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scan disk stops/hangs up system

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by annpayt 1 view

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Hi, This is not the usual problem of the scan disk restarting over and over. This is what's happening: in safe mode, I start the scan disk, it runs for a few minutes, then stops. At that point, I can move the mouse, like in trying to click cancel but nothing responds. Can't minimize the window or move it, and nothing on the safe mode desktop responds. So I click ctrl alt del which gives me a blue screen that says 'this system has become busy or is unstable, press any key to return to windows orpress crtl alt delete to restart'. If I 'press any key', I get the same blue screen again. If I do a crtl alt del, it restarts back to my normal desktop and everything works fine. I really need to get this solved so I can scan disk and defrag. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Oh, I'm using windowsME.

10 replies

by annpayt

While considering this recent problem, I thought of something that might be worth knowing. We went from dialup to DSL about 6 weeks ago. While I THINK we have scandisk and defragged since then, I'm not sure and don't see how to find out when we lastdefragged. I checked scheduled settings and see that Symantec NetDetect is set to run every 5 minutes. To be honest, I wasn't even aware I had that until today. Maybe it was part of the dsl setup? If so, maybe that's the problem. ontheotherhand, if my computer has had that all along, then it hasn't bothered the scandisk before. fwiw :)

by angela.brown2

I would suggest booting your PC to a bootable floppy. Make sure you have a "DOS" copy of scandisk and run a thorough scan on your hard drive. It sounds as if there may be bad sectors on the hard drive. Doing a thorough scan without the Windows GUIrunning may fix the problem, or you may find that the hard drive needs to be replaced, in which case I would slave in a new hard drive and ghost an image of your drive to the new hard drive.

by vdsa_15

try uninstalling the softwares you've installed before this problem occur, do this in safe mode.

by deadly ernest

Scandisk is so basic a program that any problems during its operations are usually simple.

The two big problems are other applications open and running with a need to use the hard disk. ALWAYS make sure that you have your screen saver and any fancy desktop bakcgrounds off before you start. The screensaver kicking in will cause scandisk to restart, as will swapping picture son some of the fancy desktop backgrounds like webshots.

The second most likely cause is insufficient RAM available for use due to background programs. Check your system for other programs running in the background and turn them off before running scandisk or defrag.

Another problem that may be occuring is dependent upon the type of DSL system you are using, thisis a continuous connection and constant messages are being sent whilst it is connected. If you have a system that uses an external router with multiple ports and security abilities (eg Network Address Translation) the router will handle this and it is not a problem. But some connections use a single connection direct to the PC and have the PC manage the connection, if you have this type then the PC may be accessing the Pagesys file or other files during to keep the connection going.

by otl

Did you disconnect the network (DSL) connection? Have seen where scandisk (while connected to a network) attempts to scan all network drives, or is system is handshaking and restarting scandisk.

by annpayt

angie, sounds good but i didn't know how to do that.tx
vdsa,makes sense but i think it started with the dsl and then i spent alot of time setting up network and i didn't want to undo that work. thank you too.
eebywater, alot to consider in your post. i called my dsl and asked them what you said. They said, no, it's not because of them. thank you very much
OTL your answer made something click among all the possibilities of the source of the problem. I asked the dsl tech support if symantec was part of their software and they said no. So symantec was there all along. But not a problem. Why? Because with dialup internet, i was never online when i scandisked. So symantec didn't kick in every 5 minutes. That HAD to be it. You are right, disconnecting the dsl would have worked, but I couldn't find how. I went a step better and changed the settings on symantec so it would only run at logon and not every 5 minutes. (Actually, I wouldn't even need that symantec net detector anymore, but I'mtaking baby steps here.) That fixed the problem. Thank You!

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