Scandisk question

[fuzzyng]

Okay. here is my situation:

I'm trying to run Scandisk on my work computer, which is running Windows ME. Now, I'm in "safe mode" and have nothing but scandisk running... I have no screensaver, anything in the taskbar, and nothing under the ctrl-alt-delete box except scandisk and explorer... now, scandisk says something is still writting to the hard drive making it restart, what could it be? Unfortanitally I don't have internet acess on that comp so i cant even update a virus software if i had it, any susgestions?

[vraiblonde]

I'd like to know that, too. When that's happened to me in the past, I just reinstall Windows and it fixes the problem. But if someone has a better solution, I'm all ears (eyes?). Typically it's because a .dll file got corrupted somehow. Does Windows just self-corrupt or what?

[JolietJake]

you can find these kind of fixes on microsfots web site most of the time

this seems to be what your describeing

SYMPTOMS
========

When you use ScanDisk in Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Windows 98, or Windows
95 you may receive the following error message:

ScanDisk has restarted 10 times because Windows or another program has been
writing to this drive. Quitting some running programs may enable ScanDisk to
finish sooner. Do you want to continue receiving this warning?

CAUSE
=====

This problem can occur:

- If Windows or another program writes to the hard disk while ScanDisk is
scanning that disk.

- If you have many items on the Quick Launch toolbar (which appears to the
right of the Start button).

- If an item on the Quick Launch toolbar periodically writes to the hard disk
while ScanDisk runs.

NOTE: This can occur when an antivirus program is running or when a Microsoft
Word document is open and the Autosave feature is active.

RESOLUTION
==========

To resolve this problem, try the following methods. After you use each method,
run ScanDisk to see if the problem is resolved. If the problem still occurs,
continue to the next method.

Turn Off the Quick Launch Toolbar While You Run ScanDisk
--------------------------------------------------------

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Right-click a blank area of the taskbar.

2. On the shortcut menu that appears, point to Toolbars, and then click Quick
Launch.

NOTE: A check mark appears next to Quick Launch. When you click Quick Launch,
the check mark disappears.

The Quick Launch toolbar is disabled. After you run ScanDisk, follow steps 1 and
2 to again enable the toolbar.

Remove Items from the Quick Launch Toolbar
------------------------------------------

You can do this to help determine if an item is causing ScanDisk to restart. To
remove an item from the Quick Launch toolbar, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the item that you want to remove.

2. On the shortcut menu that appears, click Delete.

3. On the Confirm File Delete message that appears, click Yes.

NOTE: When you remove an item from the Quick Launch toolbar, you do not delete
the program file, you delete only a shortcut to that file.

To restore a shortcut to the Quick Launch toolbar, drag it to a blank area of the
Quick Launch toolbar.

Quit All Running Programs
-------------------------

To quit all programs that are currently running, follow these steps:

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.

2. In the Close Program dialog box, click any program in the list, except
Explorer or Systray, and then click End Task. If you are prompted to click
End Task again, do so.

NOTE: Explorer and Systray are Windows components that Windows requires to
function properly.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each program that is listed in the Close Program
dialog box, except Explorer and Systray.

4. Follow these steps to set the screen saver to None:

a. Right-click the desktop, and then click Properties.

b. Click the Screen Saver tab.

c. In the Screen Saver box, click None.

d. Click OK.

5. If the AutoUpdate "Update Reminder" is running in the system tray, it may
also interfere with Scandisk. You can remove the AutoUpdate notification by
clicking the Update Reminder icon and then either installing the recommended
updates or clicking Remind Me Later.

After you quit all running programs, try running ScanDisk again.

Restart in Safe Mode
--------------------

Windows Me or Windows 98:

To start your computer in Safe mode, restart your computer, press and hold down
the CTRL key after your computer completes the Power On Self Test (POST), and
then choose Safe Mode from the Startup menu.

NOTE: If you press and hold down the CTRL key when your computer starts, you may
receive a keyboard error message. If this occurs, you can safely ignore the
keyboard error message.

After you restart the computer in Safe mode, try running ScanDisk again.

Windows 95:

To restart your computer in Safe mode, click Start, click Shut Down, click
Restart The Computer, and then click Yes. When you see the "Starting Windows 95"
message, press the F8 key.

After you restart the computer in Safe mode, try running ScanDisk again.

Restart to a Command Prompt
---------------------------

Windows Me:

To restart to a command prompt and run ScanDisk in real mode, follow these
steps:

1. Start your computer by using the Windows Me Startup disk. If you need to
create a Startup disk, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Q267287 How to Create a Startup Disk in Windows Me

2. From the Startup menu, choose Minimum Boot.

3. At the command prompt, type "scandisk" (without the quotation marks), and
then press ENTER.

Windows 98 or Windows 95:

To restart to a command prompt and run ScanDisk in real mode, follow these
steps:

1. Click Start, click Shut Down, click "Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode",
and then click Yes or OK.

2. At the command prompt, type "scandisk" (without the quotation marks), and
then press ENTER.

STATUS
======

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The first time this error message occurs, you have the option to continue to
receive the warning message or to suppress the error message in the future. You
can also click Cancel. If you click Yes to continue receiving the error message,
the message is displayed again if ScanDisk is unable to complete a disk scan
after 10 passes. However, if you click No, ScanDisk continues to run until it
either finishes or is canceled.

[StillCrazy]

Originally posted by vraiblonde Does Windows just self-corrupt or what? [/B]

Of course it does. That's Billy Boy's justification for the 3.1, 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP progression - improvements and bug fixes which introduce more bugs and require more improvements.

I haven't had the "pleasure" of this particular problem...yet. My first thought was some anti-virus software running in the background. If you're running MS-Office products, could FastFind be the culprit?

I can't speak for the other versions, but in Win 98 you can check which programs are loaded at startup using the System Configuration Utility program. You get to it via the Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Info menu item. From the Tools menu in the Sys Info program, select the System Configuration Utility program. From there, click on the Startup tab to view the programs loaded when Windows starts.

Hope this helps.

[StillCrazy]

JolietJake hit the keys quicker than I, and apparently has the preferred solution. My money is on Jake's response.

[nimitz123]

If you have an external modem attached, it keeps writing to windows. Just turn it off. I have the same problem on my computer.

[Warron]

Originally Posted by JolietJake

- If you have many items on the Quick Launch toolbar (which appears to the
right of the Start button).

- If an item on the Quick Launch toolbar periodically writes to the hard disk
while ScanDisk runs.

Aren't items on the quicklaunch bar just shortcuts that can be launched with one click? Why would they be writing to disk?

What I used to do to get around this problem was to go into the msconfig utility and unselect all startup items, then restart and run the defrag, then go back into msconfig and reselect them all and restart again.

You get into the utility by going to the start button, clicking run, then typing in msconfig. When the utility opens you can go to the startup tab and unselect everything. Just don't accidentally click anything else in the utility or your day could end up being very unpleasant.

What I need, is to find a defrag utility that doesn't take 4 hours to do its job.