Unable to complete defrag

[JohnVogel]

I am working on someones computer, and have run into a problem with defrag. Everytime I try to run defrag, it gets to 10% then says that it is unable to access part of the drive, please runs scandisk (ID:defrag006). I have run scandisk several times, doing a throurough scan (which took roughly 6 hours to complete) twice. Scandisk reports that it could not find any problem with the drive, yet defrag still continues to refuse to run.

I downloaded an evaluation of Diskkeeper, and was able to defrag much of the drive. I noticed, however, a couple of oddities. First, there is a string of continguence <sp> files streaming across the drive. Let me clarify, there is only 2 Gigs used on a 28gig drive, however one (or more) files seems to be stretched completely across the whole drive (in several clusters). Second, though diskeeper does defrag most of the drive, it still leaves it at 32% fragmentation (Not acceptable at all), regardless of how many times I run it.

The computer was locking up, constantly, and when I first ran diskeeper it told me that something like 80% was fragmented (I didn't even think a computer could boot with that much fragmentation!)... now it is running okay (though very slowly), but defrag still won't run.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Info:
Job Title - Systems Administrator
Key responsibilities -
Database management design and administration - Network Administration - Internet and Intranet Administration and design - Technical support and consultation (PC Based)

 

[thatrenowned]

Boot in safe mode, run scan disk and then defrag again.

Regards

 

[JohnVogel]

I did reboot into safe mode and try to run defrag, but I didn't try running scandisk and THEN running defrag. Thanks for the tip, I will try this and let you know if it works Info:
Job Title - Systems Administrator
Key responsibilities -
Database management design and administration - Network Administration - Internet and Intranet Administration and design - Technical support and consultation (PC Based)

 

[JohnVogel]

Well... I am still running scandisk. I started it yesterday evening around 6 or so, and it's still running... over 18 hours... still running... I am wondering... why would it run so slowly in safemode? Is this a good thing? Is it possibly finding and fixing whatever problem might be causing defrag problems?

It is actually DOING something, but at such a slow rate it may be over 24 hours before it is even finished... Info:
Job Title - Systems Administrator
Key responsibilities -
Database management design and administration - Network Administration - Internet and Intranet Administration and design - Technical support and consultation (PC Based)

 

[cdogg]

Going to safe mode usually solves the Defragmenter problems by itself, but often times, you have to take it a couple steps further.

First, you need to go to the control panel where you'll find the icon for Power Options. Disable all power management features (including any sleep modes for the monitor & hard drive).

Second, turn off your screen saver. Right-click your desktop and go to properties. Set the screen saver to none.

Last but not least, do a CTRL-ALT-DEL and &quot;end task&quot; on every process except Explorer. Then try running defrag again. Forget about scandisk unless the Defragmenter tells you to.
~cdogg

&quot;The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.&quot;
- A. Einstein

 

[JohnVogel]

Thanks, cddog, I will try this tommorrow. It's about 3am and the scandisk has been running for about 33 hours, and still has 20,000 clusters to go. Tommorrow, when I get up, if it's not finished, I will just cancel it and try your suggestion. I did turn off the screen saver, but I didn't do the Ctrl-Alt-Del (end all tasks except for explorer), nor did I check the power management. Actually, isn't there some services in ME (I am an XP person, so I really don't know)that NEED to be running, or the computer will shut down? I know in XP if I end certain processes it will force a shut-down. If I end Explorer all it does is exit out of the Windows Desktop, and I can go to File-Run (On the task manager) and restart Explorer. I wonder if Millenium also has some services or programs which need to be running?

Well, thanks for the advice, will see what I can do tommorrow... I wonder if it might not just be easier to wipe the whole drive clean, reformat and reinstall... Info:
Job Title - Systems Administrator
Key responsibilities -
Database management design and administration - Network Administration - Internet and Intranet Administration and design - Technical support and consultation (PC Based)

 

[cdogg]

Yeah, hopefully you'll find a way to get Defragmenter to complete. I'm not sure about Windows ME's task manager. To be honest, most of my experience comes from working with Win95/98/2000. I'm assuming the task manager in ME is similar to 98?

When you hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, the dialog box should say &quot;Close Program&quot; at the top. If so, then this is like 98, and in that case, it should be OK to end task on everything except Explorer.

Good luck!! ~cdogg

&quot;The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.&quot;
- A. Einstein

 

[JohnVogel]

Thanks to cdogg and thatrenowned for their help. Unfortunately nothing I did seemed to help, so I am reformattting, and reinstalling. Thanks again for trying to help me figure this stupid thing out.. appreciate your time. Info:
Job Title - Systems Administrator
Key responsibilities -
Database management design and administration - Network Administration - Internet and Intranet Administration and design - Technical support and consultation (PC Based)

 

[cdogg]

One last attempt might be to download and install this program:

http://download.com.com/3000-2094-6771750.html?tag=lst-0-11

It's called Another Task Manager. It will show you every process that's really running in the background - Windows task manager won't show processing running as services. Best of all, it's free!

Of course, you could always invest in 3rd-party tools like Norton Systemworks which comes with better scandisk & defrag tools among other things... ~cdogg

&quot;The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.&quot;
- A. Einstein