Scan disk and defrag won't work

[Debz]

Hi, I went to do my computer maintenance yesterday, only to find scan disk would only get as far as about 3 bars then go back to the start, I left it for about 1/2 hour and same thing, then defrag didn't start at all!..it was on 0% for the same length of time. I went to the Help on the startup menu and that failed to initialize! Could you tell me what might be wrong, I have recently changed from dial up to broadband, but can't see how that would affect these things.
Thanks
Deb

[baboon]

Just a guess here but have you run any Malware scans?

[baboon]

Found these articles. They are kinda close to some of your problems.
ScanDisk
For this one read what some of the reasons for it restarting could be.

Disk Defrag.

Both of these links have the same common problem, something is running in the background that is writing to the disk while you are trying to run the tasks.

[Debz]

I have run Ad-aware and then tried it all again but it is still the same

[Debz]

the only thing running at any time I have done these is the internet...I have never had this problem before

[baboon]

Broadband is always cionnected to the internet, and Dial up only connects when you want it too. You can try to get another anti Malware program like Spybot Search and Destroy and see if that finds anything running in the background. It is always good to run more that one anti malware program because some will catch what others wont.

From what I was reading it really sounds like something is trying to write to the disk that you want the scans and the defrag tools to run on.

[baboon]

The initialization of the Help Center Failed. Please report the following error number to Microsoft Support: 2147024893

Is this the error you get when you try to run help?

[Debz]

thanks for that!...I will run spybot and see what it picks up.

[Debz]

yes that is the message I get

[baboon]

Here the the support link for that message.
If this is the first time that you tried to access the help tools. If have used the help section sucessfuly before this point I would recommend that you run Hi JackThis and post it in Cyber Safety.

[baboon]

OK here is a list of things to do.
Run CCleaner.
And try to run your Scandisk and Defrag in safe mode.

I would still recommend that you post a HJT log and let the pro's in Cyber Safety review it for you.

[Debz]

have run spy bot, restarted again after the fixes, but still no luck, the "The initialization of the Help Center Failed. Please report the following error number to Microsoft Support: 2147024893 " was not right it is same message but number 2147143679, thank you so much for your quick responses Baboon! How do I run those in safe mode?..lol

[baboon]

when the system starts to boot up you will want to hit F8 (before windows loads), and one of the options is boot to Safe Mode. It can take a little while for safe mode to load, but once you are in Safe mode you can run the tasks the same as before.

[Jintan]

I would agree with baboon that Safe Mode Scandisk and Defrag quite often allows those tools to run, and make needed repairs/adjustments. From some reviews, I would go with the Help Center glitch being related to an MS update patch you may have installed recently. The following steps look promising for correcting that, so try them and post back your progress if you would.


Click Here to download MDAC_TYP.EXE, then click on the downloaded file and allow it to install. Reboot, and try to access the Help Center again.

[dwndrgn]

I don't want to hijack someone's thread but I've got a similar problem. When I tried to run in safe mode there were still programs running (this is after runing malware programs and antivirus too). When hitting ctrl-alt-del I can see a long list of programs that are running but can't tell which are ones I wouldn't want to mess with or are bad ones...here are some of them, maybe someone recognizes what they are:
wusb54gv4
hpwuschd2
systray (I know this is a good one)
hidserv
infomyca
vsmon
rundll32
osd
avgcc (this and the next prob. avg free edition antivirus)
avgemc
zlclient (assuming this is my zone alarm)

any help greatly appreciated!