Having Defrag problems...

[Xstatic]

Greetings ladies, gentlemen and others (pick your category )

I've got a bit of a problem with ScanDisk AND Defrag on my ancient beast (Celeron 400Mhz, 64Mb RAM, Win98 - can't afford an upgrade). Every time it runs, it runs for 5 minutes, then gives me a message:

"Drive contents changed - re-starting"

EVERY 5 minutes - exactly (I timed it!) Fortunately, it remembers where it got to before the supposed change and returns to that spot - otherwise it would never finish!

In trying to find the cause, I shut down (using the CTRL-ALT-DEL 'Close Program' box) EVERYTHING except 'Explorer' and 'Systray'. All that is in the tray after this is the 'Scheduled Tasks' applet. Now, in the scheduled tasks is one which checks the Net for updates to my Norton Anti-Virus - every 5 minutes!

So I disabled the task - no effect (still 5 minute jumps!)

So I paused the Task Scheduler - still no effect!

I don't want to delete the task completely (but I will if there's no other option (and if it will stop the problem)).

Any ideas gang?

 

[entitled]

Try restarting in safe mode and running a scandisk then doing the defrag in safe mode.

 

[Valcorie]

Screen saver...?

I bet it's your screen saver...Does it happen to come on after 5 minutes?

Try this:
Select no screen saver
Defrag your hard drive
Then select scan disk

If that doesn't work check to see if you have any other unessicary programs that are running and shut them down. However, I bet it is a screen saver. I had that same problem not too long ago.

Good Luck! I hope it helps. Please let me know if it does I am very curious to hear how it goes

lol
Valcorie

 

[Wulf7]

Definately try it in safe mode (hit f8 right before windows starts to load). I've found there are a few better programs than the standard scandisk/defrag in windows. Try PerfectDisk by Raxco software. It tends to be much much faster than scandisk for me and there is a demo version of it available.

 

[MagicFingers]

Defrag

This thing doesn't like anything running while IT is running.
Screen saver sounds like a good likely candidate.
However, there may be other reasons for it.
Do you have "Office '97"? If you do, you probably have a stupid program called "FindFast" running. It is a memory hog and is not needed.
Easiest way to check for things that start running at startup is to click "Start", "Run", type in "msconfig", go to "Startup" tab, look down the list for FindFast or anything similar and un-check it. Un-check anything else there that you don't need running in the background all the time. Then click OK to close the window. The program(s) will still be running in memory until you restart windows, so restart it. Don't worry. the program(s) will still start up when you WANT it to by clicking on the program icon to start it.

Good luck. Let us know what fixes it. I fought this too for a while before I discovered FF was causing it, and other computer problems, (Like floppy churning, dish churning, etc).

 

[MagicFingers]

RAM

OBTW, you can get 128MB of RAM for this machine for about $10-$15 right now, at least here in our local stores. Look for sales.
This will help a lot. 64mb is very minimum for running Win98 with other stuff running too.
(Stuff=technical term)

 

[RomanHans]

When I was running Win98, I found that if I had virtually anything running in the task bar (as shown by the icons next to your clock in the lower right-hand corner of the screen), it interfered with defrag--but the worst offenders tended to be anti-virus programs and the Hotsync manager for my Palm computer.

Roman

 

[Weird Harold]

I've got a bit of a problem with ScanDisk AND Defrag on my ancient beast (Celeron 400Mhz, 64Mb RAM, Win98 - can't afford an upgrade). Every time it runs, it runs for 5 minutes, then gives me a message:

"Drive contents changed - re-starting"

EVERY 5 minutes - exactly (I timed it!) Fortunately, it remembers where it got to before the supposed change and returns to that spot - otherwise it would never finish!

I run Win 98SE and have the same problem with Defrag, but only on drive C:.

As near as I've been able to determine, it is caused by Defrag itself writing something to the disk at about the 8%-10% complete range -- updating a log or last defragged date or something.

On my system, it happens about four or five times in the process of defragging a 1 GB partition, depending on how badly it's fragmented.

It does NOT happen on the other six partitions on my system, so it is apparently a quirk of defrag that is limited to drive C: (or maybe the drive where defrag.exe is located.)

The best way to run defrag under win98 is to reboot into safe mode by selecting shutdown/restart and holding down the control key until you get the boot menu with Safe Mode on it. That eliminates all background programs, scheduled tasks and most hardware drivers that might interfere with Defrag.

 

[Maiden-hunter]

if you have any usb units atached unplug them as the signal between them was stoping mine fron de-fragging

 

[Xstatic]

Well, I rebooted in safe mode...

Both ScanDisk and Defrag completed without the 5-minute hiccups (there was one hiccup in Scandisk, but it completed) - but it took most of the day! Would they be running slower in Safe Mode for some reason?

MagicFingers - I don't have Office97, but checked msconfig anyway, and found some puzzlers:

1/ an item calling itself 'dashIE' that doesn't show up when I run a 'Find file' and has no path shown;

2/ a repeat of the 'LoadPowerProfile' item.

Would it be safe for me to uncheck these items?

Thanks for all your help

 

[MagicFingers]

Re: Well, I rebooted in safe mode...

Both ScanDisk and Defrag completed without the 5-minute hiccups (there was one hiccup in Scandisk, but it completed) - but it took most of the day! Would they be running slower in Safe Mode for some reason?

MagicFingers - I don't have Office97, but checked msconfig anyway, and found some puzzlers:

1/ an item calling itself 'dashIE' that doesn't show up when I run a 'Find file' and has no path shown;

2/ a repeat of the 'LoadPowerProfile' item.

Would it be safe for me to uncheck these items?

Thanks for all your help

Glad it finally made it through. The ScanDisk was probably a THOROUGH one, which it probably needed.
I hope you have a good virus program and get virus definition updates often (Not PROGRAM updates).
Please do all the other advice from the other people too, like turning off screen saver, virus protection, etc, and try it in Windows mode.
I don't know what "dashIE" is. It sounds like something to do with Internet Explorer, maybe a version provided by your ISP? DASH? I also have 2 copies on the LoadPowerProfile. I believe one can be turned off safely. Try it and see.
And, I still think you need 128MB of RAM at least. 64mb is very marginal for running memory-intensive programs like Defrag.
Good luck.

 

[Xstatic]

Re: Re: Well, I rebooted in safe mode...

Glad it finally made it through. The ScanDisk was probably a THOROUGH one, which it probably needed.
I hope you have a good virus program and get virus definition updates often (Not PROGRAM updates).
Please do all the other advice from the other people too, like turning off screen saver, virus protection, etc, and try it in Windows mode.
I don't know what "dashIE" is. It sounds like something to do with Internet Explorer, maybe a version provided by your ISP? DASH? I also have 2 copies on the LoadPowerProfile. I believe one can be turned off safely. Try it and see.
And, I still think you need 128MB of RAM at least. 64mb is very marginal for running memory-intensive programs like Defrag.
Good luck.

You're right, the ScanDisk was a thorough check - it just seemed to run a lot longer than the 5-minute hiccup version somehow (probably because I was watching?). And it was completing before - just re-starting every 5 minutes...

I run Norton AntiVirus 2002, and the task that I thought was causing all the problems is 'Symantec NetDetect', which is supposed to hook up to LiveUpdate and download new virus definitions. I didn't HAVE a screen saver running, but I would have disabled it anyway

My ISP isn't DASH, and I can't think where that item could have come from (there are a couple of others I'm not sure about either), so I'll untick them and cross my fingers...

I agree with you about the memory issue - but when I said I couldn't afford an upgrade, I meant it...

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[Weird Harold]

Check you help file for instructions on DrWatson

1/ an item calling itself 'dashIE' that doesn't show up when I run a 'Find file' and has no path shown;

2/ a repeat of the 'LoadPowerProfile' item.

Would it be safe for me to uncheck these items?

To find out more about dashIE, take a snapshot with DrWatson and examine the tasks and other information it provides. It gives a source for each task running when the snapshot is taken and often some manufacturer's info as well.

A freeware program named Scanregistry, and/or other registry management utilities, are available online that will tell you more about what is loading on your system and where it's coming from.

The double entry for Loadpowerprofile is normal and, while not absolutely necessary, should probably be left.

The first loads as part of th "machine service" part of your registry, and is "program" that provides access the the power management part of your BIOS without rebooting into setup mode.

The second loads with the per-user portion of the Registry, IIRC, and is the specific settings to configure the specific user's preferences.

The two entries work together to make your power management settings work the way you want them.

 

[ReadyOne]

Spyware -- Lots of unexpected programs!

You might consider downloading and running SpyBot http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download

Advertisers and others who want to track your usage install a lot of "hidden" software on your machine. dashIE might be such a critter.

SpyBot looks for all these programs, and can remove them if you approve (and restore them if you want or need them).

You would be amazed what an Active/X control downloaded automatically when you visited a malicious web page can do. And tools like Gator and CometCursor play on their usefulness to get you to install them so that they can install the adware.

Even some commercial products like TurboTax will install some tracking software, and they give you no way to uninstall it! (You can uninstall TT, but the TT uninstall won't remove the spyware TT that was also installed.) TT's justification for all this is protection from piracy.

Other popular programs like Kazza and Juno require the adware they install to be present or they stop running. Adware often causes pop-ups to appear when you don't expect them, perhaps even when you are not even running Internet Explorer!

Anyway, SpyBot may be able to identify your mystery program if it's spyware/adware.

 

[Valcorie]

Re: Spyware -- Lots of unexpected programs!

You might consider downloading and running SpyBot http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download

Advertisers and others who want to track your usage install a lot of "hidden" software on your machine. dashIE might be such a critter.

SpyBot looks for all these programs, and can remove them if you approve (and restore them if you want or need them).

You would be amazed what an Active/X control downloaded automatically when you visited a malicious web page can do. And tools like Gator and CometCursor play on their usefulness to get you to install them so that they can install the adware.

Even some commercial products like TurboTax will install some tracking software, and they give you no way to uninstall it! (You can uninstall TT, but the TT uninstall won't remove the spyware TT that was also installed.) TT's justification for all this is protection from piracy.

Other popular programs like Kazza and Juno require the adware they install to be present or they stop running. Adware often causes pop-ups to appear when you don't expect them, perhaps even when you are not even running Internet Explorer!

Anyway, SpyBot may be able to identify your mystery program if it's spyware/adware.

I am glad you were able to get your computer defragmented.

Also, thaks for the great link for SpyBot. I am going to install that on my computer, and try it out. Thanks for the tip.

Valcorie

 

[hotstik69]

Turn off your screensaver and virus protection and then try. No need to run in safe mode.

 

[fgarvb1]

Xstatic,

I agree you need more ram!

When i did use a defrag program on my win98se i used the version for windows ME. It works faster and does the job better.

This may be the only thing good to come out of winME.

Now if scandisk starts hanging up and/or giving more trouble and you cannot resolve it you can copy it from another computer or down load from the internet...I think from microsoft itself. simply remove your scandisk or defrag from your system folder (I think thats where its at you may have to do a search for it.) and replace with what you have coped or downloaded.

It is always a good ideal to back up yours before you delete it!

Of coarse try everything else first including doing a search on the web for your problem.