NotebookForums.com › Forums › Off Topic › Desktop and Hardware Discussion › Problems With Hard Drive???
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Problems With Hard Drive???

post #1 of 5
12/19/03 at 8:14pm
Thread Starter 
I have a Dell Dimension L500r
with the following configuration:
500 MHz PIII
128 MB RAM
20GB HD ??? RPM
WIN 98!!!

The problems I'm encountering is the fact that the computer seems to be much slower than before (yea, I know 500MHz ain't sh*t) but it lags surfing the web so I tried to defrag the drive but it never gets anywhere...it starts than starts over and repeat...I tried to scandisk the hard drive same repetition of strating over and over again...How do I fix this (formatting my HD is my last resort)???
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 5
12/19/03 at 8:28pm
I've seen this, especially when connected to the internet with Broadband. Stuff keeps changing which freaks out Defrag and Scandisk, especially in W98. You need to disconnect from the internet and any other network, close any and all programs other than Win 98. That may do it. I don't remember now what I did, I may have finally put the drive in a different machine as a slave and defragged it there. Not sure. That will usually work. But if you keep in your machine you absolutely have to stop all other programs, that includes antivirus, firewalls, everything. Its why you should have your OS on a different drive than the rest of the stuff. Better yet if its on a different disk.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 5
12/19/03 at 8:48pm
Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and shut down everything except Explorer, Systray(though not needed it dosen't hurt any thing, and ScanDisk or Defrag. Marquisdarquis is right some thing is trying to access your hard disk and that restarts defrag and scan disk in 98.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 5
12/19/03 at 11:36pm
If you are using WIN95/98 (any version), insure that all screen savers and power savers are OFF and disconnet the mouse. Any "change of state" in these OS's causes defrag to "START OVER". It's Crappy; however, that's the way it is. I tried defragging my desktop a couple of years ago and it never finished in a week because of the screen save and "slight" vibration that cause the mouse to move.

I am not sure about ME. WIN2K and above should not have this limitation.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 5
12/19/03 at 11:40pm
Duh, Should read - You do have WIN98.

Go with the advice and it should finish. The defrage in WIN98 is not "super good"; however, should provide some relief if the problem is a defragmented hard drive.

The 500Mhz P3 should still provide plenty of power for most thing - except of course the new games that EAT all of the CPU that they can.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Desktop and Hardware Discussion
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Off Topic › Desktop and Hardware Discussion › Problems With Hard Drive???