Recently I have encountered problems when attempting to run Disk Defragmenter as an error appears ‘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, then try defragmenting again’. I followed the instructions to run ScanDisk, which took 6 hours to complete, but Disk Defragmenter still won’t function correctly. The computer is running Windows 98. (more…)

It has been my practice to perform a ‘thorough’ Scandisk every week or two. I close all programs using CTL-ALT-DEL and ‘End Task’. This is a particularly tedious task, and I have been wondering if there is any way of doing it easier? Even more urgent recently I cannot run ScanDisk because some program is writing to the disk. How can I find out what program is writing to the disk and then remove the problem? Recently the system has gotten slow and started to hang, so I believe there may be some nasty on the machine. However, these troubles only started after going on ZoneAlarm. The computer is running Windows Me and is protected by Vet virus checker and ZoneAlarm Pro. (more…)

Since moving from dial-up to ADSL the Disk Defragmenter utility will no longer run to completion. Disk Defragmenter starts but continually starts again because the drive contents have changed. My guess is the problem is related to ADSL modem hanging off the USB port. The computer is running Windows 98. (more…)

When running Disk Defragmenter a message appears telling me the task cannot be completed because the disk needs to be repaired and I should run ScanDisk. However, ScanDisk seizes up after a few minutes of operating. I have followed your previous advice about closing all non-essential applications while running the ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter but this does not help. The machine is about 4 years old and seems to be running more slowly than previously - do I need to replace the hard disk? The computer is a Pentium II 233 MHz laptop running Windows 98. (more…)

In the ‘Performance and Maintenance’ control panel, I am running ‘Free up space on your hard disk’ to clean up temporary files. However, the window just sits there and the computer slows to a crawl with the CPU usage at 100%. The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)