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On Tue, 2 Jan 2001 13:47:52 EST,
[log in to unmask] wrote:
>With the millions of Windows users who regularly defrag their HD, it is very
>unlikly that the utility was the cause of your problem. More likely a
>hardware or configuration change, a dying hard disk, controller, etc. would
>cause this type of situation. Maybe some others can jump in here with
>opinions, but I would not want readers to think routinly using defrag has
>"any" chance of creating a problem.
Coincidentally, the following happened to me on New Year's Eve:-
I thought I'd run my weekly Scandisk and Defrag.
Scandisk reported no problems, Defrag chugged on and on.
THEN! Defrag said there was a problem on the disk and I
should run Scandisk. Eh?!? I did - and Scandisk just seemed
to get to one point and stop.
As I often do when things look wobbly on the 'puter, I
closed it down and re-booted. Error box comes up
before Windows starts and says Windows can't read drive C -
Abort/Retry/Cancel.
I hit cancel and got into Windows although little seemed to
work after that. Scandisk did! I put Scandisk onto manual
and watched it stop, falter, report a fault and ask if I
wanted an attempted repair, make the repair, move on to the
next cluster and.... repeat the cycle. My conclusion was
Scandisk was trying (in fact possibly succeeding) in making
the repairs but they took so long it looked like the
programme had seized. I cancelled it all out, started it
again and opted for all automatic. After 6 hours! Scandisk
completed its task.
I ran Scandisk again, this time in DOS mode (which
gives you some different graphics and a little more
information) and I now have 5 'bad clusters', but the
machine seems to run. I also have 684,032 bytes in bad
sectors but regular running of Scandisk seems to indicate
these aren't increasing.
When I originally ran Scandisk and Defrag, I closed
EVERYTHING down except Explorer and Systray. I have run
Defrag since and it went OK.
Just my two cents worth, but Defrag now has me running scared.
John.
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This message was compiled on 04/01/2001 06:52:17AM but only
despatched at the date and time shown in the Header Information.
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