What would cause this feature to not function? Someone brought this up on another message board and I’d like to give him some ideas.
I have the same problem with my ancient computer runnign Windows Millenium so I’d be interested in hearing solutions too…
What didn’t happen, e.g. error messages? What OS?
If you mean it keeps restarting from the beginning, it’s because of background processes accessing the hard drive. You need to shut down any nonessential running programs (including virus scanners – make sure you’re not connected to the Internet first) before running the scan.
On my computer, it just hangs up and gets stuck. The same thing happens when I try to run “CheckDisk” (or maybe it’s Scan Disk. I’ve got to admit that I’ve never been very good about running those very often. Also, recently, “Shut Down” doesn’t complete power off the computer and I’ve been forced to manually turn off the power. (yeah, I know, I probalby hopelessly mistreat my computer)
tremorviolet
Do a ctrl/alt/del and end task on eveything but systray and Explorer. (You’ll have to keep doing a ctrl/alt/del until each process but systray and explorer are left)
Or alternately, try from safemode.
You may also want to make sure that the disk defragment service is running. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services, locate any disk-related services (technical term) and make sure they are started up. Might help. This is the solution if the program opens, but nothing happens when you hit the defragment button.
Cool, I’ll try that tonight when I get home. I hadn’t tried very hard to fix this yet but I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon when dougie_monty mentioned it.
Also, disable the screen saver.
IIRC, Norton antivirus will cause defrag to stop at 10% and restart, quit at 10%, restart and cycle this way until you give up.
The first thing to do is not use the POS defragmenter that comes with Windows 98 & ME. Download a free copy of Diskeeper Lite; it’s faster, more efficient, and it won’t lock up or restart.
I like to defrag from the command prompt. Reboot in Safe Mode with Command Prompt, type defrag c: and wait. Never had a problem.
Thanks to all; I’ll pass it on. 
…keeping in mind that there are no services on 98/ME.
if the hard drive is exceptionally full you will have to force a defrag(-f), and it will take a lot longer since it doesn’t have much in the way of a temporary place to put things while it rearranges your data.
Essentially, what RealityChuck said.
Although it’s easier to just use a 3rd party defragmenter software. I’ve found Power Defrag to be effective:
Ok, last night, I tried running “DiskKeeperLite” like Fear Itself suggested. Wow, there was an awful lot of red. Seemed to defrag OK but then when it finished, my entire computer froze up. It was late so I just manually turned it off and I’ll see what happens tomorrow. (fingers crossed) Thanks for all the advice.
Yeah, but since the OP didn’t tell us which OS he is using, I figured I’d through that out in case he (or anyone else) is running XP.