Win 98se Won't Defrag

[Yankee32]

I disconnected from internet, shut down all running programs. Disabled norton programs. The windows defrag window will display but never registers anythig except " zero percent done." Suggestions please. System is windows 98se, computer is pentium 2,266.

[funulator]

I don’t mean to sound glib but win 98 is ancient. I get ribbed by my friends for still running Win2k.

Maybe it’s time to splash out on a new OS? Win xp OEM home edition is about £70 if you buy it with a peripheral. I’m thinking of making the switch myself.

You can’t go wrong with a clean install.

[glc]

funulator, comments like that are not particularly helpful. We help people FIX things here. Do you have a clue how SLOW XP would be on a 266 MHz processor?

Tell your friends to bug off. I'm still running Win2K and have no plans to upgrade till it is no longer able to support my applications. That's the purpose of an operating system and nothing more. I have ample horsepower to run any OS I want - and that's exactly what I'm doing.

Yankee32, I apologize for the type of welcome you have just received here - below is what I would try to get your defragmenter working at no monetary expense.

1. Make sure you have at least 15% free drive space.
2. Boot it into safe mode.
3. Delete all files in c:\windows\applog (NOTE - this is a hidden folder)
4. Delete all temporary internet files, and files and folders in c:\windows\temp
5. Defrag it.

[DynamicTech]

glc, I love your posts. You are one hardcore techie. Your advice is always head on and extremely accurate. How long have you been doin this?
yankee32,
you may also try running msconfig to shut down any programs that may be kicking off at start up. Another reason 98 won't defrag is data being re written to the disk.

[glc]

Safe mode is even better than shutting stuff down in msconfig. Another trick is use the WinME version of defrag, it's a lot faster.

Dynamic, I've been doing this stuff since the days of DOS 5 and Windows 3.1. I have played with even older DOS and Windows versions but am not well versed in them.

[funulator]

Yikes! Sorry glc, (and Yankee32).

I didn’t realise Yankee32’s chip was such a slow one. I future I’ll keep my mouth shut.

(But imho, there’s nothing quite like a clean install of your OS of choice.)

[Carl Price]

Originally Posted by funulator I don’t mean to sound glib but win 98 is ancient. I get ribbed by my friends for still running Win2k. Maybe it’s time to splash out on a new OS? Win xp OEM home edition is about £70 if you buy it with a peripheral. I’m thinking of making the switch myself. You can’t go wrong with a clean install.

Why spend that much money on an operating system? The computer is worth around $50.00 US now. Some people cannot afford the latest and greatest.

[glc]

(But imho, there’s nothing quite like a clean install of your OS of choice.)

I haven't done a clean install on this thing in about 5 years. Still running fine.

Not to chew on you any more, but please DO note that this is the Win9x forum, and it's really not appropriate to suggest an upgrade to XP to fix a simple issue. Yankee32 sent me a PM telling me that safe mode did the trick.