Hard Disk Defragmentation

[Dsg]

When I try to defrag my hard disk, I keep getting told that the drive contents have changed and the process seems to go back to square one. Can somebody tell me in VERY SIMPLE terms what I can do to prevent this happening. Many thanks.

[rja211077]

try two things: 1) Ctrl-Alt-Delete and close all running programs except Explorer and SysTray, then run defrag 2) Reboot in Safe Mode and run defrag.

[Cetti]

As I also need very simple instructions I can say that as rja has suggested Safe Mode is definitely the answer - works for me! Don't forget to turn off screensaver and anti-virus as well.

[cupra]

Another tip; before you do the defrag in Safe mode, set the virtual memory to zero (not forgetting to reset it after gefrag is finished!)

[sft42]

Just in case you're not aware you can enter safe mode by holding down the F8 key while the computer is booting up (well i didn't know until someone told me)

[Cetti]

I'm not being sarky sft42 but I didn't know that there was another way of reaching Safe mode - pressing F8 is the only way I know. Be grateful for an alternative just in case it's needed.

[foundoutand]

A possible reason is that you have something running in your taskbar (near where your time is dislpayed in the bottom right hand corner) Like a scanning application or virus software. You may need to disable these applications by right clicking on the icons and disabling them or closing them down

[Dsg]

Thanks to everybody for your input. The best option was to defrag the disk from Safe Mode - no problems at all. Thanks again.