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Hard Drive Stalls & Locks Up

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by jim

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I have a client using Win98 on an 8GB IDE drive. She reports computer locks up whenever serious multitasking is attempted (e.g. minimize one program and open another). CPU is PIII/450Mhz. I've noted that Scandisk and Defrag both get approx 75% complete, then cycle into endless restarts. Virus protection has been good, so I don't think it's a virus. The Scandisk/Defrag problems lead me to suspect it's a hard drive problem, but before I sell her a new drive, I thought I'd see if anyone else hasseen a similiar problem. Thanks!

5 replies

by thechas

First, how much free space is on the drive?
If less than 1GB, that is the problem. Windows just doesn't have enough room to setup a large enough swap file, and crashes.

Also, how many programs are running in the back ground? (check both the system try, and Alt-Ctrl-Del)
Try running scandisk and defrag with everything except explorer shut off. Or, run them from safe mode.

I suspect that the true culpret is registry bloat and corruption.

The best way to take care of registry bloat is to wipe the drive, and re-install windows.
There are TR peers that recommend doing this every 6 months!
If you are careful with installing new software and updates, you can go for 18-24 months.

Alternately, a registry maintenece utility such as Norton Win Doctor, or OnTrack Fix-It can give you some relief.

by jim

Sorry, I should have said that only 2GB of 8GB is being used. Scandisk and defrag were both run with only explorer and systray running.

by william jay

Hello,

Power down, remove the IDE devices and set the jumpers according to the system requirements. Use 80 pin cables for UDMA HDs. Watch carefully the BIOS boot screens to insure proper recognition of devices and abilities.

In System Properties, disable DMA transfers for all CD drives. If Office is installed, disable findfast, set the AntiVirus software to be a bit less aggressive, and disable any memory enhancement apps, (like FreeMem or RamIdle).

Restart to MS-Dos mode, run "Scandisk /all /surface", then restart and make defrag run by stopping all running apps except "Explorer" and "System Tray", (via Task Manager - Ctrl+Alt+Del - End Task).

Use RegClean regularly afterwards, to keep the deadend entries culled out. . cheers.

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