# ccomputer problems **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 25, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867 "2002-10-25T18:13:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/1 "2002-10-25T18:13:44Z")
I just spent 2 hours scan disking and defraging this computer. Something is writing to the disk and I cannot figure what. I disabled everything that had the option and set my screen options to 60 minutes. I have limited computer skills so its probably something I haven’t thought of or don’t know how to do. The guy that upgraded this computer noted the problem but didn’t do anything about it.Something about windows I think. Its taking longer and longer to scan and defrag. How do you find whats writing all the time??? Any ideas or instructions would sure be appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/2 "2002-10-25T18:33:31Z")
Wow Don’t know what happened . Tuba would you please deleat one of these posts and insert it in the appropriate forum? I started to post in GQ but got here instead. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/3 "2002-10-25T19:49:57Z")
Did you run scandisk from DOS or Windows? If the latter you should reboot in DOS and enter **scandisk c: /surface** at the prompt. This will scan the entire surface of your hard drive, and any bad clusters will be marked with Bs on the diagram. If there are any you should back up your data immediately and get a new hard drive. The Windows version of scandisk is comparatively unhelpful and doesn’t give this kind of feedback. You can also download diagnostic programs from most of the major drive manufacturers’ websites. These are your best bet if your drive is formatted with NTFS. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/4 "2002-10-25T19:57:23Z")
What version of Windows do you have? Sometimes it helps to run ScanDisk and Defrag in Safe Mode. You do this by rebooting (restart) and holding down the F8 key at the same time. It’ll bring up a little white-on-black menu, and you put in “Safe Mode”. Then it brings up the Desktop looking weird, because it’s running with only the bare minimum–everything else is switched off. Then you do Scandisk and Defrag. Then after you’re done with ScanDisk and Defrag, you restart again to bring the desktop back to where it’s supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/5 "2002-10-25T23:06:01Z")
This is a common problem with Windows. Defrag sometimes runs indefinitely, and Scandisk keeps restarting. Safe Mode, as mentioned, sometimes helps. If you can’t get it to work in Safe Mode, get this program called Power Defrag. It’s awesome (YMMV) and easily fixes this common Windows error. Go to [http://www.download.com](http://www.download.com) and do a search for “Power Defrag” for your version of Windows or click this link: [http://download.com.com/3000-2086-10134739.html?tag=lst-0-1](http://download.com.com/3000-2086-10134739.html?tag=lst-0-1) ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/6 "2002-10-25T23:08:02Z")
Addendum: Forgot to mention that Power Defrag does a Scandisk operation as well. ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/7 "2002-10-26T04:32:47Z")
Thanks all. its windows 95 Scan disk was run from windows. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/8 "2002-10-26T13:45:31Z")
What is writing to the disk? That could be a few things, but you need to give more info, what kind of computer is this? how fast & how much memory? If you don’t have enough memory, windoz is always writing to the disk cause it has to use the swap file becuz there isn’t enough physical memory. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/9 "2002-10-27T05:43:08Z")
Were you connected to the Net? ---
**Author:** ![splatterpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@splatterpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/splatterpunk)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/10 "2002-10-27T14:20:14Z")
> [@](#): > > The guy that upgraded this computer noted the problem but didn’t do anything about it. What did he upgrade? Did it have anything to do with Office XP or Publisher 2002? ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/11 "2002-10-29T03:12:00Z")
- - - Do note: the Windows defragger runs very, very slow. For the first 20-30 minutes, it only moves single packets at a time. The Norton Utilities one runs way faster and has more options besides. ~ ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/12 "2002-10-29T05:38:23Z")
Its a Basterdized gateway. New mother board New amd Athlon Thunderbird 700 mhz CPU New S3 Savage 4 video card New 32X CD Rom New 250 W pwr supply New 64MB SDRAM AMD Athlon 192 MB Ram System resources says its 61% free—whatever that means ---
**Author:** ![Obvious\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Obvious\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obvious_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/13 "2002-10-29T06:35:40Z")
Chances are its something running in the background that is writing and defrag has to restart repeatdly to adjust to the changes. Hit Control+Alt+Delete and end everything except Explorer and Systray (I think). And make sure theres nothing in the taskbar. Especially stop any anti-virus programs and screen savers. Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/14 "2002-10-29T07:16:50Z")
I have this problem, and second **Obvious Guy** ’s post. I have to Ctrl+Alt+Delete and end all tasks except Explorer, then it runs ok. ---
**Author:** ![F.Prefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cc9497/32.png) [@F.Prefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.Prefect)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/15 "2002-10-29T15:50:11Z")
I would also check to see if you had anything in the Run= line of you win.ini, check your autoexec.bat file for anything unusual, and go to start, run, and type in msconfig, and click on the startup tab, if you have a computer savy friend send him a screenshot (ctrl + print screen) or make a physical list and post it here. Does it seem your system takes an unusually long time to boot? ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/16 "2002-10-29T16:16:18Z")
Scandisk and defrag won’t really help you here if there is some program starting up with your PC. With your system resources that low it can mean you have stuff loading at startup you don’t necessarily want. With Windows 95 its a little tougher to get at startup programs, you will need to edit your registery. BE VERY CAREFUL HERE, DAMAGING YOUR REGISTERY CAN CAUSE LOTS OF PROBLEMS: Start, Run, type in REGEDIT Navigate to: HKEY\_Local\_Machine SOFTWARE MICROSOFT WINDOWS CURRENT\_VERSION RUN Inside the run key will be one spot programs can be run at startup. Some of that stuff you may need, others could be spyware or other junk you don’t. You can delete the programs you don’t need at startup (RealPlayer comes to mind amoung many, many others), but its preferable to have an expert handy just in case. Also, check under Programs/Startup (under your Start button) and make sure there’s nothing in there you don’t want too. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/17 "2002-10-30T05:40:42Z")
Bingo Real Player. I’ll bet thats it. I don’t feel comfortable messing with it myself. I’ll find some help and dump real player. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ccomputer-problems/133867/18 "2002-10-30T15:43:46Z")
You can do it pretty safely yourself, in the run box type: msconfig This should work for w95 to XP, but i don’t remember if W95 has it. Then select startup & find the realplayer start up & deselect it & restart your computer. Then if you want it again, just run msconfig again & select it, the box is there to do that again.