Scandisk/Defrag

Hi Irv9,
Win 9X and ME Scandisk wont run (or restarts)

Run ScanDisk before running Defrag, to check your file system for errors which could turn perfectly good material into "lost clusters."

If you constantly have problems with ScanDisk not completing its run, try rebooting Windows in Safe mode and running ScanDisk from there (restart Windows, then press F8 when you see the words "Starting Windows 95" appear; with Win 98/ME, restart Windows and immediately press and hold the Ctrl key until the Startup menu appears). Chances are good that whatever program is interfering with ScanDisk won't load under Safe mode.

*****OR*****

Many people have problems running ScanDisk and/or Defrag, with the program running 10% or 30% and then stalling. Often with a message that Windows is trying to write to the drive. To run ScanDisk/Defrag successfully:

Go to Start > Run and type msconfig in the Open: box
On the General tab, uncheck all items listed under Selective startup (make sure that Selective startup is selected)
Hit apply and OK and restart Windows
This starts Windows with only the basics running; Insures nothing will interfere with ScanDisk and Defrag
Run ScanDisk and Defrag, when ready go into msconfig and select Normal startup and restart Windows

*****References*****

Troubleshooting and Resource Guide for Windows 95/98/Millennium/XP: Maintaining Your PC
http://www.toejumper.net/maintain4/defrag4.htm

Problems running ScanDisk and Defrag
http://windows-help.net/windows98/troub-29.htm

Why and How to Defragment Your Hard Drive Under Windows 95/98
http://www.hookbuilt.com/zine/Articles/defrag.html

Cheers!

Greetings, Irv9!

Boot Windows 98 to DOS. Run scandisk and defrag from DOS.  There will be no interference from another program.

Best wishes, war1

Just make sure that other programs don't run. Close all with ctrl+alt+delete except explorer. And if this not helps then in your system running some stealth programs(viruses or keyloggers).
You can see all hard disk activyti with tools such as FileMon:
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml

And one more: DON'T use defragment tools from DOS (one such tool truncate all my long filenames)

And disable the screensaver. Anytime it kicks in, Windows attempts to write all the open files to the disk.

You can also run them from safe mode

Thanks to all who replied.

Irv