I am having problems running the system tools. The other night we lost power; when I restarted the computer
the scan disk hung up and would not run. I tried the defragment tool, it would not work either..
Had to manually shut down the computer. Can you help me?
Thanks

Welcome to Bleeping Computer, idarose:

Try to run the tools from within safe mode:
(safe mode instructions below)

*Restart your computer.
*When the machine first starts again it will generally list some equipment that is installed in your machine, amount of memory, hard drives installed etc. At this point you should gently tap the F8 key repeatedly until you are presented with a menu.
*When you have the menu on the screen. Select the option for Safe Mode using the arrow keys.
*Then press enter on your keyboard to boot into Safe Mode.

What operating system are you using?(98, ME, or something else)
Do you get an error message?

Do you have System Restore enabled? Perhaps going back to a restore point before the power outage will resolve the problem, if running them in Safe Mode does not work.
Regards,
John

Thanks jgweed, and Joshuacat for your speedy replies. I am using the ME system.
I will try it in safemode and see what happens. Go from there..thanks.
Ge back in a few.
idarose

I ran the computer in SafeMode and the scan disk and defrag worked. Thanks so much. Now, tell me why it would not work in standard startup?

Is there something interferring? Do you need to see a Hijack This file?
Thanks again.
idarose

I am glad it worked in normal mode.

There could be something that is preventing Scandisk and Defrag from completing under normal mode. Before we proceed further, can you run the scans from within normal mode now. From your first post, you made it sound like scandisk/defrag would not work at all after a sudden power issue.

Is this the case, or was it just slow?

Let us know.

May I butt in with a comment or two?

Anything new running in the background will interupt the defrag and cause it to start over. Screensaver/AntiAV/Antispy/ et al. Is there anything new like this that wasn't there before when you could run defrag in reg. mode.

You guys are much more cyber savvy than me, but I didn't think System Restore was available in anything but XP. scanreg/ restore maybe but my win98-2 didn't have it nor my 2K Pro.

But I'm learnin' more everyday.

randyrayd: Feel free to jump in anytime. All of us are here to learn from each other.
Windows 98 does not have the System Restore feature, but Windows Millenium does.
See this - Description of the System Restore Utility in Windows Millennium Edition

Take care.

Joshua,

Scandisk/defrag still won't operate in Normal Mode. I shut down all the programs that were running except
Internet Explorer.

Any ideas how to get it going again?

I don't want to do a restore if I don't have to; because I have programs I don't want to reinstall again from the internet...slow dialup.

idarose

What exactly do you mean that it won't run? Do you get an error message?

By not running I mean it hangs up and will not do anything...
I cannot cancel or anything...have to reboot to get screen cleared.

Thanks, Joshuacat, for the info on ME and system restore.

idarose, you need to shutdown every program with ctrl-alt-del except Windows Explorer and systray. Any other program could be trying to write something to your disc and interupt.

I think the key here is that defrag stops responding, not starts over. Possibly the power interruption corrupted a file. Corrupted files, folders or bad sectors on the HD will cause defrag to hang up. We can rule out bad sectors since you did a scan disc in safe mode.

Set Windows to show all files. Windows Explorer>Tools>Folder Options>View tab>click either Show all files or Show hidden files and folders>Apply>OK.

Delete the Applog folder from C:\Windows, and then run the Disk Cleanup Tool. Click Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup. Select the drive C drive (if that is your primary drive) and then click OK.

Also completely disable your AV. (edit to say disable your AV when doing a scandisk or defrag).

rd

I would say it is corrupt file or files at is making it crash.