Disk CleanupDefragging (File Defragmentation)
(Thanks to Wayne Jones for these steps)
What you need to do is run a program called SCANDISK -- located in the same place as the Defrag program. What has probably happened is that you have a couple of lost or crosslinked files. Scandisk will fix them and then you can run defrag.
One hint -- before you run these two programs, close everything and turn your screen saver off. Do this:
1. Right click on an open space of your desktop.
2. Select PROPERTIES
3. Select SCREENSAVER
4. Select NONE for the screen saver.
5. Select APPLY
6. Select OK
7. Press CTL-ALT-DEL
8. Highlight any selection EXCEPT Explorer and Systray
9. Click on END TASK
10. Repeat 7, 8, and 9 until the only programs left are explorer and Systray.
11. Click on START
12. Click on PROGRAMS
13 Click on ACCESSORIES
14. Click on SYSTEM TOOLS
15. Click on SCANDISK
16. After SCANDISK is finished, repeat 11-15, selecting DEFRAG rather than Scandisk.
17. When finished with both programs, restart the computer.
When defragging your hard drive, you may get the error that the program has restarted 10 times. This is caused by something running in the back ground. In order to take care of the errors, 1) be sure that any screen savers are turned off. 2) Press Ctl, Alt, Del to bring up the window where you can turn off any programs running. The only thing that should show in that window will be Systray and Explorer. All others, highlight and End Task. Now go to Start, Run and enter Scandisk in the open line, then press enter. Before starting the Scandisk, click on the thorough and auto repair (or fix). Start it and step back. Don't move the mouse or any other disturbance as anytime windows writes to the disk, scandisk will start over. If you cannot get through a full scandisk this way, reboot windows and hold down the Control key. Select option 3 (Safe mode) and bring up windows in that mode. Now do the same for scandisk as above, except, there shouldn't be anything addition running in the CTL,ALT,Del window. If there is (other than the required two), end those and then go to start and do as above.
Its possible that your RoadRunner (I presume that RR is roadrunner as I have it as well) is polling your machine. Also, are you running a firewall?. Either of these can cause a disk activity that will keep defrag from running. Your only solution is to do the defrag from the safe mode.
Yes, turning off programs in the CTL,ALT,Del window is only temporary.
Don't worry, windows will *definitely* turn them back on the next time you boot. (It won't let you permanently shut them down that easily)
The easy way to remove those files that windows considers "Junk" is to go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. It will ask which drive ( I would imagine that it would be "C"). Next it will offer a set of check boxes to remove temp files, internet cache files, recycle bin files and downloaded program files. These can all be checked and let windows do the automatic cleaning. It will let you know how much space will be gained.
Beyond this, it takes a fair knowledge of Windows to selectively remove items.
There is one other way that you can eliminate files that you don't use and windows installed in a typical installation. Go to Control Panel, Add/remove software, Windows tab. By clicking on each item and then going to the detail button, you can see what all has been installed. There are probably a number of Themes that windows installed. You can remove these selectively or as a group by clicking on the boxes to remove the check marks. If you are not using the Accessibility set, you can uncheck that. On the others, be sure to look at the description before you uncheck. You can click once on an item and you will see a description of that one.
No Safe Mode
Before I started to Defrag I wanted, as was recommended, to get into Safe Mode. My instructions say to click on Start, the click Shut down, then click restart, click ok and then press and hold the CTRL key until the Microsoft windows startup Menu appears. It also says on some computers you can use F8 instead of the ctrl key. With some other systems, F5 may be necessary instead.
I tried each of these twice, no effect. My computer ( A Gateway which has Windows ME) simply marches through the restart process uninterrupted.
It sounds as if your access to the menu is turned off. There is a utility called TweakUI that was available on the original Win98 (but not on the SE or ME) and can be downloaded from Microsoft. It will allow you to set your menu access so that you can use the F8 or Ctl keys for getting to the menu where you can start in safe mode. You can download TweakUI from
http://www.annoyances.org/win98/features/tweakui.html
read the Readme file and it will show up in your control panel.