My machine will not defragment, it will get up to 1% done then go back to 0% and start over. It will never get over 1% done no matter how long I leave it running.

Have you tried defragging in Safe Mode? This will elimanate many programs and applications that are trying to access files thus causing the defragmenter to start over. Be sure to run scan disk first (you can do this in safe mode, too.
Regards,
John

Thank you this seems to work fine. Why would it not be able to work in normal mode though?

When you log in to safe mode, Windows uses only those programmes absolutely necessary to run itself. In normal mode, all sorts of applications and Windows modules are constantly accessing files on your hard drive.
To do its job, defrag needs to have files left alone and unchanged as it moves them about; when a file is accessed, defrag is not sure if the file has been changed or not, so it begins again.

You may want to investigate using DiskkeeperLite (free); this is the original programme that MS uses in XP for disk defragmentation. The benefit of Diskkeeper is that it will run even when programmes are accessing files or you are working on the computer; the drawback is that it will only work in a manual mode and only do one drive at a time. It is also faster (PERHAPS not as thorough as the Windows version).
If you elect to use DKL, then use it exclusively, and do not use the Windows defrag programme. Below is a link to download it:

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/diskeeper-light.html


Hope this explains the constant restarts and provides a workable alternative.

Regards,
John

Hey noodle,
To add to jgweed's post, its also good to run a disk cleanup and scan disk bfore u defrag.
And i agree with the suggestion to switch to a third party tool like Diskeeper, even the Lite version is much better than the built in one, esp for Windows 98.