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The ShinyCapstar PC Tips Section

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Scan Disk and Disk Defragmenter

Many systems slow down due to excessive fragmentation of the data and programs on the hard disk.

Scan Disk and Disk Defragmenter should be run once a month along with Disk Clean if you have it on your system. To successfully run these utilities you probably need to start up in SAFE MODE. This is due to programs running all the time that access the Hard Disk and cause the scan and defrag programs to continually restart

Running in SAFE MODE:

1.        Restart the PC

2.        If you have a Manufacturers Logo on start-up you need to clear it to display the status screen. Normally you have to hit the Esc key to do this.

3.        On the status screen, once the CDROM has been detected, or as soon as the configuration box is displayed, start hitting the F8 key every half second. The system may beep at you – ignore this.

4.        A list of option should be displayed. Select ‘Safe Mode’ and hit enter.

5.        The system will start up – no driver or programs are loaded – and it will eventually warn you it is in Safe Mode with a dialogue box.

6.        Once the system has completed loading – it will be in 640 X 400 mode – you can continue.

Running Scan Disk:

1. Start the system in Safe Mode

2. On the Desktop if you have a ‘ My Computer’ icon then double click on it.

3. Right Click on the C: Drive

4. Highlight ‘Properties’ and left click on it

5. Click on the ‘Tools’ tab at the top. This will display options for maintenance on the hard disk

6. Click on the ‘Check Now’ command button under the ‘Error-checking (status)’ section.

7. In Windows 95/98 and ME select automatically fix errors’ by clicking on the box next to it (a tick will appear in the box). Click ‘Start’ to continue.

In Windows 2000 (and possibly in XP) select both options (Automatically fix and Recover Bad Sectors) in the dialogue box (tick in both boxes) and Click on the ‘Start’ command button. It may say it cannot due this and do you want to schedule on start-up  - click on the ’Yes’ command button and restart the computer to carry out the checks.

8. When the program has completed Re-Boot to return to normal mode

Running Disk Defragmenter:

1. Start the system in Safe Mode

2. On the Desktop if you have a ‘ My Computer’ icon then double click on it.

3. Right Click on the C: Drive

4. Highlight ‘Properties’ and left click on it

5. Click on the ‘Tools’ tab at the top. This will display options for maintenance on the hard disk

6. Click on the ‘Defragment Now’ command button under the ‘ Defragmentation ’ section.

7. When the Defrag program starts click on OK and once it has started click on ‘Show Details’ to monitor activities with a full screen display.

8. In Windows 2000 and XP different programs are run. You may have to select Analyse and Defragment to get the program running.

9. When the program has completed Re-Boot to return to normal mode