Can You Schedule Disc Defrag/Disk Clean up ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter mavic517
  • Start date Start date
Sorry, forgot to enter message. In sceduled tasks can you schedule to have
disk defrag/disk clean up run at a certain time?
 
Sorry, forgot to enter message.  In sceduled tasks can you schedule to have
disk defrag/disk clean up run at a certain time?
--
Thanks,
Mavic517



Click to expand...

The answer to your defrag question is yes. Cleanup is different, but
start here with easy stuff first:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/tips/gehrke1.mspx


Before you come back and say you have a problem trying to create the
task, you might want to read some pointers about setting up and
troubleshooting STs:

Some applications you may want to schedule at a convenient time
require user intervention (answering questions). Does your
application have options to run unattended?

Not so popular advice from me to troubleshoot STs:

It is strongly suggested that the task be assigned to a user that has
a password (not the Administrator), so create a new user with a
pasword just for tasks or add a password to your account if needed.
You can temporarily assign yourself a PW to test and worry about this
later.

If you don't use an account with a password, you will get an error
trying to create the task. It will still be created, but will not run
properly.

There is a way around this, but get this working first to be sure your
mechanism is not afflicted.

Stop the Task Scheduler service.

Delete or rename the probably cluttered ST log file: c:\windows
\schedlgu.txt

Restart the Task Scheduler service to create a new log.

Browse to the c:\windows\tasks folder to see all your tasks. The Next
Run Time and Last Run Time columns are of interest.

Choose to Add Scheduled Task. Create a new task to run Command Prompt
once, now. If you don't have a PW, you will get an error trying to
create it (more on that later). It will still be created, but will
never run.

Right click the new Command Prompts task and choose Run and a command
window should open immediately. If not, something is wrong. If yes,
your mechanism is sound. Look in the log file to see your results.

You know how to remove the log now, so that is up to you. Be sure the
Task Scheduler service is running again.

Try to Run your task now, observe the columns, and the log. If your
task fails to run manually, the errors in the log file are the clues
to what to do next.
 
mavic517 said:
Sorry, forgot to enter message. In sceduled tasks can you schedule to
have
disk defrag/disk clean up run at a certain time?
Click to expand...

The short answer is yes. However, if the account doesnt' have a password,
many scheduled tasks *will not run*.

This is a basic security feature of Windows; it can be defeated, but it's a
much better idea to just add a password.

HTH
-pk
 
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