Defragment Problems

[Lloyd45]

Ive got a Windows 98 PC and whenever I try to defragment my C Drive nothing ever happens. Ive tried several occasions now, and every time it says its doing it but never moves off of 0% and Ive left it over night once and still nothing.

I checked to viruses and stuff incase that was causing it, but found nothing.

anyone know what might be causing it?

[Confused]

Could be something running in background. Boot into safe mode and try it.
Chas

[Lloyd45]

ok, so how would i go about that?

[yellohut]

while the computer is booting keep tapping F8, you'll get an option where you can select safe mode..
also, run scan disk before you defrag.

[Cricket]

You can also just hold down the Shift key after the first boot screen switches to the next screen and the computer will boot straight to Safe Mode. Unless your computer is a name brand one, then it may require you to hit some other key to get to the Boot Menu first.

Cricket

[TimPoet]

Might want to try Diskeeper, it is supremely fast! It has a 30 day trial period.
http://www.executive.com/downloads/menu.asp

[ghitch75]

i have found if you have anything running in the back ground 98 won't defrag..............make sure you close all programs in the task bar..thats what worked for me

[bailey]

or maybe defrag in safe mode

[SARGE]

If it's been a long time (if ever) since you defragged and have used the PC a bunch, expect a lengthy process. I have a bud who began it one evening, left it running all night and it finished the following afternoon. He'd had it for years and never defragged. He does now.

[Miz]

You might also want to try replacing the Win98 defrag with the much better WinME defrag...perhaps the only thing WinME did better.

You can download the ME version of defrag here and just follow the directions on that page to replace the Win98 version.

I put the ME defrag on all the 98 systems I maintain and have never had a problem with it.

Oh yeah, also on that page: "One last tip: If you're having trouble running Defrag, either version, boot into Safe Mode, run Scandisk first, and then run Defrag. Actually, it's a good idea to do this occasionally as it defragments the one file that can't be defragmented in normal Windows, your swap file."

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Miz Oh yeah, also on that page: "One last tip: If you're having trouble running Defrag, either version, boot into Safe Mode, run Scandisk first, and then run Defrag. Actually, it's a good idea to do this occasionally as it defragments the one file that can't be defragmented in normal Windows, your swap file."

Hey, that's a good tip. Never thought about that.

Cricket

[rambler]

While the effect of defragging in safe mode is that the pagefile ends up in one chunk, it isn't defrag itself that does it. W9x deletes the swap file when booted in safe mode, and it's recreated in one chunk when rebooted. So in fact you can "defrag" the pagefile by just booting in safemode and then rebooting immediately.

[galaxian]

rambler:
I don't think that is 100% true.

If you have non Windows managed file, it will be in the root of c:\.
When you boot to safe mode, window will create and/or use one under \Windows.

Thus, if you just boot to safe mode and then restart, windows will revert back to the one in c:\, leaving the safe mode one behind under \Windows.

[pjmc_49]

Try restarting in safe mode. To do this press F 8 on startup.
If you are not to sure about this try this. Go to the run opion in the start menu. Type in msconfig and click on ok. By doing this you can shut down any program that you do not know what it is. Try shutting down one program at a time until you find the one that is causing the problem. You can always go back and redo anything that you need latter.

[rambler]

Originally posted by galaxian rambler: I don't think that is 100% true. If you have non Windows managed file, it will be in the root of c:\. When you boot to safe mode, window will create and/or use one under \Windows. Thus, if you just boot to safe mode and then restart, windows will revert back to the one in c:\, leaving the safe mode one behind under \Windows.

True - but I wasn't talking about a user-defined pagefile. You can defrag THAT by simply changing the size, so a new one is allocated in one chunk.

[galaxian]

Your original response was in regard to booting to safe mode to defrag the swapfile. No where in the posts was there any distinctions being made between a user defined and a windows managed one!

"..... user-defined pagefile. You can defrag THAT by simply changing the size, so a new one is allocated in one chunk"

But, but... If it's user defined, it is already in one large contiguous area which means that it is already unfragmented! (given, of course, that the MIN is set to a reasonable size)