Win 98; defrag just sits there - not working

[docusk]

Back in time. My neighbour's son, home from uni, says computer is slowing down. Kit is a Dell latitude CPi, PII with 40Gb HDD running Win 98 SE. Not sure about the RAM but it responds quite fast.
Dad decided it needs de-fragging and tried that. It went to 1% and stopped, reverted to start and then 1% again and so on. He tried a scandisk but it wouldn't run so, shout for 'im next door.
I then entered at bootup and did a chkldsk and a scandisk even a surface scan which produced no faults. Had a look in the registry and took out the odd files left behind from a couple of uninstalls which left the computer asking for location of missing file etc.
Now all was well but, again defrag not responding, it would run up to 10% and then revert to the start.
I had found other posts here and from one of them, I took out all running apps except explorer and systray then restarted defrag. Still in a loop, up to 10% then it stays on 10%. I can see the blocks of clusters and the legend says 'reading drive information' and about 1/3 way down the blocks, it starts defragging, does about 25 rows (still reading 10%) then stops and restarts.
It's a few years since I moved to XP so my thoughts are a bit behind. I do have an old Norton system works here. Would it help to take Norton's defraggher and put it in here? I'm loth to do is as it was bought for XP I think.
Help please.
I'm about to run scandisk from windows again.

docusk

:eek: :confused:

[rmanet]

When defrag restarts like that it's usually because something has been written to the drive during the process - have you tried restarting in safe mode using F8, eliminating anything running in the background and doing it again?

[docusk]

Yes, it does say that but I thought by shutting down everything but explorer and systray that would do it. I'll do as you say run it in safe mode.

docusk

[Sterling_Aug]

Win98 defrag was well know for "frequent restarts".

Let it sit there and wait, and wait, and wait until it says it is finished.

[Rocketmech]

Diskeeper Lite is a better choice for those using W98 .

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207

[Baddog]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/238165SYMPTOMS

loadTOCNode(1, 'symptoms');When you run the Disk Defragmenter tool in Windows 98, you may receive the following error message: Error Defragmenting Drive C

Windows cannot finish defragmenting this drive because it has encountered a problem. Click Help and carry out the instructions for running Scan Disk, and then try defragmenting again.

ID No:DEFRAG00205
http://support.microsoft.com/library/images/support/kbgraphics/public/en-us/uparrow.gif (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/238165#top)Back to the top (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/238165#top)

CAUSE

loadTOCNode(1, 'cause');This issue can occur if the Applog file in the hidden C:\Windows\Applog folder is damaged. http://support.microsoft.com/library/images/support/kbgraphics/public/en-us/uparrow.gif (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/238165#top)Back to the top (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/238165#top)

RESOLUTION

loadTOCNode(1, 'resolution');To resolve this issue, follow these steps: 1.Right-click an empty area on the desktop, and then click Properties.2.On the Web tab, click Folder Options.3.Click Yes.4.On the View tab under Hidden files, click Show all files, and then click OK.5.Click Start, point to Find, and then click Files or Folders.6.In the Named box, type applog, click C: in the Look in box, click to select the Include subfolders check box, and then click Find Now.7.Double-click the Applog folder to open it.8.On the Edit menu, click Select all.9.On the File menu, click Delete, and then click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the deletion.

[docusk]

Manet had it right. I did just that and it started and kept going. Wait & wait & wait is also very true!
However the lad is pleased as it certainly speeded it up. The startup needed some attention and there are just 2 items in there, he can load the others when he needs them and if it's a chore, he can check them again in msconfig, he now knows how to do that. Desktop needed to be adjusted and he now has a fairly uncluttered desktop with similar files in separate folders and next week, before he goes back, I'm going to show him how to edit the registry (with all precautions of course)
Still, thanks again for all your help everyone, Andrew thanks you as well.

docusk

:t

[Imperion1]

Replace the 98 defrag with the ME defrag.

Link:
http://p202.ezboard.com/fthecomputertechniciansfrm18.showMessage?topicID=5 2.topic

http://home1.gte.net/johnfull/n208.htm