If you successfully ran defrag, Windows 98 cannot un-defrag the result. It may appear you were back to where you were before you started, but if you run defrag again, it will either run a very short time and be finished, or it will tell you the drive does not need to be defrag-ed. When you remove a checkmark in msconfig - startup, after you reboot the computer some of them will make a new entry in startup with the checkmark enabled because what controls them loading depends on some other setting. e.g. a setting in the "parent" program, or in win.ini, or a registry entry. See Derek's suggestions for those. Some will re-appear after the next time program is used - e.g. Real audio, MSN - I know of no way to get rid of those, other than not using the programs. "IMVU (which is a stupid IM program my 10yr old downloaded, I got rid of the program, but this remains),..." If you mean it makes a new entry in startup with the checkmark enabled after a reboot, did you properly un-install the program? Deleting files will not get rid of a program properly. If you mean the entry is still there but remains unchecked.... The Registry keeps a record of everything you remove the checkmark for when you use msconfig. If you properly un-installed IMVU, you can run regedit and search for the name of the program related to IMVU you removed the checkmark for in Startup and delete it's entry in the registry. If you're unsure about that, there will be other files listed that had the checkmark removed in a list at the same location; you may have to press F3 several times to search again and find the list; or have someone remove the entry for you.

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A re-do... Some will re-appear after the next time program is used - e.g. Real audio or video, MSN - you can disable them as they appear, but I know of no way to get rid of those re-appearing the next time the program is used, other than not using the programs. The Real audio or video ones will show up whenever a Real audio or Real video file has been played.

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Thanks everyone for your responses - sorry I did not make clear that this is my home computer. I believe I did uninstall IMVU correctly, I used the program's own uninstall feature - but when we would turn on the computer the login for IMVU would still be there, so I went to "add/delete programs" and removed what I thought was the rest of it. The login dissapeared but the startup item did not, it is on the startup list twice once checked and once unchecked. Anyway about the defrag, I usually run it every 4-6 weeks depending on when I remember to do it and I can actually get the computer from my kids for a while, It usually runs for about a half hour or so, but I ran it 2 weeks ago and it took over 4 hours, so when it was done I ran it again, just out of curiosity - It again took over 4 hours and the pattern looked the same large blocks of "empty" spaces that were kind of lined up (when you looked at the details). After shutting down the computer I ran it again about 3 days later, same thing it took about over 4 hours and the patterns looked the same. Is there a way that the information is not being saved? I appreciate any insight you may have!! I just do not know enough about the inner workings of this machine!! Thanks!! Lori

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"After shutting down the computer I ran it again about 3 days later, same thing it took about over 4 hours and the patterns looked the same. Is there a way that the information is not being saved?" No, I don't think that is possible. Defrag physically moves at least some of the data's location on the drive partition, and the former location may then be occupied by something else, or allocated to free space - there's no way Windows could change it back to the way it was without causing complete chaos and data loss. However, if you do not have much free space on the hard drive partition you run it on, the hard drive can get fragnented quickly rather than slowly because Windows has to put pieces of files all over the place all the time, rather than sometimes. When you run defrag, that are some programs that can interfere with it if they are running, and the defrag will re-start from the beggining each time the program interferes - what has already been defragged in that session is still defragged and will be quickly skipped over, then it starts again at where the drive still needs defragging. This results in it taking a lot longer to run defrag than it should. If you get fed up and quit defrag before it is finished, the remainder of the partition is still fragmented. Examples of such programs - a screen saver that did not come with windows - a utility that monitors your mboard voltages/temps/fan speeds - anything that periodically accesses your hard drive. If you do other things on your computer when defrag is running, that can also make it restart. You can disable such programs before running defrag if you know which ones interfere. You can run defrag in Safe mode to eliminate other programs from ineterfering, and it will finish in a minimum amount of time

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Tubesandwires Just to say that RealPlayer can be tamed. As it was only an aside I won't bog down this post with all the details but you rename evntsvc.exe then edit pagedata.js so that it becomes just a page closer (nothing else). Thats how I did it with my RealOne but things may have changed since then. Lori A As stated, there is no chance of defrag undoing itself. Something is messing it up again, so that it ends up as bad as it was before you defragged. This website might help with startup items: STARTUP ITEMS Malware could possibly do this. Are you running anything like Ad-Aware (which is about the most popular freebie around)? "Screensavers" and "SpyBot Resident" can mess up defrag but these usually stop it completing (due to interruptions). Replacing defrag.exe with the Windows ME version is "well worth doing" (it runs much faster), although this probably won't cure the stated problem. You can get it from www.mesich.com or I could send it to you. DerekW

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I would greatly appreciate if you could send it to me ( and tell me how to activate/install it, please), I tried the www.mesich.com and got a search directory page that says it is under construction. I run a screensaver of photos that I have been running for years - I always turn it off when I defrag though. Thank you for the info on Startup Items, I will read it! Lori

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It's on the way........ DerekW

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Thank you very much Derek! Works awesome - Speed Racer compared to old defrag! When I ran defrag the same large chunks of empty spaces were present, out of curiosity when defrag was done I shut down and restarted the computer and immediately ran defrag again before doing anything else. The large empty blocks were not there but there were strings of empty blocks throughout the drive, all was pretty good until it got to 85% complete, it then encountered many screens of the medium green colored blocks that need to be moved to the middle of the drive. What could cause all this information to be "scrambled" all around immediately after a defrag? I am stumped. I am going to check my virus software for any new updates and run it again, but I am afraid there is something really wrong here. Thanks for everything!! Lori

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Without seeing your display it is not easy to make a judgement about the extent of disruption after reboot. When you reboot after defrag it is not uncommon for the back end of the used area of the HD to get disrupted due to various programs restarting and setting themselves up. If you get no other symptoms it may not really be a problem at all. With faster hardware introduced since the W31 era it has become less important to defrag so frequently. It only matters if you don't do it for months. DerekW

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mscdex version 2.25 copyright (microsoft corp 1986-1995) drive d:=driver oemcd001 A;/> this is what i get when i try to reboot my computer and i try may commands but they wont work do u think u could help me out so i can boot my comptuer to windows. i jsut keep getting the black screen. and im stuck

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zach - please re-post under a title of your own. You do that by scrolling to the bottom of the listed posts in any forum - general hardware is a good one for most things. Please read the instructions at the top of the forum lists of posts - you need to provide a lot more info - what operating system you are using, make and model of computer, was the computer working okay before, anything else you can tell us, the more detail the better.

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Thank you for all of your help!! Lori

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