David Geer Talks Tech
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Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Use msconfig to keep programs from writing to the drive during defrag Courtesy of http://www.GeerCom.com.
Geer Communications - your on time technology writer!
Welcome!
The selected MSFT knowledge base article linked here shows you how to defragment your hard drive, which should be done every 10 days to keep your computer from getting buggy.
If your system has gone from being able to get through defrag OK to telling you it can't complete because something keeps writing to the drive, here is a simple solution to make sure defrag completes every time.
First, disconnect from the Internet. This process will temporarily disable your security programs as well as others.
Next, go to Start, Run and type in msconfig. Click OK.
Go to the Startup tab.
Take screen shots or notes of what items are checked as you will need to go here and check them again when the defrag is done.
Now go to the General tab, uncheck load startup items, and click apply and OK.
Restart as prompted.
On restart, there won't be any startup or other programs running to write to the drive.
Now follow MSFT's instructions to defrag your HDD (hard drive).
Once completed, go back into msconfig as before. Go to the startup tab and recheck each item that was checked before. Click apply and OK. Restart again. Reconnect to the Internet. You should be good to go.
If you have any doubts about the procedure, don't do it, unless you're familiar with system restore. Not that this won't work, but if you don't think you can do it right, these are your backup options.
To save time, I've suggested screenshot(s). When under the msconfig startup tab, make sure you are scrolled to the top of the list of programs in the window and hit the PrintScreen or PrtSc button on your keyboard. Go to start, programs, accessories, paint. Open paint. Select the square button for cut and paste under Edit, upper left, then point your cursor to the white area and right click and left click on Paste. Go to File in the menu and save the file to your desktop with a unique name.
Go back to msconfig and scroll down in the Startup window until the last program that was showing is not and the next one is. This will allow you to take a screen of the next group of visible programs in the list. Repeat and so on. Print out your screen shots and you have a list of the programs to recheck with check marks at the end of the process.
And, hallelujah, we are saved, or at least our computer ... from fragmentation.
The best to you and yours
Good night, good people
David Geer - your on time technology writer!
Geer Communications
Cowabunga!
Geer Communications - your on time technology writer!
Welcome!
The selected MSFT knowledge base article linked here shows you how to defragment your hard drive, which should be done every 10 days to keep your computer from getting buggy.
If your system has gone from being able to get through defrag OK to telling you it can't complete because something keeps writing to the drive, here is a simple solution to make sure defrag completes every time.
First, disconnect from the Internet. This process will temporarily disable your security programs as well as others.
Next, go to Start, Run and type in msconfig. Click OK.
Go to the Startup tab.
Take screen shots or notes of what items are checked as you will need to go here and check them again when the defrag is done.
Now go to the General tab, uncheck load startup items, and click apply and OK.
Restart as prompted.
On restart, there won't be any startup or other programs running to write to the drive.
Now follow MSFT's instructions to defrag your HDD (hard drive).
Once completed, go back into msconfig as before. Go to the startup tab and recheck each item that was checked before. Click apply and OK. Restart again. Reconnect to the Internet. You should be good to go.
If you have any doubts about the procedure, don't do it, unless you're familiar with system restore. Not that this won't work, but if you don't think you can do it right, these are your backup options.
To save time, I've suggested screenshot(s). When under the msconfig startup tab, make sure you are scrolled to the top of the list of programs in the window and hit the PrintScreen or PrtSc button on your keyboard. Go to start, programs, accessories, paint. Open paint. Select the square button for cut and paste under Edit, upper left, then point your cursor to the white area and right click and left click on Paste. Go to File in the menu and save the file to your desktop with a unique name.
Go back to msconfig and scroll down in the Startup window until the last program that was showing is not and the next one is. This will allow you to take a screen of the next group of visible programs in the list. Repeat and so on. Print out your screen shots and you have a list of the programs to recheck with check marks at the end of the process.
And, hallelujah, we are saved, or at least our computer ... from fragmentation.
The best to you and yours
Good night, good people
David Geer - your on time technology writer!
Geer Communications
Cowabunga!
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Excellent tip, David. This is very clear and easy to follow. I found the suggestion about using screenshots especially helpful -- sure beats trying to write down each item using the old method (pen and paper). I never thought of using Paint for the copy-to destination -- when I've done it, I used Word -- but your way is better because it puts the restore info right on the desktop. If this is a sample of good things to come, I'm bookmarking your site and plan to read it weekly, if not daily. Thanks for telling us (FLX)where to find it.
You're welcome, PJ. Thanks for checking it out. I did tech support for a couple years and support my own systems etc so I can definitely oblige with more of the same, hopefully four to five blog entries a week.
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