Technology

Defragmentation of the drive may work better when started in safe mode

The following is a question and answer session hosted by Array Systems Inc.: “When trying to defrag drive C on my PC 333 E Machines running Windows 98 OS 6.1 edition, the first message I get is Reading drive information. Defragmentation starts but don’t go past 10 percent completion.Then a blank screen appears, then returns to the last partially defragmented screen with the message The contents of the drive changed by rebooting.This sequence repeats every 3 to 4 minutes “.

What you are experiencing is a conflict/containment with another open program. When the defrag utility runs, it copies information (data, programs, or files) from one area of ​​your hard drive to a clean area. If a program is open or another program is accessing a file, the defrag utility will not copy the file to the clean area. These programs are probably part of your startup process. For example, my startup process automatically opens my antivirus program so that when I connect to the Internet I am protected. If I want to run my defrag utility, I need to start my computer in safe mode.

Safe mode is a stripped-down version of your Windows operating system and will bypass your startup process so that programs that activate automatically don’t start. You’ll notice a difference right away because your Windows desktop will look different and your icons will appear larger than normal. This is because the default screen resolution is higher than the normal setting.
For those of you unfamiliar with the defrag utility, let me take a few minutes to explain what exactly it is. There are two programs that you should run regularly, which should be part of your disk maintenance schedule. These programs are disk defragmenter and scandisk.

I run my disk defrag once a quarter and my scandisk once a month. The disk defrag utility cleans up your hard drive to make it more efficient. Let me explain how your hard drive works and why it needs to be cleaned regularly.

I am writing my column using MS Word. When I open my current column file, I like to save it after 5-10 minutes of writing. When I save it, the Word document cannot be saved to the same place on my hard drive. Therefore, a new location on the hard drive must be found and the pointer (index) must be updated to reflect the new location. Sometimes, if the file is very large (novel or screen game), there is not enough free space in one location, so the file is divided into multiple locations with multiple pointers. The old space is now unusable until the next defrag utility is run.

Sometimes you’ll notice that your computer takes a long time to save a document because it’s looking for some free space. This is probably the number 1 problem associated with computer performance. The defrag utility begins by copying all the files from the beginning of your hard drive to another location. Then it cleans up the disk area and copies the current files back. It continues with each area/sector or your hard drive until it wipes the entire drive. This process can take up to eight hours, depending on the size of your hard drive and the speed of your computer.

The next utility is called scandisk. It looks like the defrag utility, but only updates the pointer/index files. Every time a file is updated, the new location is updated in its index file. These files are the most active files on your computer because they track the location of everything. The scandisk also removes any corruption issues that may have occurred from shutting down your computer improperly or when your computer crashes.

A well-maintained index will also increase the speed and efficiency of your computer.

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