Dual defrag problem

I'm having 2 problems with defrag on one of my ME systems. I would appreciate any incite you might provide.

1) The check-for-errors step goes into a loop. It always says 0% complete bu hammers the HD. I can run scandisk fine.

2) When I turn off error checking, the defrag loops with the HD always changing. I have checked all the processes that are running to make sure nothing is there that doesn't need to be. When I watch the details, it begins rewriting at the beginnning of the HD as I would expect. It gets about a dozen rows of clusters rewritten before it restarts. However, each time it restarts, according to the legend, there are clusters in the just rewritten area that now belong at the end of the drive. This, of course, begs the question, how does defrag decide what clusters belong a the beginning, middle and end of the HD?

Thanks.

 

The Thick Plottens

Here is an update:

Perhaps it was an error in observation of the timing but scandisk also no longer works (autofix is on). It keeps jumping between "checking folders ..." and "checking file allocation tables ... ".

I decided to boot the ME startup disk using the minimal boot option. I ran scandisk from the floppy which seemed to take an unusually long time but eventually did complete and say no errors found.

The implication is that something is running that is causing this problem but I don't have a clue what or where to look. I didn't think scandisk was effected by changes on the HD.

 

I am not sure what the comparables are in ME, but I had the same problem in 98 SE until I stopped the Taskmonitor from loading and cleaned out the C:\Windows\Applog folder. No problems since.

If either scandisk or defrag keeps restarting it is usually caused something running in the background.

Also if it has not been done for awhile it will do that too.

A non-fixed size swap file on a large partiton may cause problems for scandisk/defrag. I have mine set to a fixed size and on another partition. That helped SD & DF a lot.

I forget what ME does but in 98 SE Cntrl-Alt-Del does not show everything that is loaded. MSCONFIG and the startup tab does.

Also if you are using Norton Utilities and have Norton Protection on the Recycle Bin that has caused me some grief also.

But overall ME gave me too much grief so I dumped it and went back to a much more controlable 98 SE. I got sick of turning something off just to have ME turn it back on.

BillyBob

 

How about I incite you to run defrag and scandisk from safe mode?

Billy Bob is right. There is way too much nannyism written into OS's. ME seemed to be the worse. But I suppose they have to write software for all levels of user. After experience happens, most folks start turning off all those "aids ".

 

re: defrag problem

Thanks for the replies.

I guess everyone has different experiences with Windows versions. I couldn't get rid of 98 fast enough. I considered it a good day when I only had to reboot twice. ME is more stable as I can go a few days without a reboot (but still not stable enough). Unfortunately, that particular machine can't run XP (its a PII-300).

I can indeed run defrag in safe mode but that means running it manually. I really prefer to run it using the scheduler at a specific time.

I'm going to have to look closer at what is actually running. Is there a place to find out what each of these silly background tasks is for amd which are required? I know some but others are a mystery.

 

That may be the worst place of all to run it.

#1 No screensaver must be active.
#2 there may be stuff running in the background that will keep it from running anyway.
#3 the Scheduler has been known to be very unreliable.
#4 Do not trust Windows to do your work. It WILL let you down.

I myself much prefer to run SD or DF at a time of MY choosing when I can watch to make sure it completes. It only takes about 30 to 60 seconds to defrag my C: drive. The other partitions get defraged after adding or removing software. Otherwise they usually are not bothered with.

Many users have to shut things down to run scandisk or defrag. I NEVER shut anything down. Casue anything that bothers defrag may well be bothering other things also so it soes not get loaded.

If I can find it I will come back for a URL for Startup Cop. It is great for this kind of work.

Be back in a bit ( I hope )

Back. And here it is.

Startup Cop VERY Handy tool.

BillyBob

 

Thanks.

Like I said, this is a wimpy machine. I can't take hours to watch defrag run. Indeed, the only time I can tie up the machine to run defrag is the wee hours.

Actually the scheduler runs defrag quite nicely on all the ME machines but this one. And even this one ran it fine until recently. No, I can't tell you what changes were coincidental to it starting to fail. All I can say is that Norton says it is virus free.

 

Check my reply again.

Apparrently I was making changes while you were posting also.

BB

 

Thanks. I'll take a look at it.

 

If Norton AV is set to check all files it can create a problem also.

BillyBob