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Basically, I've been performing way too many large-scale disk operations (installations, uninstallations, etc...) in the past week or so. Things like installing/uninstalling PC games, software over 1-2GB each, etc...
Now my disk not only is extremely full but it's having "serious errors." The thing is, I cannot reformat so I'm just looking for the best disk cleaning software. In other words, a hard drive toolkit that won't make matters worse. Thanks for your help.
"Serious errors"? What are they then? :confused:
It may shock you to learn that physical drive failure (as will happen to all drives eventually) can't be cured by any software. If you're having "minor" recurring faults, my advice would be to backup NOW.
Well the errors are for example:Quote:
Originally Posted by SMurf
I was installing software earlier and the computer rebooted at the end of the installation (it wasn't rebooted by the installation software, it just cut off). Then the Microsoft disk examination tool started and found around 450 files that were truncated. Once Windows Explorer was up again, it said "Your computer has recovered from a serious error, would you like to make an error report" (You know, that Error Report box).
I don't think it's all that serious on a physical level, but I think the drive is just really congested. I have been running defrags regularly too.
As far as backing up goes... I don't care that much... However, the main problem is that I don't have the Windows XP CD. Thinking about this, I backed the CD up onto my hard drive when I first installed. This is why I can't reformat. If I reformat, I'll lose my operating system and I have no CD burner.
Do you know of a way to emulate a format by slowly deleting specific areas and then running the Windows XP Install off of my Hard Drive? I know it's a daunting task but I might just have to do something like this.
Thanks for your help.
This sounds more like a software problem than anything to do with the hard drive. A re-install of Windows is by far the most popular solution, but that isn't an option in your case. The emulation mechanism you suggested just wouldn't work (Windows XP setup expects to be run with no operating system installed, and you'd need one to mount the copy).
The only software I've ever heard of to deal with problem "disk usage" would be (Norton) Cleansweep, which I think has now been integrated into Norton Systemworks.
But it may be caused by something else, like a virus or faulty spyware. First ensure that you're running Service Pack 2 of Windows XP, then get antivirus software and also something to scan for "undesirables", such as Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org).
Ok thanks you guys. Do you know of a way I can mount an ISO file and run it before Windows boots? Thanks.
Windows defrag sucks. www.executivesoftware.com - download diskkeeper lite.
You know what is hilarious? Windows' defragmenter is made by Executive Software. Well it is weakened a bit. Make that really weakened. And if you don't believe me, open XP's defrag and check Help->About. ;)
O&O is better it makes your disk contiguous and it doesnt corrupt files!!
what would be a good linux solution for defraging hard disks??
I wouldn't worry about defragmenting Linux drives. While they probably do fragment to a very small degree, it won't be enough to be noticable unless you do massive adding and removing of data.
According to ExtremeTech.com: "In general UNIX and Linux filesystems to not suffer from significant fragmentation so long as you have at least a little space free. The usual solution to fragmentation is to backup and then restore the filesystem but this isn't usually worth the bother since fragmentaiton is rarely a problem with these filesystems."
Boy these guys can't spell. :p
>>Do you know of a way I can mount an ISO file and run it before Windows boots?
can't you just borrow a friends cd burner? and no there's no way to do that.