I have got a 10 GB hard disk on which there are 3 partitions: a MS-DOS partition (1 GB), a Windows primary partition (4 GB) and a Windows extended partition (5 GB). I have tried to defragmentize my primary one: when the program starts to check the disk for errors, it displays 0%, 1%, 2% and then back to 0%. I can let it work for hours: it continues going back from 2% to 0%. What's the problem? With DOS Scandisk and Defrag utilities, I can check and defragmentize my DOS partition perfectly. Any help appreciated. Thanks in advance!

It is doing this because you have programs running in background. Put your screensaver to none, disable your anti virus and then hit ctrl alt del and end task on everything on there except systray and explorer. Then go about scandisk and defrag. Good Luck :-) Cat

The above post is correct in assuming this is the cause of your problem. It usually is. Another easier way to do this is to boot directly in Safe Mode then run defrag. HTH, wcr3d

W95 , Defag prob's . Below is information that also applicable to using Defrag . Conflict-free installation: The most successful procedure to have a conflict-free installation of any program running in Windows is to disable all memory resident programs prior to installation. Please follow these easy steps,or you can use,Startup Cop ( freeware ) from, http://205.181.112.65/pcmag/pctech/content/18/08/ut1808.001.html or EndItAll ( freeware ) which does it for you,from http://www.pcnineoneone.com/pokpok/system.html 1) Delete the contents of the C:\Windows\Temp folder, also copy & put all on 1 line in Find . *.bak; *.old; *.chk; *.000; *.fts; *.gid; *.grp; Highlight all the files it finds , right click & delete . Reboot the computer. 2) Disable everything running in the background by pressing the CTRL+ALT keys on your keyboard and pressing your DEL key once. 3) This will bring up the Close Program box. 4) Select a program and click End Task. 5) Repeat this procedure for every item in the Close Program box except for "Explorer" and "Systray." 6) Click Cancel. Now you can run the setup program for the product you are installing or start scandisk \ defrag . When you are having problems with Defrag , Don't Scandisk and Defrag all your misplaced files and error's, do your Deleting first , then run Scandisk Thorough . Now try Defrag . If Defrag still gives problems after closing everything but Explorer & Systray , reboot & when the message Starting Windows appears , press F8 , choose Safe Mode & try Defrag again . If you hav'nt run defrag before , or for a long while , some people report it takes hours . If Defrag still hangs, the problem may be due to a corrupt file in your Windows\Temporary Internet folder(s), or the Windows\Applog folder may be corrupt. 1. Click Start, click Shut Down, click Restart In MS-DOS Mode, and then click OK. 2. At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command, and pressing Y if you are prompted to confirm folder deletion: cd\windows smartdrv deltree /Y cookies deltree /Y applog deltree /Y history deltree /Y tempor~1 exit NOTE: If you have a cookie that stores a password for a particular Web site,copy the contents of the Cookies folder to a new folder before deleting the Cookies folder. To do so, type the following commands at the command prompt, pressing ENTER after each command md copy c:\windows\cookies\*.* c:\windows\ where is the folder to which you want to copy the contents of the Cookies folder. 3. Restart your computer. 4. While your computer restarts, press down and hold the CTRL key until the Windows 98 Startup menu appears. NOTE: Depending on your version of Windows you might have to substitute the F8 key for the CTRL key. 5. Choose Command Prompt from the Startup menu, and then press ENTER. 6. From C:\> (type) scandisk | when prompted select yes (Y) for the option to run a surface scan. 7. Restart your computer. 8. While your computer restarts, press down and hold the CTRL key until the Windows 98 Startup menu appears. 9. Choose Safe Mode from the Startup menu, and then press ENTER. 10.Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter. 11.Restart your computer. Finally , if the above fails , go to , http://www.procode.com.au/winsolo/ and purchase WINSOLO a great program , very easy to use , fantastic for burning CD's. The trial version gives you five free goes. Give it a try, one of the default settings is defrag . Microsoft have this article , http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q160/0/43.asp Another link , http://www.windows-help.net/windows98/troub-29.shtml Why DEFRAG ? DEFRAG can optimize your disk drive's efficiency. It will defragment the files on your hard disk quickly and easily to get your hard disk operating at peak performance. If your hard disk seems to be taking longer and longer to retrieve the files you work on each day, it's not a sign that your aging drive is slowing down. The culprit could be file fragmentation, which causes the drive head to go through a series of jumps from one track to another across the disk so that it can retrieve the separated parts of the file.Fortunately, unlike aging, file fragmentation is reversible, and that's the job of this issue's utility, DEFRAG.EXE. File fragmentation is an almost inevitable consequence of normal disk usage, in which you create, delete, and modify files. If every file occupied only one cluster (the smallest amount of disk space DOS can allocate to a file--sometimes called an allocation unit), no file would ever become fragmented. But most files occupy many clusters, and if the clusters that contain a file are not contiguous, the file is fragmented. How Does It Work: Defragmemter speeds up your system because it reorganizes the files back together again, result--SPEED and more free space. Of course after running more open files and then saving them, we have to defrag again---it's as simple as that. Normally when you use Windows95's Disk Defragger, this will not defrag the swap file. To defrag the swap file: Open the System Properties dialog box (right click on My Computer and select Properties) Click on the Performance tab Click on the Virtual Memory button Check Let me specify my own virtual memory settings Check Disable virtual memory (Note: This will cause the system not to use a swap file) Click on the OK button Answer Yes to the warning Click on the Close button Reboot when prompted You system will reboot. Check to see that there is no swap file. If one still remains (WIN386.SWP), you can safely delete it. Defrag your system as you usually do Now reset the swap file to your previous setting and reboot. (Note: Do not leave your system running without a swap file) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- W98 , Defag prob's . Below is information that also applicable to using Defrag . Conflict-free installation: The most successful procedure to have a conflict-free installation of any program running in Windows is to disable all memory resident programs prior to installation. Please follow these easy steps, or you can use EndItAll ( freeware ) which does it for you , from http://www.pcnineoneone.com/pokpok/system.html 1) Delete the contents of the C:\Windows\Temp folder, also copy & put all on 1 line in Find this , *.bak; *.old; *.chk; *.000; *.fts; *.gid; *.grp; Highlight all the files it finds , right click & delete . Reboot the computer. 2) Disable everything running in the background by pressing the CTRL+ALT keys on your keyboard and pressing your DEL key once. 3) This will bring up the Close Program box. 4) Select a program and click End Task. 5) Repeat this procedure for every item in the Close Program boxexcept for "Explorer" and "Systray." 6) Click Cancel. Now you can run the setup program for the product you are installing or start scandisk \ defrag . When you are having problems with Defrag , Don't Scandisk and Defrag all your misplaced files and error's, do your Deleting first , then run Scandisk Thorough . Now try Defrag . If Defrag still gives problems after closing everything but Explorer & Systray , reboot & when the message Starting Windows appears , press F8 , choose Safe Mode & try Defrag again . If you hav'nt run defrag before , or for a long while , some people report it takes hours . If Defrag still hangs, the problem may be due to a corrupt file in your Windows\Temporary Internet folder(s), or the Windows\Applog folder may be corrupt. 1. Click Start, click Shut Down, click Restart In MS-DOS Mode, and then click OK. 2. At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command, and pressing Y if you are prompted to confirm folder deletion: cd\windows smartdrv deltree /Y cookies deltree /Y applog deltree /Y history deltree /Y tempor~1 exit NOTE: If you have a cookie that stores a password for a particular Web site,copy the contents of the Cookies folder to a new folder before deleting the Cookies folder. To do so, type the following commands at the command prompt, pressing ENTER after each command md copy c:\windows\cookies\*.* c:\windows\ where is the folder to which you want to copy the contents of the Cookies folder. 3. Restart your computer. 4. While your computer restarts, press down and hold the CTRL key until the Windows 98 Startup menu appears. NOTE: Depending on your version of Windows you might have to substitute the F8 key for the CTRL key. 5. Choose Command Prompt from the Startup menu, and then press ENTER. 6. From C:\> (type) scandisk | when prompted select yes (Y) for the option to run a surface scan. 7. Restart your computer. 8. While your computer restarts, press down and hold the CTRL key until the Windows 98 Startup menu appears. 9. Choose Safe Mode from the Startup menu, and then press ENTER. 10.Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter. 11.Restart your computer. Still not working , try the MSCONFIG solution . Go to Start / Run and type msconfig , click OK button . Switch off config.sys and autoexec.bat , it is intelligent enough to keep only what is absolutely necessary in config.sys and autoexec.bat then go to selective startup ( or ctrl / alt / delete ) and disable everything except explorer and systray , then try defrag. If you get through a defrag without problem switch the other programs back in one at a time maintaining careful and fully worded notes. when you find the conflict switch off that program, and continue with the others. The solution is time comsuming and annoying. Hopefully you will only have two programs conflicting , if it is two or more you have real problems. Have you thought of using vcmui.exe a windows utility that is installed on your system, the utility is called version conflict manager user interface, it will identify an older version of a DLL that has over written your newer file. FIX DEFRAG This is an excellent Win98/98 SE fix . Use Regedit to see/modify the keys/values below. Many PC users have a hard time defragging their drives. Microsoft recommends deleting C:\Windows\Applog. However this rarely enables the optimization portion of the Defrag to be rebuilt properly, if at all. I suggest to follow these steps: 1. Rename and extract Defrag.exe and Cvtaplog.txt to C:\Windows with SFC. 2. Empty the C:\Windows\Applog folder. 3. Make sure Taskmon.exe runs from Msconfig, Startup or in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run 4. Most importantly of all, remove the "ExcludeApps" value under: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TaskMon "ExcludeApps"="START\DEFRAG\CVTAPLOG\SETUP\INSTALL\TASKMON\SCANDSKW\SFC" 5. You must make sure there is a "UseProfile"=dword:00000001 under this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Defrag\AppStartParams Mine looks like this (as REG file): ( Copy the text into Notepad, save it in Windows with the .REG extension, then right-click on it in Explorer and select Merge ) -----Begin cut & paste here------- REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Defrag] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Defrag\AppStartParams] "ExcludeFiles"="SYSTEM.DAT\\USER.DAT\\SYSTEM.INI\\WIN.INI" "UseProfile"=dword:00000001 "MaxNoUseDays"=dword:0000005a "MaxApps"=dword:00000046 "MinLogSize"=dword:000002b ------End cut & paste here------ 6. Reboot and start Defrag. Subsequent use of applications and reboots will rebuild the Applog file. As you can imagine the first time you defrag will be the slowest time. But it will make steady progress and be appreciably faster than before. OR Download PowerDefrag [1.4 MB, freeware] to optimize the Defrag tool on your Win98/98 SE system: http://www.e-technik.com/CustomSoftware.html Finally , if all above fails , go to , http://www.procode.com.au/winsolo/ and purchase WINSOLO a great program , very easy to use , fantastic for burning CD's. The trial version gives you five free goes. Give it a try, one of the default settings is defrag . Microsoft have this article , http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q160/0/43.asp Another link , http://www.windows-help.net/windows98/troub-29.shtml To run defrag automatically at startup , read this . Defrag with no programs: GOTO your CD, for \tools\mtsutils, is a defrag.inf. Rightclick/install will set a "RunOnce" entry for the next time you boot, to run Defrag before the login prompt. This way NO other programs are running. ------------ Why DEFRAG ? DEFRAG can optimize your disk drive's efficiency. It will defragment the files on your hard disk quickly and easily to get your hard disk operating at peak performance. If your hard disk seems to be taking longer and longer to retrieve the files you work on each day, it's not a sign that your aging drive is slowing down. The culprit could be file fragmentation, which causes the drive head to go through a series of jumps from one track to another across the disk so that it can retrieve the separated parts of the file.Fortunately, unlike aging, file fragmentation is reversible, and that's the job of this issue's utility, DEFRAG.EXE. File fragmentation is an almost inevitable consequence of normal disk usage, in which you create, delete, and modify files. If every file occupied only one cluster (the smallest amount of disk space DOS can allocate to a file--sometimes called an allocation unit), no file would ever become fragmented. But most files occupy many clusters, and if the clusters that contain a file are not contiguous, the file is fragmented. How Does It Work: Defragmemter speeds up your system because it reorganizes the files back together again, result--SPEED and more free space. Of course after running more open files and then saving them, we have to defrag again---it's as simple as that. To defrag the swap file: Open the System Properties dialog box (right click on My Computer and select Properties) Click on the Performance tab Click on the Virtual Memory button Check Let me specify my own virtual memory settings Check Disable virtual memory (Note: This will cause the system not to use a swap file) Click on the OK button Answer Yes to the warning Click on the Close button Reboot when prompted You system will reboot. Check to see that there is no swap file. If one still remains (WIN386.SWP), you can safely delete it. Defrag your system as you usually do Now reset the swap file to your previous setting and reboot. (Note: Do not leave your system running without a swap file) PS , I have noticed all the defrag posts & have researched to compile the above .