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Something blocking deframenter in W98SE.
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Posted by: ifpr
I've been trying to defragment for a week now and can't get it to work.
For several days last week I had a lot of trouble getting Windows to start. I kept ending up in "Safe Mode" and almost always could get Windows to start by simply restarting from "Safe Mode." I also couldn't run scandisc except in "Safe Mode" but defragmenter won't run in "Safe Mode" either. I do not get the "defragmenter has had to restart xx times, a program may be writing to the drive..." message. Scandisc simply stops at 0% and sits there. I've left it overnight a couple of times.
I suspect McAfee's Security Center though I've made a point of doing everything short of uninstalling it to get it shut down. I've run a program called Windows Inspector to try to make sure all programs were shut down but have had sudden McAfee warnings about what it was doing though no McAfee programs showed as running either in the "ctrl, alt, delete" box or on the Windows Inspector program.
Any suggestions for a system scanner that will tell me what's running "in the background" and is preventing defragmenter from working? I'm going to cancel the McAfee subscription but in the meantime I'm not about to leave my computer without an anti-virus program. Those bugs are everywhere! Nothing like clicking on a link and finding you've downloaded a trojan horse as the web page opens.
Here's my system info:
W98SE
500m piii
512MB ram
Dell XPS T500
This all started, now that I think about it, when Photoshop 6 froze up trying to save a "liquify" action. It's never been the same since.
Thanks much,
AE
Posted by: redwench
there are some task list managers wandering around, mostly for sale. theres a trial version of advanced administrative tools that can list, terminate process, locate and run uninstall strings, and it can even go through registry entries if you need to. there are also seperate scandisk programs that you might be able to get to run defrag wont work if scandisk doesnt.
just what websites are you visiting that you consider a trojan to be not only reasonably likely, but that it will be able to get past your firewall?
Posted by: ifpr
About once a month I'll be browsing, usually joke sites but also "adult content" sites, and McAfee will light up saying JS tracker something or other trojan is in Temporary Internet Files and has been quarantined. Occasionally e-mails will also manage to download something to temp files but that hasn't happened in a while.
I regularly run adaware and spybot, usually keep my browser privacy settings set to accept no cookies, and, until now, I run scandisc and defragmenter weekly.
I was able to run scandisc in Safe Mode only. I'll run it right now and see if I can get it to work...
Posted by: C-Money
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Originally Posted by ifpr
About once a month I'll be browsing,.. "adult content" sites...
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Naughty! prOn is notorious for carrying viruses, scumware, & trogans.
Try AVG as a replacement.
It doesn't run in Safe Mode though...
Posted by: jrpm
Do you run your defrag with the computer on a network (even in safe mode?)
And do you have the MS Office indexing service running (it can get turned on by default/accident very easily, such as during patches, etc.)
I have had similar problems with my W98 laptop. I disabled the service, kept it off the network and let the defrag run overnight. That cleared up the problem. I did not turn the indexing back on and do the defragging offline, and have not had the problem since.
Posted by: Ocean
first off, never use internet explorer to browse porn. get firefox. link in sig.
run spybot search and destroy to clean the bas stuff from your pc. link in sig.
download [http://webpages.charter.net/ocean/HijackThis.exe] to eliminate unwanted startup programs and other reminants.
finally, windows 98 defragmenter really sucks ass, instead use diskeeper (http://www.defragmentation.com/default.html)
consider having 2 partitions, one small for windows and programs, and another larger for stored content; mp3s, movies, porn videos, etc. then only defrag the smaller windows partition.
Posted by: ifpr
Let's see, kind of overwhelming but I'll try to answer everyone...
At least once a week I run adaware and spybot. I also regularly run McAfee's virus scan. Gotta get rid of that piece o' crap, though. It uses way too much resources.
I don't have a porn video collection! I really don't think that's got anything to do with this unless something has been installed that is out of touch of the above mentioned programs. Considering that McAfee autoupdates daily (had to rein that sucker in to once a day instead of once every five minutes which is the default) and I always check for updates on adaware and spybot. What bugs me is how that part of McAfee was running after I'd shut down all running processes I could see in the "close program dialogue box" as well as in the Windows Inspector window.
Anyhoo, I managed to run Scandisc last night in normal mode and then, low and behold, I was also able to run Defragmenter. It restarted a couple of times but not until it was more than halfway through so it did manage to finish up overnight. So it seems to have sorted itself out for now.
This computer has a SCSI drive for recording music and I'm not sure about partitioning it. It's only 18GB and it runs at 10k rpm so it doesn't take it more than a couple of hours to defrag even when it's full. Usually I store stuff on an external USB drive and only put it on the SCSI drive when I'm working on it. Perhaps when I can finally afford a laptop and I reformat this one and only use it for recording and other off-line uses this kind of crap will stop. In the meantime I'll take some of your suggestions for browsers and stuff to heart.
I'm still looking for a deep scanning program that will tell me everything that's running on my computer. When recording a live track (especially when I'm working on very long cuts) the last thing I want is some hidden program writing to the hard drive. I can record four tracks at once and I don't want competition for resources while I'm at it.
Thanks all!
AE
Posted by: redwench
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Originally Posted by redwench
there are some task list managers wandering around, mostly for sale. theres a trial version of advanced administrative tools that can list, terminate process, locate and run uninstall strings, and it can even go through registry entries if you need to.
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Posted by: it_waaznt_me
Same thread again ..???
Posted by: ifpr
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Originally Posted by redwench
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GodDAMN! that was helpful.
Has this thread devolved into board regulars posting vague "not again" posts thinking everyone in the world should have read every single post ever?
I searched these forums with at least ten different combinations of terms before posting. The only even vaguely salient thread I found was about Windows XP and I had already done everything suggested in that thread and more. Most of my searches resulted in nothing. This being said, what exactly is the point of the last post before this? Are you (it_waaznt_me) insinuating I'm a f***ing idiot for not finding the pertinent thread which came before?
And oddly enough the problem was solved by the passing of time, not any advice I got here. Not that that makes this site any less good of an idea. It really is. But I just thought I'd point out that if I weren't so thick skinned I'd be annoyed at it_waaznt_me's post and I'd probably look elsewhere in the future for help, thereby reducing the chances I would donate money or something nice like that.
In my opinion a "newbie" should be treated with respect and explicit detail and links as they'll send him or her away and might actually help them which is nice. "Same thread again ..???" is just internet masturbation. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I'm not about to read every single thread on this board after trying to find the answer by searching. I shouldn't have to. The only kind of person that extensively reads a forum like this doesn't need any help with their computer so why the hell would you expect someone that needs help to have read this whole forum?
DUHHHHH!!!
Not that this rant will stop you from being a p**** but I thought I'd point it out.
By the way, Redwench, if you capitalize a brand name it makes it easier to tell the difference between it and a type of thing. This is the internet, after all, where few people actually understand the way the English language is supposed to work so unexplained references to arcane things is de rigeur . For all I knew "advanced administrative tools" was a category of programs. Didn't bother to search for it as the problem had solved itself.
Thanks again to everyone else. This is a cool idea.
Posted by: Ocean
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Originally Posted by ifpr
GodDAMN! that was helpful.
Has this thread devolved into board regulars posting vague "not again" posts thinking everyone in the world should have read every single post ever?
I searched these forums with at least ten different combinations of terms before posting. The only even vaguely salient thread I found was about Windows XP and I had already done everything suggested in that thread and more. Most of my searches resulted in nothing. This being said, what exactly is the point of the last post before this? Are you (it_waaznt_me) insinuating I'm a f***ing idiot for not finding the pertinent thread which came before?
And oddly enough the problem was solved by the passing of time, not any advice I got here. Not that that makes this site any less good of an idea. It really is. But I just thought I'd point out that if I weren't so thick skinned I'd be annoyed at it_waaznt_me's post and I'd probably look elsewhere in the future for help, thereby reducing the chances I would donate money or something nice like that.
In my opinion a "newbie" should be treated with respect and explicit detail and links as they'll send him or her away and might actually help them which is nice. "Same thread again ..???" is just internet masturbation. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I'm not about to read every single thread on this board after trying to find the answer by searching. I shouldn't have to. The only kind of person that extensively reads a forum like this doesn't need any help with their computer so why the hell would you expect someone that needs help to have read this whole forum?
DUHHHHH!!!
Not that this rant will stop you from being a p**** but I thought I'd point it out.
By the way, Redwench, if you capitalize a brand name it makes it easier to tell the difference between it and a type of thing. This is the internet, after all, where few people actually understand the way the English language is supposed to work so unexplained references to arcane things is de rigeur . For all I knew "advanced administrative tools" was a category of programs. Didn't bother to search for it as the problem had solved itself.
Thanks again to everyone else. This is a cool idea.
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glad we could help
Posted by: Spider
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Originally Posted by it_waaznt_me
Same thread again ..???
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Like ifpr said, not cool. This particular forum is for helping, not bitching about multiple posts with similar problems. You needn't be a dick about someone asking for help.
I expect you won't post as such again.
Also, ifpr, I'm glad your problem fixed itself. However, if in the future you have a problem with another member's posts, I hope you will just drop a PM to myself or another of our moderators instead of posting a diatribe. For future reference, that is. No harm, no foul. 
Posted by: it_waaznt_me
Aray ... How come ...? I didnt meant any offence to the author .. And I wasnt mocking or something .. it was just a surprised response ..
I am ready to apologize to him if he was offended by any mean ....
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Btw ..ok .. leave it ..
Posted by: C-Money
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Originally Posted by ifpr
By the way, Redwench, if you capitalize a brand name it makes it easier to tell the difference between it and a type of thing.
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In most cases she doesn't use capitalization or punctuation. (It's her TM.)
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Originally Posted by ifpr
Didn't bother to search for it as the problem had solved itself.
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Just in case this topic ever comes up again, could you clarify how you solved the problem?
Posted by: ifpr
I really wish I could tell you what exactly fixed it.
Every day I updated everything I was using from anti-virus to media programs, I kept trying to shut everything down and run it and kept getting the same problem of which the two symptoms were:
1. Defragmenter would stop for at least 8 hours at 0% but would never give an error and
2. The taskbar would refresh every few seconds.
In Safe Mode Scandisc would run but Defragmenter would stop at 10%. No refreshing of the taskbar was noticed.
In Normal Mode in the Close Program dialogue box no programs would show but obviously something, somewhere was writing to the hard drive.
During this period I was running my adware products (adaware and spybot) at least once a day, I deleted my internet history, temp files, emptied the Recycle bin, tried it with the F: Drive disconnected, and on and on. Then the other day I was checking this thread to see if any other help had been posted and realized I hadn't tried to run defrag that day so I logged off, shut down everything I could see, and Defragmenter worked.
So I still don't know what was writing to the HD that caused this but at least it appears to have stopped. Defragmenter did restart a couple of times before I went to bed but it was after more than half of the drive had been defragmented and when I woke up it had done its thing.
So my solution is to clean up everything, keep updating, and keep trying. Pretty lame. Kind of like when the doctor tells you to "try to keep off that foot."
Someone suggested earlier that there was no need to defragment the data storage portion of my computer but doesn't defragmenting speed access? I'm often working with a bunch of audio files at once, often writing to two while reading from another five to twenty. Doesn't a defragmented disc read more smoothly than not?
And as long as I'm leaving diatribes in this thread...
I still think people should use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation on the web. How much time does it really save to not press the shift key at the beginning of every sentence and before you type a name? Or what is saved by typing "ur" instead of "your?" Do people type "your" instead of "you're" because it's fewer letters? It may have made sense to use fewer characters when typing way back in 1985 when storage was measured in kb... maybe... but there's no good excuse these days unless you're being charged by the character for internet access. But I doubt most people that you see posting on message boards and sending e-mails are accessing the internet from a hut on a hill in the desert 50 miles from their own hut or are using their cel phone. ... What was my point? Oh, yeah. Spelling and stuff. Let's get with it, kids, before all our brains liquify and ooze from our left ears. That will be nasty and brutish and we all know that ain't good.
Thanks again!
Posted by: C-Money
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Originally Posted by ifpr
How much time does it really save to not press the shift key at the beginning of every sentence and before you type a name?
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On an IM, time is everything. 
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Originally Posted by ifpr
Or what is saved by typing "ur" instead of "your?" Do people type "your" instead of "you're" because it's fewer letters?
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Actually "you" is becoming an archaic word. I can see "ur" replacing your in the near future.
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Originally Posted by ifpr
...but there's no good excuse these days unless you're being charged by the character for internet access.
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Shssss! <Whispers> don't give those IP's anymore ideas.
Posted by: ifpr
Problem is that there is a word "ur" already. It's also a prefix meaning "prototypical" (ur-woman means the ultimate example of woman-ness, etc) and a city in the Bible. So... let's start spelling properly, shall we? Thanks.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ur
Posted by: Ocean
they do charge by the letter. no one ever used text messaging?
Posted by: Shalome
What kind of crappy text messaging do you have that charges by the letter? I get charged 10 cents per message, and each message can have 500 characters -- and THAT's high, compared to the plans I'm thinking about switching to. T-Mobile offers 300 messages for $3 and 1000 for $7.
Posted by: RAcastClarke
Come on now, people.
We're straying off-topic.
Uh-oh...
EDIT: I once made a comment on the way red types as well. She uses punctuation, just not capitilization. Honestly, it is much faster to just type without using capital letters. It really doesn't affect legibility that much, either. Just a note. And my opinion.
Posted by: ifpr
If you know how to type there is no difference in speed between capitalizing and not. When you are typing the letter to be capitalized with one hand you are holding down the shift button with the other hand. Typing should be a smooth flow much like vomitting.
Posted by: Ocean
i type in chunks
Posted by: redwench
children, go to your rooms.
Posted by: ifpr
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Originally Posted by Ocean
i type in chunks
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Man, you need to chew your words better...
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