16 replies to this topic

[MLSA]

Hello, I regularly defrag the hard drive (1x/mo) and use the windows clean-up tool (weekly). A friend told me to also intall CCleaner to help keep the system operating at peak. I've done that on three of my machines. Seems to work great! Trouble is with one of my machines, when I tried to run disk defragmenter the system seems to get stuck at

defragmenting 3% Moving File _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE

The system does not lock up, as I can choose pause, resume, stop etc... I have tried this three times now and each time it's been hours and there is no activity. The latest ran 14 hrs and stopped at above. Normally, I can barely hear the hard drive working away when the defrag is in process and it's done in 15-20 minutes (if that). I've tried re-booting but no luck getting past this. System seems to be working fine, but can't defrag drive now.

I assume since running CCleaner, it's done something to the registry which is preventing me from running the defrag. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

[hazelnut]

Hello MLSA and welcome to the forum

Have you tried doing a defrag in safe mode?

[krit86lr]

MLSA, on Sep 24 2006, 10:04 AM, said:

I assume since running CCleaner, it's done something to the registry which is preventing me from running the defrag.

More than likely not, but someone here still might be able to help you out. Definitely try Hazelnut's Safe Mode idea first. If that doesn't work let us know, and provide us with some more information. Are you defragging from an administrator account, percentage of hard drive free space, and what is your operating system?

Good luck! Keep us posted!

[Andavari]

Rather it can fix it or not from locking up Dial-a-fix in the Tools section can reinstall Defrag, of course if the DLL files on the hard disk are corrupt you may need to extract them somehow from the original Windows install CD.

Edit:
Also sometimes a messed up prefetch folder can cause Defrag to fail or not work at all, Dial-a-fix can also fix the prefetch folder in the Tools section using Process Idle Tasks, or you can do this via Start->Run by using this command:

%windir%\system32\Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

[MLSA]

hazelnut, on Sep 24 2006, 03:56 PM, said:

Hello MLSA and welcome to the forum

Have you tried doing a defrag in safe mode?

No, and I don't know how to do that. Can you help? OS is Windows XP Pro. Thanks.

[TheFiresInTheSky]

SAFE MODE
as the computer boots up, keep pressing F8.
it will take you to a menu where you can choose how to boot up.

[Andavari]

Note, that that and other registry files can be defragged during system bootup with Sysinternals PageDefrag.

[MLSA]

krit86lr, on Sep 24 2006, 04:18 PM, said:

More than likely not, but someone here still might be able to help you out. Definitely try Hazelnut's Safe Mode idea first. If that doesn't work let us know, and provide us with some more information. Are you defragging from an administrator account, percentage of hard drive free space, and what is your operating system?

Good luck! Keep us posted!

admin account, yes

percentage of free space, 28.2g

os, win xp pro

thanks for the help, just need ot know how to do defrag in safe mode, waiting for hazelnut to reply.

wow, such great help here from so many. I am getting answers before I even finish typing! Thanks to all, I will try defrag in safe mode first.

[MLSA]

TheFiresInTheSky, on Sep 24 2006, 06:15 PM, said:

SAFE MODE
as the computer boots up, keep pressing F8.
it will take you to a menu where you can choose how to boot up.

I guess I am brain dead, I can't seem to figure this out. Do I press and hold the F8 button or continuously press and release?

[hazelnut]

Don't panic!

When you turn on your computer just keep tapping F8 as if you were typing until an option comes up on screen to load in safe mode.Use your arrow keys to select this. Then when it's all on screen, just a basic screen, go to where you normally go to run the defrag.

[TheFiresInTheSky]

theres also an option to click on administrator as a user.
you should do that but its not necessary.
that would limit out the chance of there being corrupt registry strings/keys on your name, which may be able to stop you from defragging.

[MLSA]

hazelnut, on Sep 24 2006, 06:45 PM, said:

Don't panic!

When you turn on your computer just keep tapping F8 as if you were typing until an option comes up on screen to load in safe mode.Use your arrow keys to select this. Then when it's all on screen, just a basic screen, go to where you normally go to run the defrag.

Thanks!

[Oliver]

forget about working around the problem, (Admin-Accounts / Safe-Boots etc.).

I assume, you are actually using the integrated WindowsXP-Defragger - that one definately causes problems sometimes, even with its own nature Windows-files.

I can recommend an alternative defragmentation-program that is actually freeware and that works on "cmd" - Basis:


http://www.dirms.com...rms_service.asp


after installation, open a prompt, find the directory where you have installed the program and type "dirms c" for c is in this case your drive that has to be defragged... (works only on NTFS-Partitions)...

concerning my opinion, the program is quite slim, reliable and doing a much better job as the Windows® Defrag, eventhough it is not working below the general API of Windows...


Oliver

[YoKenny]

Quote

Power Defragmenter GUI 2.0.125

Power Defragmenter is based on Sysinternals defragmentation "engine".

Basically its just a very advanced GUI for the Sysinternals core application which takes defragmentation process to a whole new level.

Very high defragmentation speed, efficiency and ease of use.

http://www.majorgeek..._GUI_d4647.html

[MLSA]

YoKenny, on Sep 25 2006, 12:20 AM, said:

http://www.majorgeek..._GUI_d4647.html

I could not get this darn thing to boot in safe mode so I went this route. Everything seems to be working just fine.

Thanks to everyone!

[pwillener]

Another pretty good tool for defragmenting is Diskeeper Lite, available from http://www.majorgeek...ad.php?det=1207

[TeeJay3800]

My personal favorite is O&O Defrag 2000.

O&O Defrag 2000