Defrag and Scandisk suck

[wey97]

I love the concepts of scandisk and defrag, but my computer
makes it difficult to use them. (I guess in that case I
should have said My Computer Sucks)
If I try to run Scandisk on my computer, after a while, I
get a message about Restarting Ten Times... Other programs
writing to the hard drive... etc. etc.
The only way I can get around this is Ctl->Alt->Del
and ending every other frigging program running.
I have to do the same for defrag to run properly.
It is VERY ANNOYING.
Does anyone know how I can get around this?

[Guv]

Too bad you did not post under General Questiohns, I would have gotten credit for a post (Just kidding, I really do not care).

I always have a lot of programs running, but they do not seem to interfere with Defrag or Scandisk.

Only programs which read/write to the disc will cause this problem, so obviously you cannot be running VB, a word processor, AOL, et cetera. I assume you know that but I mentioned it, just in case.

I have 3 physical disks, and my Swap file is on different disc than Windows and most of my software. Perhaps this is why I do not have the problem.

The first suggestion could result in solving the problem and making your system run a little faster all the time. The last idea is easier to do.

If you have enough programs running to result in the use of the Swap file, this will cause the problem. You could check what gets started automatically when Windows comes up. A lot of these are not necessary. Some Software developers are just arrogant and think their software should always be sitting in memory.

Click on the following
Start, Programs, Accessories.
System Tools, System Information
Tools, System Configuration Utility
Startup Tab
All that clicking will give you a list of what gets started automatically. Some leave memory after doing something, others stay in memory. If you can identify anything that does not look necessary, Uncheck it, making a list of items unchecked, so you can restore your system if something goes wrong (you might uncheck something critical). Do not worry about permanently messing up your system. It is easy to use the config utility to undo whatever you did.

The above might fix your problem. You could also try the following.

When you want to run defrag & scandisk, you could restart your system and use F8 to come up in safe mode or come up to a DOS Command Prompt. I think (am not sure) that Defrag & Scandisk will run from safe mode and/or from a DOS Prompt. If they do run that way, not much should be running concurrently.

[wey97]

Yeah, you have a point.
All that is still a pain in the ass though.
I have seen Scandisk and Defrag run fine on lots of other
computers. I need some way to see if there is one specific
program writing to my hard drive so I can just close it
without having to restart.

You know, Wey, you're right. It sure does seem like
someone could write a defragger which would allow you to
mark certain files as non-moveable. That would take care
of the swapfile problem.

I would think it would be possible to have the defragger
also make a list of the currently running programs and work
around them. That might be too much, tho....

[Rudy]

Hum....i used to have that problem when i was running Windows 98.....but i don't have it anymore since i got Windows 2000 (since december last year) and i never had that problem anymore, i can run about any prorgram in Win2k while in 98/ME i couldn't

[Guv]

wey97, so use Ctrl-Alt-Del to get Task list and identify the programs which are running. The culprit has to be one that reads or writes to the hard drive. Once you know who he is, just shut him down before running Defrag.

You only have to figure it out once. Except for the ones you start yourself, the same programs ones will be running every time you start Windows.

Once again, It might be the Swap File, depending on how many programs are running and how much memory you have.

[wey97]

Yeah, I think I found the program(s).