Defrag problems with an Me system

[Crispy]

I'm trying to run Defrag on one of my Me systems. It only has a 4Gb drive, but it never gets past about 35%, and that's after about an hour of restarts. It keeps coming up with a message that data on the drive has changed, and then restarts.

I have shut down everything apart from Explorer and Systray, but it makes no difference. Any ideas please?

Chris

[Cricket]

Hi Crispy,

Try running Scandisk and Defrag while in Safe Mode.

Cricket

[Crispy]

Thanks for the suggestion Cricket, but no joy
Scandisk ran OK as before, but Defrag kept restarting again with a 'Drive contents changed - restarting' message.

Chris

[doctorgonzo]

I've used a program called Power Defrag which restarts the PC without any other programs running, which gets rid of the "data has changed" error message. You may want to give it a try.

[galaxian]

If you are getting restarts in Safe mode, this could indicate a virus.
Do a full scan with updated definitions.

As a FYI, PowerDefrag is really just smoke and mirrors. You can accomplish the same thing (and save $40) as follows:

Copy the text below (between the asterisked lines) into Notepad, and save it as "Defrag.reg" (with the quotes).

**************************************
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce]
"Flags"=dword:00000003
"Title"="Defrag at Startup"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\Defrag]
"Cmd"="||DEFRAG.EXE /ALL"

*********************************

If you now doubleclick on this file, it will be added to the RunOnce key in the registry, and starts (only) the next time you reboot the PC, and runs before any other Windows program are initiated.

[newme]

can you use that ad put a time in there instead of "at startup"

[galaxian]

The Startup is "just" text.

What it does is place the execution of DEFRAG in the RUNONCE key of the registry.

On booting, anything in a RUNONCE key is executed, and then the key is deleted.
Thus, after doubleclicking on the REG and creating the key, if you reboot, defrag gets run (once).

[Crispy]

Thanks all for the suggestions, but I'm a little wary of playing with things that I don't understand.

galaxian, I can see that your suggestion would run defrag once, but would it just try once and then give up after 7% and the first 'content changed' notice?

doctorgonzo, the Power Defrag might be worth trying but I'm inclined to stick with the usual defrag, as it has always worked on my three Me systems.

I have run a system scan with the latest anti-virus and it shows no problems. I'm beginning to wonder if it is a disk problem

Chris

[galaxian]

The ONCE, means the program will only run ONCE. (the next time you boot).
You make it run again, you doubleclick on the file, and reboot.

At the point in the boot sequence that defrag will now run, there is nothing else active that will be writing to disk. Thus, there will be no restarts.

You will see your WallPaper appear, and then when you would normally hear your startup sound, the Defrag will run.
After it completes, you will hear the startup sound, the taskbar and clock will appear, Quicklaunch items appear, Desktop icons appear and then your startup programs will start to load.

[Crispy]

Thanks for the extra info galaxian.

Having previously shut down what I thought was everything, I was not fully convinced. Before doing anything else, I thought I'd run a thorough ScanDisk. It did exactly the same as Defrag, kept stopping and starting

I thought it worth a try with your registry idea. It started running and stopped with a warning message about restarting after about 7%. At this point I almost stopped it and gave up, but decided to see what might happen. The Defrag then went on to the end just fine. Thank you

Does anyone have an idea what might have caused this strange behaviour?

Chris

[gerrygrit]

Are you by chance running a Cable or DSL Modem?
I see a lot of cases where when a pc is connected to the
internet at all times.....it will not DEFRAG.
These PC'S must be booted into SAFE MODE and the Modem
disconnected or turned off until Defrag is finished.

Hope maybe that helps someone.

G

[Crispy]

Thanks gerrygrit, but I'm on a basic old dial-up: nothing else is available in my little corner of the world

Chris

[crow]

Go into 'msconfig' & unclick everthing in start up except 'system tray'. Restart computer and stop your screen saver. Run defrag & then go back into 'msconfig' & reclick all you unclicked.
-
Len

[galaxian]

When you run Defrag using the REG method above, none of these tasks have yet to start.
That is the whole purpose of doing it this way.

[catfishjoe_1]

Unfortunately I had the same problem lately. I think I somehow got a Trojan that my scanners missed. This had happened one other time to me also. I had a keylogger and it was active. I deleted the two files that were doing the nonsense and then I could defrag. The only way I got out of it the last time was to reformat and start over. My internet kept trying to connect when I started the pc so I knew something was not right cause it had not done this before. I am also on dial-up. I now have ZA pro and norton systemworks 2003. It has not happened since I reformatted and got the new virus software. If you go to symantec's web site they have an online scanner as does trendmicro. pcpitstop is also a good site with an online scanner plus other tools that might help you with your problem.
catfishjoe_1