Hard Drive Defrag

[gjohnson]

I have had performance problems with my Win98SE system...Whether I try to run Disk Defragmenter or Norton's version, it only starts and runs a bit then stops...my system is getting slower and slower...

I can only run scandisk when I boot up from the DOS prompt (Windows keeps restarting due to disk write)...and reports that it has found lost clusters each time.

What is odd that whenever a run a diagnostic program for either windows or the disk drive, it reports the only problem I have is with a fragmented disk!

Thanks for any leads...

[renegade600]

tell more about your system, cpu, ram, harddrive size/space available. Also what is your system resource percentage when you first boot the system.

[dammit]

You could try ending task on everything except systray and explorer...then try and run it. Or restart in safe mode and give it a go.

[Miz]

You might also consider replacing Win98's slow-as-molasses defrag with the much faster WinME version. It's available for download all over the net, just do a search in your favorite search engine.

I replace the Win98 defrag.exe with the WinME version on all the Wn98 machines I maintain.

[brindle26]

Winme Defrag (http://members.cox.net/scotterpops/enhancements/enhancements9c.html) with instructions. As Dammit said shut down everything but the two he mentioned. I always run defrag in normal mode and experience no problems.

[huggy_bear]

you need to be in safe mode to to run defrag and scandisk in 98

[Nick Grana]

you need to be in safe mode to to run defrag and scandisk in 98
You can be in safe mode but not a requirement. As mentioned, you can close all running programs in Windows, and possibly turn off screensaver, to run scandisk and defrag. I can scandisk/defrag my system without downing any programs but most others can not. Not sure of the exact reasons except for differences in software/hardware.:fyi:

P.S. A program called EndItAll is good for closing running apps in windows.
If in safe mode or Windows, you still have a reboot to do.