Defrag loses connection

When I try to defrag the hard drive, it tells me I have 29% fragmentation, but then it loses its connection after only 1% compacting files. I've tried running from the command prompt to force it to defrag even though there's only 15% available disk space, but the same thing happens.

What can I do?

I'm running XP on a Dell XPS 400.

 

Hi, I had the same problem on my old PC with W98, but if I started in " Safe Mode " it would run right thru, they never did find the problem, also if the screen saver is left on that can make it restart sometimes as well.
Cheers Des.

 

Maybe there is a program running in the background thats interrupting the task. If Safe Mode doesnt work, google for trial versions of some automatic defragmenter that defrags with much lesser free space.

 

Defrag problem

First I would do a search for, then delete the files with the following extensions: .bak, .tmp, .log. These files aren't needed and you can run into many of them.

Second, I would open up a command propmpt (type cmd from start->run). Now type: chkdsk c: /r. You'll get a message that says the system can not get an exclusive lock, do you want Chkdsk to run at the next boot up. Press the y key. Reboot. NOTE: The chkdsk command will check your file system for errors and attempt to repair them. The /r switch will also recover free space that the OS thinks has data written to, but is really empty. NOTE 2: This procedure will take a fair amount of time. As in 30 minutes or more.

After your pc has rebooted, then try doing a defrag and see if that works.

 

disk cleanup, chkdsk and defrag

Some possible solutions:

Disk cleanup i.e. delete temp and other junk files. This can be done by right clicking on the drive in My Computer and going into Properties. This will free up some space.

Run chkdsk once to check the file system for errors.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265
Defrag does not run properly sometimes when there are ile system errors.

Try defragging with Diskeeper 2008. In the background defrag mode, it may be able to defrag with even less than 5% free space. In any case, it's an excellent and easy to use defragger, which intelligently suspends and resumes defrag according to CPU and disk activity. You can get free trial versions at the Diskeeper site.