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Win98 ... some program running prevent scan disk and defrag

T

thereuare

Junior Member
I tried to run a ScanDisk and Defrag tonite so i used CTRL+ALT+DEL in order to stop all programs from running except for Explorer and Systray. Neither Defrag or ScanDisk could run due to something writing to the Hard Drive during the process.

I re-booted in Safe Mode and was able to accomplish both Defrag and ScanDisk but can't seem to figure out what's running in the background but not evident thru CTRL+ALT+DEL. Ran LavaSoft's Ad-aware and tried to scan disk again (after shuttig down all programs thru CTRL+ALT+DEL) but still couldn't get thru it.

Any suggestions on where to look for what's running in the background?

Thanks.
 
I could never get defrag and scandisk to run while in windows 98 either, unless in safe mode. I don't have any systems running win 98 anymore, but it would still be nice to know if somebody knows how to run scan disk and defrag without going into safe mode..
 
Yup, it's pretty much impossible without going into safe mode.

Keep tapping F8 during startup (before getting to any windows screens). A menu will pop up, choose option 3 to go into safe mode.
 
If you've had the same 98 install for three years, consider yourself very lucky. Then immediately format.
 
All my systems except one use 98se (the other is Win ME) and run scandick and defrag fine. Never had to go into safe mode.

So, the difference has gotta be some proggie you're running that I don't have.

I noticed that the MS auto update feature seems to default to check for updates every 5 minutes. Could that be it?
Or for that matter any other auto update software. Some of my business apps have it too. I ususally disable these in msconfig anyway. I'll look for my own d@mn updates when I want to.

EDIT: Run spybot and adaware first, maybe you picked up something recently that's doing some kind of activity in the background. If all else fails, go into msconfig and untick everything in startup you don't want. Then reboot. The ctr-alt-delet, I only bother with when some app freezes. Otherwise, It doesn't strike me as very effective.
 
Think i've done all the above.

I figure it's some program running in the background, especially since Scan Disk and Defrag 'reset' back to zero % after only 45 seconds or so.

I'll update Ad-aware and try again (and then try spybot).

Will update as to progress so feel free to add more ideas if anyone has 'em.

Thanks.
 
Some people have said that the defrag.exe from Win Me can be used to replace the one from w98SE. I have done that and it seems to work better. That can also be done with scandskw.exe as they are both statically linked programs (only one file - no .dlls). There are sevral sites around the web that have those files available for download (and some instructions) if you can't grab 'em from a friend.
. And from what I understand, those progs like to have at least 15% free space on each logical drive to work well.
.bh.
 
Here's what I have to do in my win98 to use norton's defrag:

I take my zonealarm firewall to lowest level, and launch winipcfg and 'release all'. Hope this helps.
 
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