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Archiver > TMG > 2003-06 > 1055106845


From: Richard Brogger <>
Subject: Re: [TMG]Defrag hard drive
Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2003 16:14:05 -0500
References: <5.2.0.9.2.20030607221344.02b85b80@pop3.norton.antivirus><4.2.2.20030608151951.00a49520@pop3.norton.antivirus>


Evelyn Hendricks wrote:
>
> How long is it supposed to take to defragment an 9.2 GB hard drive? I have
> defraged mine before, but it had been quite a while since I did it. I
> started it about 6 o'clock last evening. At 2:30 in the morning it was
> still at it. It would get to about 20 %, then send a message that the drive
> had changed, read the file again and start over. It did this at about 10%
> to 20% increments until it had finished. I don't remember it doing it that
> way before. Also, I have never had a scan disk to complete on this computer.
> I have a Dell Dimension V400, running Windows 98 (4.10) with 48 % of my
> resources free. I have 384 M of ram.
> Is something wrong with my computer or is this normal behavior?
> Evelyn Hendricks

Hi Evelyn,

In my opinion your free resources should be higher and my guess is
that the problem there is related to the problem with defrag. not
completing. You have installed programs and they have taken too many
liberties with your computer by placing icons in your Systray. Look in
the lower right hand corner where the time is displayed. If you see
several icons, those programs are eating up your resources. They are
also trying to run while defrag. is running and that causes defrag. to
start over.

I suggest the following:
Click Start > Run
In the box that opens enter "msconfig", without qoutes, and click
[OK].
Under the General tab in System Configuration click [Create Backup]
When the backup is finished, select Selective Startup, go to the
Startup tab and uncheck everything except System Tray and, if present,
antivirus software.
Click [Apply] and [OK] and then [Yes] on the box that opens.

When the computer has rebooted, use your computer as before and check
your system resources, I expect that they will have improved a whole
lot. At the end of the day, run scandisk and then defragmenter. I
would guess that it will finish in about two hours. If it has to start
over, it is your antivirus program and that can be turned off during
the defrag.

As you work with your computer, you may have to some programs that do
not work as you expect. Go back to msconfig Startup tab and put a
checkmark for that program only. After the reboot, test that program
again. If it works okay, you checked the right item. Do not allow
icons in the systray just because the software put them there. Most
programs can be started easily by other means.

If you get into trouble, return to msconfig and click [Restore
Backup]. After the reboot, you will be back as you are now.

Richard Brogger

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