Author Topic: Scandisk/Defrag question  (Read 422 times)

Offline Ripsnort

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« on: September 06, 2002, 09:59:59 AM »
Recently, with a WinME OS system, I was loading some software for my Son's computer, and the hard drive became dangerously full, so we aborted the load.  We deleted all sorts of unnecessary files and old programs. Then we ran Defrag (Yes, I know I should run scandisk first) and Defrag said it could not finish due to an error, and that I should first run scandisk to fix the error).

So I ran scandisk.  And waited....and waited...endless loop.  Cold boot, ran it over night, still at 0% complete.

Any clues as to why we cannot run scandisk?
« Last Edit: September 06, 2002, 12:14:16 PM by Ripsnort »

Offline Eagler

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2002, 12:54:40 PM »
nope

but I'd copy what if anything ain't replaceable - format C and start fresh if the drive is that chocked full of "stuff"

probably seem like an upgrade with the boost in speed after clearing out the crud :)
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Offline Staga

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2002, 01:22:22 PM »
Not so long ago you could run defrag and scandisk in pure DOS-mode IIRC.

Offline Starbird

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2002, 01:25:38 PM »
Make sure all programs are closed that would want to write to disk.

If something writes to disk in Win 9x defrag/scandisk has to start over.

Offline Chairboy

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2002, 01:30:18 PM »
If you have a friend with Norton Utilities, ask to borrow the Emergency Disk floppies that came with it.  You can put the floppy in, reboot, and run NDD from DOS.  This will bypass any issues with files being open or programs moving data.

If the friend does not have floppies, use their install CD.  It should be bootable and has NDD.

Finally, if it is an option, consider installing Windows 98 SE instead of Millenium.  Your sons computer will be more stable, will be able to run more games, and will be faster.
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Offline DAVENRINO

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #5 on: September 06, 2002, 02:20:29 PM »
My laptop has 98SE and I use CNTRL/ALT/DEL to close everything except Explorer and Systray before I run Scandisk/Defrag.
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Offline Ripsnort

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #6 on: September 06, 2002, 02:28:15 PM »
Yeah, all background apps are closed..tried that, someone over on AGW suggested to try to run it in safe mode, which I will try.

Eagle, Sat I will finally have a CD burner, I just may do a format after saving my stuff...

Offline Chairboy

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2002, 07:48:08 PM »
Just closing all programs doesn't always fix the problem.  When I worked in tech support for Symantec many years ago, we encountered this frequently.  One solution we found for when closing all the programs wasn't enough to prevent getting NDD restarts was to set the swap file from dynamic to static.  Eg, instead of being a dynamic swap file that resizes itself as needed, set it to be minimum size of 512megs and max size of 512 megs.  

FYI.
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Offline Ripsnort

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #8 on: September 07, 2002, 07:50:45 AM »
Follow up:
Scan/defrag in safe mode did the trick.  Thanks all to the replies!

Offline bloom25

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2002, 11:12:07 AM »
Ripsnort, does that computer have MS Office on it by chance?  Fastfind will cause that if it's not disabled.

Offline Tyro48

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #10 on: September 08, 2002, 05:39:48 AM »
Run scan disk in safe mode it should get the job done then.

Offline Toad

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #11 on: September 08, 2002, 08:46:38 AM »
What if you can't run it in Safe Mode without getting interruptions?
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Offline Ripsnort

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #12 on: September 08, 2002, 11:20:16 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by bloom25
Ripsnort, does that computer have MS Office on it by chance?  Fastfind will cause that if it's not disabled.


I disabled it first thing along time ago Bloom.

Offline weazel

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Run it in DOS.
« Reply #13 on: September 08, 2002, 12:58:08 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Toad
What if you can't run it in Safe Mode without getting interruptions?


C:\Windows\Command\Scandisk.exe

Offline Toad

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Scandisk/Defrag question
« Reply #14 on: September 08, 2002, 08:38:36 PM »
Yeah, booted into DOS mode and ran it and it zipped right through and said everything was fine.

Then I tried to defrag and windoze and it said the drive had errors that Scandisk needed to fix.

Not sure what's going on, but getting real close to burning a CD with the important stuff and formatting the drive. Been a while since I did.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!