recently installed OPERA as substitute for IE,now when I try to defrag,I notice that it stalls out and just waits for hours until I disable the defrag. Can defrag in safe mode but that is a bother. Is there a solution to why I have a problem? thanx.

How about Disabling Opera when running defrag?

This is the manual way to do a decent defrag. There are other things to do before hand, like deleting temp files, cleaning out recycle bin, etc. However for sake of space here goes. From your desktop you want to bring up task list to "end task" on all programs running in the background before starting defrag. There are two programs that you will leave alone and those are Systray and Explorer. So while on your desk top, keystroke Control+ALT+DEL. That will bring up your task list. Highlight any program on that list except the two I mentioned. Once highlighted, pick end task. Continue Control+ALT+DEL, pick another and end task. Once all are gone except Systray and explorer, click on start, programs, accessories, system tools, disk defragmenter. Run defrag. Once finished close defragmenter and shut down in normal fashion. Wait a few seconds once machine is off, for fans to wind down etc. Then turn back on and enjoy. Hope this helps G

I agree with G. This is the best way to defrag when you have alot of processes running on your system.

All things considered, it would be much simpler just to boot into Safe Mode and get it over with -- that's really about what you accomplishing by shutting down the running apps one by one by one etc....

If you don't have it already then get and use WinME's defrag tool. It is 5 times faster than Win98's. Mesich's site down today but you can get it at http://www.wilders.org/downloads.htm it is the ninth from the bottom on the list called newdefrag. WhitPhil in another forum found and offered SacnDefrag. "In conjunction with Blue Orb Software, the original ScanDefrag script is now available as a full Windows GUI application! ScanDefrag is a small utility program that configures and runs Microsoft's or Norton's disk utilities as part of the next Window's startup process. This can result in less restarts and cleaner runs. Read the readme file for more information." It runs both from the registry's runonce key so it runs before any programs load. Bryan

I think my spellchecker is on Mesich's site so it is down too. :) ScanDefrag is the correct spelling. Bryan