Need help with defrag & scan disk.

[LimuHead]

I'm trying to defragment my computer and keep getting the message that I need to run 'scan disk' to fix errors before I can defragment. When I run scan disk it just restarts scanning over and over again and won't scan the disk.

I think that maybe something is running in the background, but I have no idea how to find what it is. I've turned off whatever's in my system tray, but I still can't get it to work.

BTW, I'm using Windows ME.

Please help!

Thank you!

[Tom]

I have tried and tried, and I have found it utterly impossible to Defragment anything that's not running Windows XP. :P

[Rowdy Cowboy]

You might boot in safe mode and go into your config.sys and verify that everything is deactived with your virus protection. Then try running the scan disk and then defrag. T

I had a similar problem with Win98.

Good Luck,

CLR

[syphus]

Trying to defrag in safe mode is not really recommended; the IDE drivers will be running in slow, unbuffered compatibility mode.

Try ending all applications first (except Explorer) with CTRL+ALT+Delete.

[LimuHead]

Thanks for the help!

It took me a couple of days to find something that would work. The answer finally came from the Norton anti-virus site, and is exactly what syphus recommended. Here's what I learned at Norton:

To turn off programs that are running in the background you have to use ctrl-Alt-Delete. When the list comes up turn off everything but the system tray and Explorer (I use Juno, but left Explorer on JIC - maybe someone could explain if this was unnecessary?). You have to do this one program at a time.

After I did this, scan-disk would finally work. 4 hours later the disk was finally scanned. I was able to run defragment and 5-6 hours later my ordeal was finally over! I still had a problem of the internet logon screen popping up 2 or 3 times, but the scanning and defrag programs would return to the place where it was interrupted after I closed the logon screen. (Does anyone know how to turn that off?)

I'm definitely going to upgrade to Windows XP Home. While I was searching the internet for answers I found out that MS won't be supporting Windows ME as of June of this year.

Anywho, thanks all!

[syphus]

Support for Windows ME ended many years ago in reality; hardly anything is guaranteed to work on ME, but generally speaking Windows ME comes under the Windows 98 SE umbrella of "legacy support". It's remarkable that Microsoft continued official support for the OS for so long, considering the millions it must have cost them.

There's absolutely no excuse for running Windows ME after the release of Windows XP Home.