Scandisk and Defrag keep restarting

[DukeDiablo]

Dear Forum-

I have a problem that I'm absolutely dumbfounded by.

Yesterday I set up a simple home network between two computers in Win98SE. I don't see what this could have to do with my problem, but I figured I should note it. I bought a Belkin 5 port 10/100 switch to use with the network. The network is working great...

The problem is when I tried to defragment both systems they both have the same problem:

The defragment utility as well as scandisk keep restarting because SOMETHING keeps writing to my hard drive. I've looked in my startup(through msconfig) and all I ever run is "scanreg." That's it, that's all that's supposed to be running anyway.

I did notice sometime after I setup my network that several lines had been added to my startup settings in msconfig, on both computers:

ScrSvr c:\windows\scrsvr.exe
=run c:\windows\scrsvr.exe
=run C:\WINDOWS\SCRSVR.EXE c:\windows\scrsvr.exe

I would guess the extra lines appeared because I kept trying to disable the ScrSvr in msconfig...then when I restarted it must have slapped it back in the startup.

I'm lost....scandisk tells me something is trying to write to my hard drive, I have no clue.

I've also looked in my add/remove programs, for something that I didn't install but everything there is normal.

Thanks for any help.

[RJ]

Hi,

it's Windows. Windows often writes to the hard drive.

Therefore, for Win9x: Never defrag in normal mode, always do this in safe mode.

RJ

[DukeDiablo]

Thanks for the reply RJ-

But I've got some kind of problem. I've never had this problem before, I usually defrag weekly and scandisk once every 6 months or so. So I must have something wrong.

Also, I tried using defrag in safe mode...same results.

Well, worst case, I've become quite good at reformatting, so I can just give both systems a hose down.

[cuffs007]

hey

only thing it looks like to me is that your screensavers are still active... so that will be the program that will write to the HD all the time unless you go in and choose "no screensaver" for both comps... are the screensavers shut off?

good luck

[DukeDiablo]

Cuffs-

Thanks again for helping me out. Since it's been a little more than a year since the last clean install on both systems, I've already started clean installing 98SE on the older machine.

I usually format every couple of years, so I guess this is right on schedule. I had turned screensavers off so I don't know what it is.

I guess I usually just say, "If all else fails, reformat."

Thanks again and have a great week.

[pointd]

Although it "shouldn't" have any affect in Safe Mode pull the network cables out of the back of the machines.

[DukeDiablo]

Thanks PointD-

I gave up trying to figure out the problem and just clean installed 98SE on both machines. They are both back up and running better than ever. Whatever the problem was....that got rid of it.

Thanks again for all the help and advice.

Yall have a great week.

[DukeDiablo]

UPDATE:

I figured out what was going on.

As a newbie to home networking, I foolishly hooked up both computers to a 5 port networking switch, then connected the switch to my cable modem. From what I understand, with file sharing enabled...as I originally had it, this gives anyone access to my computer.

I have now disabled file sharing to prevent any further problems.

I only assume that someone was hacking into my systems, because after I clean installed both systems, I was using one system (while the other was OFF) and when I restarted, I was notified that "One user is still connected to your computer, do you want to continue?" or something of that effect. When I restarted, I had the same scrsvr.exe problem again!

So I went into the Win.ini file, deleted the reference and restarted again. Again, the same thing happened. That's when I decided to disable file sharing.

I'm sure you all see how "green" I was on this issue; but I'm just glad I found out what I assume was the problem.

Have a good one.

[Iman74]

It's a worm buddy.

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99729.htm

[DukeDiablo]

Thanks so much Iman74!

Now I don't feel like I'm crazy, or some similar mental illness, haha.

Thanks again for going to the trouble to show me that. I feel even better now that I wiped both systems clean of whatever code that worm was trying to create.

I guess I should try some anti-virus software from now on; however, I just can't make myself install anything. I hate Norton, and the like, and I guess I'll just take my chances.

Have a great weekend.