Defrag causes random reboots: Help!

[Fosuco]

This is my first time defragging on my fresh install of win xp professional (sp1 installed). I go to defrag my 40gig drive with disk defragmenter and like 13% through it just restarts out of nowhere... almost like someone hit the reset button or something. Thinking this was just a problem with window's own defrag program, I installed norton systemworks 2002 and ran speeddisk: same effect.

Here are my system specs:

win xp pro sp1
p4 2.26 @ 2.26 (I went back to stock to make sure overclocking wasn't my problem)
Abit IT7 mobo w/ latest bios and chipset drivers
1 gig mushkin lvl 2 ram
maxtor 40 gig hd (os installed on this)
2 120gig wd special edition hds in raid0
geforce4 ti4600 (latest drivers from nvidia site)
audigy soundcard (with latest drivers)

Anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this?

Thanks

Fosuco107

 

[LiLithTecH]

Make sure you are not running any Antivirus programs when defrag is running.

Also, you may want to try running defrag in Safe-mode.

One thing I noticed in your configuration is the 1 gig of ram in Win98.
Did you adjust the swap file size or are you using the default?
If it is the default size for 1 gig, the swap file is ernonmous, which could
also cause defrag to hang.

 

[DaiShan]

How many watts is your PSU? How old is it? You are running a lot of hardware especially with those hard drives, random reboots can sometimes be attributed to a weak powersupply, or not enough power for all of your hardware. If you are running an intense application (defrag is intense for HDD's) you may not have enough power. I would suggest unplugging the two 120giggers and running defrag on the 40gig again, if it still reboots it probably is not power related.

 

[Fosuco]

So Far I have let windows XP Pro handle the size of my swap file... how big should I try setting it to?

Oh, and I have a 421 watt enermax power supply, so I think things on the power end are okay.

Thanks,

Fosuco

 

[ZYFER]

you should run a chkdsk repair on the hard drive, if there is an error on the drive it can restart when defragging. And Lilithtech it is running WIndows XP so that problems you are talking about is not an issue.

 

[Fosuco]

I'll try running chkdsk, but my drive isn't a month old. It does only lock up whenever I try to defrag the 40 gig though. I'm thinking the swap file size could be the problem. I just checked the size of my swap file: 1.5-3 gigs! What should I set it to since I'm running 1 gig of ram?

Thanks,

Fosuco

UPDATE: I just tried to run norton disk doctor on the 40 gig drive - it restarted the same way for no reason... so do you think there could be a problem with my hd?

 

[optimistic]

Yes, could be. You might have bad sectors in your hard drive.

 

[Smilin]

Yep, do a checkdisk /r

Also running a defrag will use a LOT of memory. If you have a bad stick/slot of memory that has gone previously undetected it would show up now, and in the manner you describe. Food fo though.

 

[Fosuco]

I have a 421 watt enermaxx ps.

Okay... here's an update:

I ran defrag in safe mode.... restart.
I ran defrag with 1 stick of ram out and then the other... restart both times.
I ran chkdsk in the recovery console and it did fix an error. However, after this I rebooted and ran defrag... restart.
I ran chkdsk again... it didn't find any more errors.
I changed the power plug that was going to my hd to give it a strand of its own and then ran defrag... restart.
I set my fsb back to 100mhz from 133 and ran defrag... restart.


LOL, I'm running out of things to do here. Anyone else have any ideas? If my hd was bad, would chkdsk let me know?

Thanks for all your responses so far, I really do appreciate it.

Oh, and on a sidenote I when I took out that ram I xp decided I should reactivate windows, but this time it made me call and sit on hold for 20 min to talk to someone to reactivate it :|

fosuco

 

[Fosuco]

I think my problem might be getting worse...

I just went to transfer a file from the 40gig drive to my raid0 setup... restart.

Can anyone recommend a hd diagnostic utility to determine if my hd is going bad? I just tried to run maxtor's software but it said something about line A20 in himem.sys already being initialized and then it wouldn't detect either of my hds. If my hd is busted, is it still possible to make an image of it to put on a new drive?

Thanks for your help!

fosuco

 

[Smilin]

With your troubles I'd suspect a controller is bad before the drive itself. Do you have any trouble defragging on the non-stripped drive? Also what raid controller are you using (promise raid + sb live! is bad sometimes)?

 

[Fosuco]

Well, I've got a Highpoint 374 raid setup on my mobo... i can defrag either of my raid partitions fine. The problem comes when I go to defrag my 40gig hd on a normal ide channel... (I think its sharing a channel with my dvdrom).