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General discussion

Scandisk problems

May 31, 2005 6:17AM PDT

The other day I got caught up with my W98SE system on bootup telling me that Scandisk hadn't run to completion and that I should run Scandisk in windows as there might still be some bad sectors. Not sure why this happened, since the system shut down normally the previous day and I don't remember running scandisk. At any rate, I ran Scandisk and got the message that Windows or some application was writing to the disk so I rebooted and ran Scandisk in Safe mode. Guess what, I still get that message. So it has to be something in Windows itself doing it. Does anyone have any idea how to go about finding out exactly what is causing this problem? I tried bring up the task list and it says the only thing running is explorer. I guess systray doesn't run in Safe mode. Is there something I could use to track down the culprit? This is really strange. At one time I could run Scandisk in normal mode with no problems and now not even Safe mode works.

BTW, I have Norton SystemWorks, so I did try Disk Doctor (normal mode) and it also gave me a report that something was writing to the disk. So the problem isn't just confined to Scandisk. Anybody have any ideas.
John

Discussion is locked

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Re: scandisk in Safe Mode
May 31, 2005 6:53AM PDT

I remember a post where the screensaver was the problem (that's more or less a standard procedure, to turn that off) and a very nice one where something from the cable or adsl connection knocked on the door sufficiently hard for scandisk to be troubled. The solution there was to disconnect or turn off the modem.

Better programs than taskmanager to show what's running (don't be surprised: most are system processes): enditall2 (download paid version from www.pcmag.com), msinfo32.exe (a Microsoft program you're likely to have somewhere on your hard disk) and wintop from the windows 95 kernel toys (can be downloaded from Microsoft, and runs in windows 9Cool. But first try the screensaver and the connection to the bad world outside.

Let us know what you find.

Kees

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Re: scandisk in Safe Mode
May 31, 2005 11:50PM PDT

Kees,
I understand the part about the screensaver which is why I don't run one. However, I do have the power options set to turn the monitor off after 10 minutes. Could this be the problem? Does this power option setting still function in Safe mode?

You mentioned my connection to the outside world. Should I disconnect the cable to my Nic when running Scandisk? I never have before and its worked properly. Besides wouldn't the fact that I am trying to scan the system in Safe mode have eliminated the TCP stack effectively ''disconnecting'' the cable only in software.

As for enditall2, would it actually shut off some processes while running in Safe mode. Windows is supposed to be running using minimal software so I would think there would be much more that could be shut off. Besides, I don't have access to it even though I'm a paid suscriber to PC Mag and have been for many years. But thats another battle. I will see if I can dig up a copy of msinfo32 on my system and wintop and see if they can tell me anything.

Really appreciate your taking the time to help me out. I really thought I had my W98 system scoped out, one reason I hesitate to shift to XP, but every day is a new adventure.
John

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Scandisk Problems
Jun 3, 2005 9:01AM PDT

John,

I don't recommend running any programs like enditall. They can turn off system services that are needed. To ensure that scandisk runs properly for me, here are my steps:

1. Turn off screensaver and any automated tasks that are set to run.

2. Disable antivirus (after disconnecting from the WWW) and firewall programs that are running.

3. Check the task manager to see if anything else is running that should be shut off.

4. Run scandisk. There used to be a situation or an option that would require a reboot in Win98. I think if you had the option checked to "repair", it would require a reboot. I'd uncheck that option if possible.

5. Re-start antivirus and firewall and reboot.

This should allow scandisk to run through it's whole process. Depending on disk size, etc. it might be better to let it run overnight.

Hope this is helpful.

Brent

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You can get the original
Jun 3, 2005 9:41AM PDT

EndItAll version 1 (when it was free and very simple compared to version 2), from here...it's called Close running programs in the list.

http://www.pcwarfare.com/pctools.toc.htm

It doesn't shut of services that I know of because it was long before XP' birth, but it will show you the list of what it WILL shut off and what's protected (Explorer and itself usually). Once scandisk has been run, you can just reboot the computer to get everything back up and running.

If you check this page also at that site, you will find a list of things you can check before running scandisk and defrag......some, but not all will pertain to your situation, but all bases are covered at least.

http://www.pcwarfare.com/hdds/scandisk.defrag.htm

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You can get the origina
Jun 7, 2005 11:50PM PDT

Toni,
Thanks for the link. Will try it out but probably won't be till this weekend. That is unless my wife doesn't have other plans for me.
John