programme related troubles.

Once it's done, reboot and hit F8 to get to the DOS boot menu. Choose "command prompt only". Then edit your system.ini back to what it was before. i.e. in DOS type:

cd\windows
edit system.ini

swap the shell line above back to explorer.exe, save it and exit via the file menu (alt-f)& reboot again.

[fingerz]

I'm quite alarmed at how many of you seem to be aborting in the middle of DeFrags... i know its one of those things you can get away with (like turning off the PC at the mains) but you shouldn't really.

Just posting this as no-one else has pointed it out and i don't want our users to get into bad habits :)

[Mister666]

Good point m8.
Forgot about dat. :)


666:devil:

[Deano777]

i had a problem where i tried to defrag but i could not, i closed everything down using ctrl+alt+del apart from explorer but this did not work either, all screensavers were disabled along with antiviruses, my method to start defrag was 'start menu' 'programs' 'accessories' 'system tools' 'disc defrag', i tried to get to work several times but to no avail, but then one day i was in 'My Computer' and i right clicked on C drive and defragged this way and now it works every time, i know this sounds strange as both ways are in effect 'the same way' but does anyone know why 1 way worked and not the other?, i'd like to here it
Deano777