Newt help

[Howard 13]

Everytime I try and do a defrag it just keeps freezing.

 

I know you've got to close everything up apart from a couple of things - please could you let me know the progs to keep running?

 

I've never had a defrag completed on this harddrive.

 

Cheers.

HB.

[Dan]

Have you tried doing a thorough scan disc first? once youve done that and switched off your screensaver (display/screensaver in Control Panel) switch off any other programme you have going, i even close down my virus checker just to be sure.

Dan

[peterpikefisher]

when did you last defrag,

do it once a week,

defrag in safe mode if you cant do it on normal screen.

[Paul_H]

For details of which programmes to leave running and further help see.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;en-us;Q218160

 

Also if you don't have any A/V software then it is possible that a virus could cause the problem

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;en-us;Q309460

[Newt]

The Q218160 article from Paul_H's link is excellent.

 

Only a couple of things I'd add.

 

If you are running 95/98, boot to DOS (as in restart, press F8 when you see Starting Windows..., and choose DOS from the menu of options). Then run

scandisk /surface /nosave /autofix. You will need to watch because even with the autofix/nosave switches, the stupid thing will still ask the first time it sees an error. But only the first time.

 

If you are running 98 (or have a friend who is and will give you scanreg.exe which works great on 95 but didn't ship with it) then while still at the DOS prompt

scanreg /fix and then scanreg /opt.

 

Then win /D:M to force a start in safe mode.

 

From c: delete any file having the pattern filennnn.chk where nnnn is any number. You could have none or hundreds. Delete em all.

 

From c:windowstemp delete everything.

 

From your browser, delete all temporary internet files.

 

Remove everything from the recycle bin.

 

note: I know the disk cleanup routine does some of the above but I'm never sure it does them as completely so I still opt to do these by hand.

 

Then proceed with the defrag. Let it run. Could easily take several hours and could well appear hung when it was working fine.

 

[ 26. September 2002, 12:46 AM: Message edited by: Newt ]

[Howard 13]

Thanks for the replies.

 

I'll check them out tonight when I get back from work and let you know how I get on.

 

Cheers.

HB.

[Howard 13]

Still no luck.Can't get defrag to start at all.

 

Tried doing a thorough scandisc but that didn't complete either.

 

I have everything off(screen saver and wallpaper) and when I preess cont/alt & delete all that it shows is systray & windows explorer.

 

Any other ideas?

 

Cheers.

HB.

[Newt]

Howard - try booting from a floppy so the Hard Disk isn't doing anything at all.

 

Then do the scandisk with /surface check.

 

If it won't complete, you have major problems with either the drive or possibly with the drive controller. At any rate, a serious hardware issue.

[Davey B]

Such as the HDD being knakered, by a new one and lift all yer info of the old one if that is the case.

[Newt]

Howard - one possiblilty no one mentioned is a virus. Have you run a complete scan (all files - not just some) using current def files?