Won't Defrag!!

Hi,

The best way to ensure all files are closed is to boot to DOS off a floppy. If your defragger will run off a floppy then that would be the best solution.

If not, then you'll need to boot to "safe mode" and run it there...

Cheers,
Tim.

Make sure all programs in your system tray are all closed as well.....Peace

If you have a background monitoring program- like I have ASUS probe that moitors my system ie CPU temp., voltage levels, etc.- if you have something like that and can change the interval levels in which it scans your system then increase it as much as you can.

If this is not the case run scan disk first and then run defrag-if it still gives you trouble there is a possibility that a virus-more specifically a worm or a trojan or also spyware(Napster, Grokster, and other download sites are notorious for adding spyware along with their programs) can be on your system- make sure your anti-virus is up do date and scan your system.

You may want to clean boot the system and then try running the defrag application.

see this TechNet article for more information:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q186978

(delete any spaces from the above URL).

Hope this helps!

Besides closing everything in your system tray (the icons are visible over by the time in the lower corner of your screen) make sure you change the Power management also- right click on an empty part of your desktop (where there are no icons) selectproperties. select the screen saver tab. Change the settings so that the computer does not go into sleep mode or hibernate and make sure your screen saver does not come on.

I had exactly the same thing happen with a few machines. Everytime it was the power options that were causing the problem. The hard disk would try to shut down after a time of inactivity. Switch off all power options in control panel. Close all applications again and just let the defrag do its job.

Che

The referenced MS QB aarticle is a good place to start. There are several things I always check for before going further. 1 - Is antivirus up to date? Also, try an online service such as www.trendmicro.com or www.pandasoftware.com (beware though,panda's scans every file & object - takes a loooooong time).

2 - If you are comfortable with REGEDIT, check HKLM_Software_Microsoft_Windows_CurrentVersion_RunServices and see what is running there. Check _Run as well. You can use MSCONFIG to temporarily remove the items in _Run and see if that makes a difference.

3 - Run a scandisk from DOS and make sure the HDD is happy.

4 - On your desktop, right click and choose properties, then screensaver. Turn you screensaver off. At the bottom, click on the power settings and change each entry to never. Notorious on IBMs for causing interference.

5 - Find the file wininit.ini and open it - see what is in there. Try renaming the file if it has entries.

Let me know whats up ofif you didn't understand any of my suggestions. Chris

You dont'mentioned, if there is enought free space to work the defragmenter, It should be enought space. So, free up some space, and defragmenters can swap file...

Other is if youre running WinME disable system restore features.

Pinoy_Teknik

Turn off your screen saver. Go to Start, shutdown and restart in MS Dos mode. At dos prompt type, win /d:m This will put you in safe mode. Now run scandisk. Minimal drivers and system files are loaded in safe mode so programs that run are usually not loaded. Make sure you do a thorough scandisk and the automatically fix all errors box is checked. If the system scans, and it may take awhile, then you can proceed with defrag. Running defrag in safe mode also gives you a cleaner defrag andworks for all systems.

There is a mess of stuff that runs and does
not show up in control-alt-delete. Run
msconfig and it will tell you everything that
loads during startup. You can disable it here
run your defrag then run msconfig and turn
everything back on.
Good Luck Lee

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