Defrag won't defrag

[MacGyver]

I'm using Windows 98SE at home with all the latest patches. Defrag won't run. I can load Defrag, but when it tries to run it's stuck on 0% for over 6 hours! I know the first 5% of a defrag is actually a scandisk, and I know my 10GB Quantum HD is good. Any ideas????

[msilaski]

Make sure that you have all background apps closed. the only thing that should be running is your explorer & systray.

[Eagle PC Diagnostech]

AntiVirus Running?

can you do a defrag in safe mode?

[Toppro]

Do a defrag in safe mode. That way when you do a defrag nothing is being written to the HD while trying to defrag. I always run defrag in safe mode without any problems

[ilovetheusers]

Mac - for anyone else I would not admit the following:


One thing that I have noted with defrag in 98se is that it like to reorganize things. It puts the most used files to the front of the disk to speed up their load. The difference is small but het any increase is an increase. I used to download a lot of pictures from the net (OK - it was naughty pics - I admit) and there were so many that one of my first defrags in many months actually took close to a whole day to finish.

Basicly if you have huge files that are used everyday located in the back of the the HDD and there are things in the front that never get used winblows will try to move everything from the front to the back and the back to the front... You get the idea. I let mine run all night and it was still not finished so I let it run some more and it did finish.

[Apathy]

Is the hard drive active at the time? Or is defrag sitting at 0% with the HDD silent?

[Garak]

boot to dos, delete ur swap file, run scandisk in dos (make sure its not something daft like a lost cluster) boot into safe mode, more effective as not file swapping... run defrag, and sit back relax & enjoy the little blue box show

[scutterboy]

Install the defrag.inf from the 98CD installs a line in the registry under runonce. So it'll run before any TSR's etc. That way nothing will interupt it.
X:\tools\mtsutil\defrag.inf

[WesFlash]

McAffee AV tends to make defrag and scandisk not run. It doesn't do this on all installations, but I ran into alot with Win95 and Win98 clients.

[Ya_know]

I remember a discussion here before that suggested deleting the entire contents of the C:\windows\applog folder, turned out to be a solution for a defrag problem then. I understand the files in there are fair game, and shouldn't cause a problem if removed, even if it doesn't solve the problem you are having. It's worth a shot...

[MIKWIZ]

have seen this alot lately,

disable any anti-virus software; especially if it's Mcafee.
then restart system,
run scandisk, disable the auto-fix checkbox,
note any problems, if it runs OK, do a surface scan, I know this takes a while, so run it before you go to bed or work,
then run a full defrag, do not rearrange programs to run faster.

[mir_4all]

[quote]Originally posted by MacGyver:
<strong>I'm using Windows 98SE at home with all the latest patches. Defrag won't run. I can load Defrag, but when it tries to run it's stuck on 0% for over 6 hours! I know the first 5% of a defrag is actually a scandisk, and I know my 10GB Quantum HD is good. Any ideas????</strong><hr></blockquote>

[robbi]

Here is something you might try. When you start "defrag", the first window that comes up should be the "Select Drive" window. On the bottom right should be a button that says "Settings". Choose this button and remove the check mark from the first choice on the top left ("Rearrange program files so my programs start faster"). I have found that this can greatly increase the speed with which Defrag completes and from my own experience (and opinion) the performance gained by leaving this setting on, is not much. Another topic touched upon is Anti Virus software, especially McAfee. I agree, and FYI, Mcafee VirusScan 4.5 needs to be "Service Packed" (SP1) to repair some known problems - Especially regarding Scandisk and Defrag. Sorry I don't have pointer to the SP on the web right now. You can look at <a href="http://www.mcafee.com" target="_blank">www.mcafee.com</a> and <a href="http://www.nai.com," target="_blank">www.nai.com,</a> but it has always been hard to find. hope this helps...

[MacGyver]

Whoa! I forgot all about this thread! Enough suggestions everyone, unchecking "Rearrange program files on disk so they start faster" did the trick.

Mods you can close this one out. Thanks to everyone for their help.

[format c:]

If you have tried Windows ME copy the defrag.exe file from your Windows ME cd and place it in your Windows folder , It runs much faster than Windows 98 version