scandisk? scan this!

[Waldo2k2]

I'm having a problem running scandisk on a win98se computer. I boot in safe mode, i know that there are no other programs running becuase they aren't inthe ctrl alt del box and I've disabled everything from the msconfig startup. It keeps restarting after it gets so far, after about 100 times it says that some other program is accessing the disk and it cannot continue. what can i do? this is really ........ing me off.

[Waldo2k2]

it always complains about "you should go into windows and run that scandisk"

if i use the other scandisk in the win folder...well i can't cause it's a win32 app (non-console)

I'm currently defragging that comp, but i still need to run scandisk cause windows is messed up.

[minesweeper]

For about a year I was unable to perform any of the disk utilities with win98se. Defrag and scandisk and what ever else there was. I just put it down to win 98 being rubbish and put up with an ever increasingly slow hard drive.

[...]

if you have your windows 98 CD, put it in (make sure your bios is set to boot from CD before harddrive), boot from CD, chose the option that says "with CD-ROM support", and then go to your CD directory (lets say 'D').

from there you have two options:

   D:\>cd win98
   D:\win98> scandisk c:

or

   D:\>cd tools
   D:\tools>cd sysrec
   D:\tools\sysrec>pcrestor

the second option will reinstall the base operating system files, which will fix any corruption you may have that may be causing windows to not be able to run scandisk in windows mode.

[immeraufdemhund]

i had the same problem with win98se. I thought that if i upgraded to ME that it would fix the problem. It didn't. I was able to get it ot run in dos though. I've had a hard time running scan disk and defrag with newer computers. I wonder if it has to do with the caching on HD's

[rick barclay]

Something's tweaking your hard drive while scandisk is running.
If you have a scsi card installed along with an ide hard drive,
that could be your problem. Also, if you have a network card
installed in a slot too far down in the system bus, then that
could cause problems also.

[Waldo2k2]

thanks everyone, and to for clarification, i want to know if reinstalling the base system files will mess with any data on the drive, i can't lose anything, it's a teachers computer....grades and such. Thanks again.

[...]

the only data that will be lost on reinstalling system files is windows user settings such as screensavers and desktop background. and it wont exactly be lost, just set to default.

[edit]
that is, unless you chose the option for format and reinstall
pcrestor just installs base system files by default.
[/edit]

[Waldo2k2]

thanks guys

[Tommaso]

Make sure you check for a virus before doing anything. I had the same problem a while back and it turned out to be a virus. I was using Windows ME but im sure it doesn't make a difference.