HOW OFTEN TO DEFRAG        BY: GURU   (DAVE SMITH )

 

 

A few schools of thought on this: some say every week, I am not of that school.  I try to defrag before any big activities involving my hard drive-  installing any big files or programs.  I also defrag after I delete any big files.

 

How to defrag, click on "My Computer," right click on the C drive, choose properties, then of the upper tabs, choose "Tools," there you'll see  disk defragmentation.

 There's a more elegant way to do this in Win 98; go to the "Start" button, then choose "Programs," then

"Accessories," and finall "System Tools,"  choose "Disk Defragmenter."

 One tip-  Defrag your hard drive while in safe mode, it keeps background applications from interfering and restarting the defrag process.

 

STUCK IN SAFE MODE

Safe mode is the way that windows boots up if the start sequence did not fully run on the previous boot. You can also invoke it manually so that you can trouble shoot and take care of system tasks like defragging.

 

When you boot the computer hit the F8 button until you get a screen asking you to choose a normal or safe mode of loading drivers.

Choose , safe mode.Your computer will look odd as a rudimentary set of video drivers are in action and the screen paints in a very different manner.

 

Using F8 is my first suggestion to get your computer unstuck from safe mode.

you should see if you can bring up that menu of normal or safe and then choose normal.

Another option, the winbootng.sts file, this is how Windows knows if the previous boot sequence was completed. It creates the file then deletes it just before the boot up is completed.  If the computer finds the file already in existence at boot up, it defaults into safe mode. Search for this file,and it, delete it.

If this doesn't work, there's one other suggestion.  I went to Microsoft site and here's their suggestion, verbatim

"If deleting the file does not resolve the issue, try the following steps:

You must have a Windows 95/98 Startup disk to follow these steps. If you do not have a Startup disk, create one

before following these steps.

 

To create a Startup disk, double-click Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel,

click the Startup Disk tab, and then click Create Disk.

Type the following lines at a command prompt, pressing ENTER after each line

attrib -s -h -r <drive>:\io.sys ren

drive:\io.sys drive:\io.xxx

where drive is your computer's physical boot

disk.

Insert the Windows 95/98 Startup disk in drive A.

Type the following line, and then press ENTER

a:\sys drive:

where drive is your computer's physical boot disk. Remove the Startup disk and then restart

Windows  98/95."