Simviation Forums

     Hey Guys and Ladies,   Me again and as always - - - with a problem of my own doing.

     This morning I had to "take apart" piece by piece   an  antivirus program that was about to expire.  I could not get rid of it any other way that I knew of.     When I did that ,  I failed to check to see if it would mess-up anything else in the PC.  Now I've discovered that my  " Disk  Defragmenter " in the "C" drive don't work.  [ Dumb Me ] .  I goofed  ;D

     Sometimes I learn by my mistakes ,   [ MEANING - - -THAT SOMETIMES I DON'T ]    ;D

     It really don't bother me as I was having thoughts of re-formatting anyway soon.   This just seals it up so I can't back out of it or keep putting  it  off until "later"   [which seems to never happen ].    

     I look at this as an opportunity  for me to perhaps learn more about the workings of the PC.     The Disk Defragmenter works OK   for the  "D" drive.

    When I try to Defrag the "C" drive,  I get this info block on my screen :   [  Disk Defragmenter has detected that  Chkdsk  is  scheduled to run on the volume : [ C: ]  Please run  Chkdsk/f.   ]   [ OK ] .  

     When I type this  " Chkdsk" in the  RUN box,   WE just go round and round with the same  info block.

     Any suggestions as to what to do ?  Since I'm game to reformat anyway  ,  I'll try even wild things   [which I normally do anyway ]

     The only hang-up I have is I'm DEEPLY CONCERNED about losing my "addresses  .    What if I can't pester you guys for awhile ?   All the other  "stuff" I can put on DVD s.

     After getting in touch with  Verizon, and be able to get back on-line,   I don't see any other problems,    do you  ?

     This would also "clean house" and speed-up this slow poke.

    Appreciate your input,    

       caveman

Caveman, the addresses are stored online with my email system, but your's may be on your PC's hard drive.

Just say what program/utility you use for your address list and someone should be able to help.


An example: If you use Outlook's Address Book, Googling the following question will expose the link below.

"Where does address book keep the addresses?"

http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/assis ... 01033.aspx

Making copies of the relevant files in the above scenario should suffice if you use that software. You'd think something so important would be so much easier to back up.

When defrag fails, it's usually due to file/sector corruption or not enough space. For file corruption a chkdisk usually is sufficient. You can schedule it two ways, from the properties menu/tools options of your C: drive (right click on the C: icon in My Computer, click properties, click on Tools, then Error-Checking, then reboot) or by booting your WinXP CD and running the Recovery Console. This works most time when error-checking fails.

To enter Recovery Console, boot your XP disk, hit "R" for repair, select your OS and wait for the command prompt. At the prompt, enter:

chkdsk C: /r

I've had to use this several times over the years to fix the defrag and it's always worked. More about the console here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -US;314058

     Hey  Guys,    I'm a little slow getting back on this one.   The antivirus program I took apart was :  etrust  ez Antivirus. That was the one that messed up my defrag program.    Like I said earlier,  I should have stored everything in a folder ,  then checked out the PC.  Then after a few days , if everything is still working OK, - - - DITCH it .      I knew better - - -  just didn't think it was needed.

     I have been using a free antivirus now for a few months and it works just great.  The name is:  AVG FREE EDITION.

   While on the subject,   would you suggest  a  better Defrag program than the one that "came with" the PC  ?     I don't suppose there would be any  FREE ones available  ?  Just a thought.

     I've tried the steps mentioned and nothing works. I even used the restore program and went back past a week - - - still nothing.   Looks like the defrag program will have to wait until I get my new PC put together.    Can't  take the chance of not being able to get "on-line" should I need help.    

    Thanks so much for your help,      

        caveman