PC won't Defrag Please HELP

Hi, can someone tell me what to do when your computer will not defragment. It keeps telling me my Hard drive has changed every 2 minutes, even though everything else is closed down. I have been running defrag for 3 days and it is stuck at 68% and has been for the past 24 hours. It just keeps going back and reading the drive info again, then defragging to 68% then so on we start again.
Thanks Lissy

 

Thanks

Thanks Steve I will try that

Lis

 

Or defrag in safe mode, after running disk cleanup and checking the drive for errors. Easy way to get to safe mode. Go to start>run and type msconfig. Click the advanced button then check the box enable start menu and OK, allowing restart. Before leaving safe mode, uncheck the box and it will boot back to windows upon restart.

 

Thank you guys

Thank you so much for your help.

Steve I am doing as you suggested and it is now at 86% and still working.

Thank heavens you guys know what you are talking about because I sure don't.
Thanks for your clear instructions, I am sure my PC will be heaps better now

Lissy

 

I'm assuming the PC in question is other than the one you're responding on? The idea is to shut down all other activity while defragging. Other activity while defragging and disk checking can cause it to restart the process and/or hang. Running disk cleanup first gets rid of all the temp files and junk before you rearrange everything, so that when you do remove them it doesn't leave behind 'holes', which then amounts to a fragmented drive again.

 

Yes thank you it was a different computer rather than this one. Sadly defragging didn't fix the problems I had hoped it would so now I'll have to Format the Hard Drive....YUK!

Lissy

 

Before you format, mind telling us what type of problem you are having? Defrags don't usually fix problems, just put all the file fragments back together for faster access when you want it.

 

sorry guys I've been away

The problem I was having was a software one. PhotoImpact XL just kept freezing all the time. I deleted it, got rid of lots of stuff and then defragged and re installed it... no probs now

Thanks Lis

 

Good to hear you got it worked out. Thanks for posting back.