BleepingComputer.com: WINDOWS 98SE HELP NEEDED

HELLO YOU FINE PEOPLE OF BLEEPING,

I SURE DO NEED SOME GUIDANCE. I HAVE RECENTLY TRIED TO RUN A THOROUGH SCANDISK AND DEFRAG ON MY DRIVE C. I AM ON A PENTIUM III GATEWAY 733... AND I AM RUNNING WINDOWS 98SE.

I HAVE APPROXIMATELY 12 GB DISK SPACE LEFT BUT SINCE SYSTEM IS SLOW I HAVE TO TRIED WHAT I KNOW TO DO... DISK CLEANUP, THEN THOROUGH SCANDISK TO BE FOLLOWED BY DEFRAG.

IN SCANDISK... IT LOCKS UP LOOKING FOR CORRUPT FILES TO AUTOMATICALLY FIX... ON TRYING THE REGULAR SCANDISK WITHOUT FIXING ERRORS... IT RAN OKAY.

AND IN DEFRAG... IT JUST GOES SO FAR AND RESTARTS ITSELF INTO A VERY VICIOUS CIRCLE.

I HAVE SPYSWEEPER, GRISOFT AVG ANTI-VIRUS AND HAVE RECENTLY UPDATED ALL WINDOWS, IE, JAVA, REAL... ETC... TO MAKE SURE I AM RUNNING OKAY.

I AM VERY AFRAID THAT I MIGHT HAVE A VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM.

CAN YOU SUGGEST ANYTHING?

AS ALWAYS, I LOOK FORWARD A RESPONSE.

SINCERELY AND GRATEFULLY, PATTY BURRIER

This post has been edited by pburrier: 11 April 2005 - 10:28 AM

Have you tried doing this from safe mode? That way, all the background programs are not running and Scandisk and Defrag usually run much better. To get into safe mode, tap the F8 key repeatedly while the system is booting up, usually after the memory check. Your video drivers will not be loaded either, so the screen will look quite a bit different. Good luck, Patty.

HI PATTY,
That's excellent advice from Herk. Remember to go to START, select SETTINGS, select CONTROL PANEL, click on DISPLAY, select the ScreenSaver tab, and select "none", otherwise every time the screensaver comes on, defrag will reset, and start over again. Be patient. If it's been a while, it may take a long time to show progress.
And press F8 once per second during reboot until the screen comes up (if it locks, try restarting again) giving you options. Select 3 Safe Mode, by pessing 3, then press Enter, and give it time to make some funny noises. When it settles down, OK the box that comes up, go to START, select TOOLS, click on Defragmenter, and select to defragment Drive C. Hope this helps.
--Catman

HI! Good input there;I use program POWER DEFRAG;which shuts down all other
programs while it scans disk &defrags;First shutdown is screensaver;then operates
without interuption-about 45 mins for total maintainence.@POWER DEFRAG......
strangely enough-&this is last time I recommend this.

Sorry,getting bit impatient with whatever...anyway Patty you are on right track to
improve speed/performance by disk cleaning-there's nothing wrong with the drive
by the sounds of it-(that's the clue to a bad drive;NOISE)&maintainance should be
routine.Includes removing junk/obsolete files,broken shortcuts,DLL's x wired etc,
& inaccurate registry entries.Defragging memory can help boost RAM & speed.
WHEW ok-where to start??With some freebies I'll list:Max MEM(AnalogX);FAST
Defrag(memory)& for real maintainence System Mechanic5 from Iolo Technology*
is an all in 1 tool.http://iolo.com/ NORTON SYSTEM WORKS will do it all too;
use it as indispensable toolkit for all systems,worth the investment.*1 mnth trial!