Defrag and scan disk

[Marmie]

I've heard a lot of different views about how often this should be done. Is it necessary to do once a week or is once a month ok? I am in an accounting office and this time of year the system is constantly working. We have about 18 workstations and the server. I've only been running these about once a month, sometimes once every two months. Any suggestions??

[Randy_tx]

I run Scandisk at least once a week (often two or three times) and Defrag once a month....there are no rules http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif ........Windows95/98 slows down a fair amount when the hard drive is more than 3% fragmented...which usually takes about a month or so of strong activity.

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Will XP save Me ?

[sea69]

I do BOTH, once a week ALWAYS.

Some people never do it, and then don't understand why they have so many BSOD's and PAGE FAULTS- and things get s l o w e r.

I agree with Randy that a HD only 3% fragmented can become slower, however- I think once a month is out of the question. Has to be once a week- if you're doing allot of accounting computations and files chances are you also should do it more than once a month. You would find also that the more often you do it, the faster it completes.

just my opinion. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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*another 'toaster' bites the dust*

[Paleo Pete]

I tend to agree with defrag more often in this case. It varies with type and amount of use, someone who just checks email and plays a few games can go a month or more and should be ok. In this situation with the type of wokload on these computers I would say once a week.

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[Marmie]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the input. I have started my regular maintenance, and hopefully it will keep things running smoothly.

[sea69]

good.. if something acts up, we will be here http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif



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*another 'toaster' bites the dust*

[Marmie]

For the most part I'm not running into any difficulty; however, a couple of pcs have stopped after 10% and restarted. Now, I have disabled all virus protection during the process, disabled the screen savers (if one), and tried a number of other ideas..... I have win95 and win98 o/s, when I go to run and type msconfig to disable any other 'stuff', it's works ok in win98, but it says the file isn't there on the 95 pcs. Can I copy the msconfig file from a 98 to 95 machine and will it work?
This sounds confusing... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif any suggestions????

Thanks!

[sea69]

did you ever get them to go past 10% yet ??

I think what you sak can be done, just don't remember how to explain it, but Pete or one of the others will be around. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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*another 'toaster' bites the dust*

[Marmie]

I'm still having a bit of a problem. I installed the ITweakU program, someone told it was really good. I've never tried it myself. Anyway, I tried running defrag from it on the machines I've had trouble with, but it didn't make any difference. One in particular, goes to about 15% now, and then restarts. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

[sea69]

I'm assuming that you have already run scan disk.

control, alt, delete everything except explorer and systray.

disable screensaver.

pause/disable task scheduler

temporarily disable/close anti virus apps.

make sure, as it's a networked pc, that there is no internet/intranet activity to 'wake up' the disk..(make it restart)like a file request from another station or ? Any disk activity can cause a restart.

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pending



[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 04-23-2001).]

[Paleo Pete]

Sea: Sorry, saw your note but got disconnected and forgot to come back and do the deleting. It's done.

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So many idiots, and only six bullets...
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[sea69]

thanks Pete

also I neglected to answer your question about msconfig in Win95:


Subject: Does WIN 95 have MSCONFIG utility?

Reply:
No WIN 95 does not have a MSConfig utility. However the WIN98 MS Config.exe will work just fine in WIN95. Just make him a copy of msconfig.exe and have him put it in his C:\Windows\System directory

I have not tried this personally, but it is said to be possible. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif


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pending

[Marmie]

Thanks for all the information. Haven't had a chance to try everything yet. Have been really busy at the office, so as soon as I can, I will let you know.

Thanks again.

[mjc]

There are also various startup managers available from the usual download sources, likeFreewareHome (http://www.freewarehome.org/) and Zdnet (http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/).

I have given up on Defrag and use McAfee's defragmenter, but when you are into multiple licenses for your into big bucks, there are also a couple of other tricks, like setting the shell=defrag in system.ini (can be edited from DOS edit_system.ini (space instead of underscore). I had my system.ini file setup like this for a while. Had 2 shell lines

Shell=explorer.exe (for normal operation)
;Shell=defrag.exe (to run defrag as the shell remove the semi-colon and put in front of the first shell line)


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mjc
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