Defrag restarts after 2% completed

Start the pc in safe mode and defrag from there. One reason that it keeps starting over is because something is running in the background.

You need to run the computer in safe mode. Restart your computer while holding down the control key and then select safe mode from the menu or boot up your computer and keep hitting the F8 key then select safe mode from the menu. Run your defrag from here. It will also complete much faster.

Is your screensaver disabled? if not once it kicks on. defrag will restart.

In addition to running in safe mode, use task manager (Alt-Ctrl-Del) to shut down any programs that have been loaded.

All you need, is Explorer and Systray.

Any time the hard drive is accessed, both scandisk and defrag restart.
When Windows refreshes virtual memory, it writes to the hard drive.
The fewer programs and processes that are running, the less often Windows writes to the hard drive.

When I setup a PC, I create a separate logical drive and place the page file (virtual memory) there.
That way, Windows seldom writes to the C: drive.

Chas

You would like to try using Norton Utilities's Disk Defragmenter instead. Likely to be caused by running background programs, including screensaver. However Norton's Disk Defragmenter is faster, more efficient and does differentiate between such running programs and defragmenting. I can even play my mp3s while defragmenting.

If you absolutely want to stick to windows defrag then you may want to use Start->Run->"msconfig" to remove background programs that you think could have caused the trouble. Beware though, some programs in msconfig should be left alone.

Check here for a very thorough list of startup programs, what they are and whether they are needed on startup to help with determining what to check/uncheck in the Config utility.

It wouldn't hurt to run Ad-aware or Spybot to eliminate any excess crap that may be running in the background.

Check and make sure that there are no programs, antivirus, screensaver, word, etc... are running in the back ground. shut down all programs in your system tray before defraging.

Personally I have stopped using the defrager that comes with windows and currently use norton works defrager as it is much better, and I never have those problems.

Good luck

i had the same problem until i downloaded a programme called "end it all",it shuts everything down. i downloaded it from www.over50s.com