B
BoB
From the author:
This program _should_ solve the problem of Windows Defrag and Scandisk
continually restarting. This has been a common problem with both
Windows 98 and Windows ME. Most of us have seen the symptoms. You
start a defrag and then about 15 or 20 percent into the process there is
a message that the "Drive Contents Have Changed" and then the process
restarts. There are various reasons why this happens. One of the most
common problems is a lack of available disk space. For example, not a
lot of people know that you must have at least 15 percent free space
before Windows Defrag will completely defragment a partition. However,
it is most frequently caused by anything that attempts to write to the
drive during the process, including applications that try to use your
Internet connection and anything that causes a write to the Virtual
Memory (Swap File).
The general work-arounds in the past have been to:
A) Use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to shut down all running processes.
B) Run Scandisk and Defrag in "Safe Mode"
The problem with (A) is that not all background processes are ended by
C+A+D.
Method (B) brings along it's own set of problems. Most are minor issues
caused by the fact that "Safe Mode" only works with a display resolution
of 640 x 480 and 16 color. These are generally just annoyances like the
desktop icons may shift and have to be re-arranged when you go back to
"Normal Mode" but they are annoyances which can be avoided by properly
shutting down unnecessary background processes in "Normal Mode".
GEODisk does exactly that for you. Please read the "USAGE" section
below for more details of what happens when you use this application.
USAGE
-----
During the setup process GEODisk will check to see what version of
SCANDISKW.EXE and DEFRAG.EXE you currently have installed on your system
and if they are the older versions included with Windows 98 they will be
replaced with the versions that were native to Windows ME. The Win 98
versions were meant to be run on FAT16 drives and did not function well
with FAT32 systems. Your previous version will be backed up should you
care to revert but you won't.
Here is what it will do;
1) Check to be sure there are no incomplete processes.
(installations etc).
2) Shutdown all running processes except those required to keep
Windows alive.
3) Empty the Recycle Bin
4) Delete the contents of the %windir%\Temp folder
5) Run Disk Cleanup to clear Temporary Internet Files.
6) Disable Screensavers
7) (Optionally) Run Windows Scandisk to check for drive errors.
8) Run the Windows Defragmentation program.
9) Restart Windows to reload the applications that were stopped
in step (1)
_________________________________________________
I installed and ran the program without problem.
It uses safe mode but cleans up the icon mess that can happen from
resolution changes. It seems to have everything covered unless you
have a cable connection that needs to be disconnected.
The exe and other files installed are 280k. One reg key added for
uninstalling the program.
It backs up defrag.exe and installs the faster, WinMEdefrag.exe
if you don't have it.
It uses the applog for faster program starts if you have not
deleted the applog folder and shut off taskmon.exe.
Free from GEOSoft. Read about it here:
http://www.it-mate.co.uk/
Click Free Software, then PC Maintenance.
DL here:
http://www.it-mate.co.uk/downloads/GEODisk.zip
DL is 1.3 meg.
BoB
This program _should_ solve the problem of Windows Defrag and Scandisk
continually restarting. This has been a common problem with both
Windows 98 and Windows ME. Most of us have seen the symptoms. You
start a defrag and then about 15 or 20 percent into the process there is
a message that the "Drive Contents Have Changed" and then the process
restarts. There are various reasons why this happens. One of the most
common problems is a lack of available disk space. For example, not a
lot of people know that you must have at least 15 percent free space
before Windows Defrag will completely defragment a partition. However,
it is most frequently caused by anything that attempts to write to the
drive during the process, including applications that try to use your
Internet connection and anything that causes a write to the Virtual
Memory (Swap File).
The general work-arounds in the past have been to:
A) Use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to shut down all running processes.
B) Run Scandisk and Defrag in "Safe Mode"
The problem with (A) is that not all background processes are ended by
C+A+D.
Method (B) brings along it's own set of problems. Most are minor issues
caused by the fact that "Safe Mode" only works with a display resolution
of 640 x 480 and 16 color. These are generally just annoyances like the
desktop icons may shift and have to be re-arranged when you go back to
"Normal Mode" but they are annoyances which can be avoided by properly
shutting down unnecessary background processes in "Normal Mode".
GEODisk does exactly that for you. Please read the "USAGE" section
below for more details of what happens when you use this application.
USAGE
-----
During the setup process GEODisk will check to see what version of
SCANDISKW.EXE and DEFRAG.EXE you currently have installed on your system
and if they are the older versions included with Windows 98 they will be
replaced with the versions that were native to Windows ME. The Win 98
versions were meant to be run on FAT16 drives and did not function well
with FAT32 systems. Your previous version will be backed up should you
care to revert but you won't.
Here is what it will do;
1) Check to be sure there are no incomplete processes.
(installations etc).
2) Shutdown all running processes except those required to keep
Windows alive.
3) Empty the Recycle Bin
4) Delete the contents of the %windir%\Temp folder
5) Run Disk Cleanup to clear Temporary Internet Files.
6) Disable Screensavers
7) (Optionally) Run Windows Scandisk to check for drive errors.
8) Run the Windows Defragmentation program.
9) Restart Windows to reload the applications that were stopped
in step (1)
_________________________________________________
I installed and ran the program without problem.
It uses safe mode but cleans up the icon mess that can happen from
resolution changes. It seems to have everything covered unless you
have a cable connection that needs to be disconnected.
The exe and other files installed are 280k. One reg key added for
uninstalling the program.
It backs up defrag.exe and installs the faster, WinMEdefrag.exe
if you don't have it.
It uses the applog for faster program starts if you have not
deleted the applog folder and shut off taskmon.exe.
Free from GEOSoft. Read about it here:
http://www.it-mate.co.uk/
Click Free Software, then PC Maintenance.
DL here:
http://www.it-mate.co.uk/downloads/GEODisk.zip
DL is 1.3 meg.
BoB
