Unable to run scandisk

[Dan Mitchell]

Tried to run defrag on my new pc (gateway Athlon 1100, ME). Defrag said it could not proceed, due to disk errors which needed to be corrected in scandisk. Okeydokey, so I went into scandisk from a dos prompt (following Pete's suggestion on his tips page). Tried several variations but was not able to execute the Pete's dos command, so just did c:\scandisk, result being pretty much what I would have gotten in windows, I think. Was taking forever & kept saying "scandisk has had to restart 10 times due to *something* writing to the hard drive, do you wish to continue?". So, I went into safe mode, figuring nothing else would be running. A ctrl/alt/delete said only expolorer was running (attempting to close this will cause a reboot). Tried scandisk, same error. I can't imagine WHAT would be writing to the HD under safe mode which would be causing scandisk to keep having to start over again. Suggestions????

Thanks,

Dan

[bassman]

Hi Dan,
You are useing ME which has no DOS. It has a command promt window but this is not DOS and will not run most DOS commands. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif You need to make sure Anti-Virus and screensavers are OFF as well. See what is running with Ctrl/Alt/Del in normal mode.

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They say to eat before you go to the grocery store so you don't buy so much. That doesn't work at the liquor store does it!

[Dan Mitchell]

bassman said "See what is running with Ctrl/Alt/Del in normal mode."

Bassman-Thanks for the reply. A whole bunch of crap is running under normal mode, including Norton but I have no screensavers. That's why I though safemode would be better, only explorer. Wouldn't this be as good if not better than closing everything in normal mode? If the machine has no "regular" dos (which I understand is the case as you say) and explorer is interrupting scandisk, seems there's NO way to run it...?

Dan

[tjaymadison]

If the 'Norton' is Norton Anti-Virus, disabling it specifically via the Norton program
interface should allow ScanDisk and Defrag to run and complete without restarts.

It may not be listed or shown when you do the C-A-D .

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"I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
-- Charles Babbage, mathematician, computer pioneer, analytical engine designer (1791-1871)
-- (Question: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?')

"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand."
-- Homer Simpson

[Dan Mitchell]

Thanks for the replies. Got scandisk to run in safe mode using the standard setting (rather than thorough, which it wouldn't do). Had wanted to use thorough since the pc is new & I wanted to know if there are an HD problems, but it did run ok on standard & was able to defrag.

Dan

[bassman]

Dan, Hope you check this again. Explorer can not interupt your Scandisk or Defrag oporation. Explorer is Windows.All that stuff running in the backround may be unnecessary. You should take a good look at everything there and decide what you really need on. The more you turn off, the better your system performance. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif
IMHO Get rid of Norton.

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They say to eat before you go to the grocery store so you don't buy so much. That doesn't work at the liquor store does it!

[kayofcircles]

Website describing things you can turn off in StartUp Here (http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/Uncheck.htm)

Article I just sent my son for his new ME puter Here (http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2000121816095239?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=1#_Section1)

Just wanted to offer some moral support, Dan. Took about a month for us to get all the various problems worked out on our new puter, but haven't had any serious problems for the almost 2 years since.

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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.
-- Chinese proverb

[Dan Mitchell]

Thanks for the replies. I have pruned much of the startup crap already, eliminating a bunch of automatic MS Works junk I didn't need, MS money's "billminder" (xferred quicken from the old pc ;-) and other assorted/superfluous system hogs. Axing the running of Norton constantly is probably a good idea as well. Ironically, *I* have ADDED a couple things to hel me sort out the modem problems, Net Medic & Connection Pal. Both are useful for the time being anyway (am getting a USR hdwr modem soon). I still think a lot of this junk is a result of the general "dumbing down" of pc operation since I got my last pc & was last involved in providing end-user software support, about 5 years ago. Just a matter of sorting the wheat from the chaff to yield a "lean mean computin' machine" http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

I think a lot of this idiot proofing is actually counterproductive to producing a more knowledgeable user where the real neophyte is concerned, like putting everything you create in the same "my documents" so the less aware don't even know what's associated with what program just from the type of file it is, or the stock ME WE format that hides so much file info, or having IE search your whole HD when looking for a "favorite". Beginners may wonder, is it a web site, is it a document??? The way IE handles bookmarks is a primary reason I still use netscape, imperfect as it is. Many of these things don't seem terribly well thought out, but are jsut there in the name of having more "features".

Dan

[kayofcircles]

Dan: If you have gotten Netscape to work with ME, you're already doing far better than we ever did with 98. We tried several times, and got nothing but errors. (Thought that lawsuit at the time was probably right on target..cuz our Windows OS sure didn't seem to like Netscape.)

Also agree with what you said. My uncle just spent FAR too much money on a new puter with ME, and is too far away for me to go and "turn off" all the..er.."stuff" in StartUp for him which I really think is contributing to a lot of his problems. He is 77, and having to reconfigure his entire system to make it run better is beyond him.

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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.
-- Chinese proverb