Defrag terminates before completion

Helpline Q&A Directory

When I try to defragment my hard disk, I receive a message saying that, due to excessive activity, the defrag was terminated. How can I defrag?

The problem, put simply, is that to rearrange the contents of your disk into the most efficient order, Disk Defragmenter needs to know where everything is. If another program writes to disk while defragmentation is taking place, the defragmenter has to check the whole disk to see what has changed.

This wouldn't be a problem if Defragmenter ran under MS-DOS. It is annoying though because, under DOS, only one program can run at a time.

The way to make Defragmenter run to completion is to ensure that no other programs are running that can write to the hard disk. This can usually be achieved simply by closing all applications, disabling as many of the utilities as possible that appear in the system tray and turning off the screensaver.

If that doesn't work, try running the defragmenter in Safe Mode. To run Windows 98 or Me in Safe Mode, restart the computer and keep the Ctrl key pressed down until the StartUp menu appears. Choose Safe Mode from the menu and press Enter. See also tip Defrag sticks and won't run.