Defrag and ScanDisk not getting along

[Joey L.]

There is something screwy going on with my Defrag and ScanDisk. They haven't been doing their jobs for a couple of months now, only I just found out today. Task Scheduler has taken care of both programs since 1999 or so. Today, just for the hell of it, I launched Defrag directly. Just minutes into it, it stops and gives me a message, something about " an error on the disk that needs to be fixed before it can continue". So I closed that and launched ScanDisk. ( heh, it fixes errors, right? ) It stops and complains that it can't continue because the the drive was accessed or "written to" 10 times. I swear they sound like politicians, nothing but excuses.
I certainly know that all running programs have to be closed for Defrag and ScanDisk to run. God forbid someone even moves the mouse. How can I find out what programs are running ? And how do I shut them down ? ( Everything in the system tray is closed except the clock )

Thanks
Joey

[dldz]

You can hit ctrl+Alt+Del and close everything except Explorer & Systray and try that. If you already did that please repost.
Don

[Cricket]

Hi Joey L.,

Run Scandisk and Defag in Safe Mode. Nothing will interfere with the utilities there.

To find out what programs are running in background on your system, hit Ctrl Alt Del and the Close Program box will appear...this lists the programs running on your system.

You can also use msconfig to stop programs from starting up with Windows. Go to Start> Run> type in msconfig and hit Okay. Go to the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't want to start up with Windows.

Here's a list of startup programs: Startup List (http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm).

:) Cricket

[Joey L.]

Thanx !

It worked, although it took several tries. ( and about 15 hours ! ):D

Joey L.

[Cricket]

Hi Joey L.,

15 Hours?! How full is your 40GB hard drive?

Just curious, how does your system normally run?

:) Cricket

[Joey L.]

Hi Cricket,
I only have about 3.4 GB on my hard drive. (just upgraded from 3.2 GB to 40 GB hard drive) Which is why I couldn't understand all the problems I was having. My system runs very well and thanks to recent memory upgrade (32 MB original) it runs fairly fast despite a slow processor.

Joey L.

[glc]

Let's see - 40 gig drive in that old machine - I bet you used an overlay to install the drive - EZ-Bios or Ontrack Disk Manager? If so, your overlay could be starting to corrupt, they are usually bad news and a controller card is a MUCH better alternative to overcome system hard drive size bios limitations.

[SARGE]

Originally posted by glc
Let's see - 40 gig drive in that old machine - I bet you used an overlay to install the drive - EZ-Bios or Ontrack Disk Manager? If so, your overlay could be starting to corrupt, they are usually bad news and a controller card is a MUCH better alternative to overcome system hard drive size bios limitations.

I'll testify to that:

http://www.promise.com/product/controller_list_eng.asp

[Joey L.]

Hi guys,
I think it was EZ- BIOS now that you mention it. Also, since it is a Western Digital, it came with something called Data Lifeguard. Any idea what that is? The owners manual (oxymoron) is written in Klingon.

Joey L.

[glc]

Data Lifeguard is what WD uses to monitor for drive problems. I personally would get a Promise card and get rid of both EZ-Bios and Data Lifeguard. You can uninstall Data Lifeguard from add/remove programs I believe, but getting rid of EZ-Bios is a bit trickier if you want to avoid data loss.