scandisk won't finish running

i tried running scandisk and it just keeps restarting itself and doesn't
finish. i closed and diabled all programs except explorer and then
started in safe mode and got the same result both times. any
suggestions on how to get scandisk to run and finish?

os win 98 1st edition

Reboot into DOS mode:
-Start the computer and hold down the CTRL key till the Windows 98 Startup menu
(boot menu) appears.
- If that does not work, restart the computer and repeatedly tap the F8 key after
the memory count, till the boot menu appears.
-Use the arrow keys to select "Command Prompt Only" and press Enter.

At the DOS prompt, type the following and press Enter:
scandisk c: /surface

This will run scandisk and check the drive surface for errors. When it is done you
will be brought back to the command prompt. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart in
Windows.

Have a look here, by MS MVP Ron Badour:
http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/scandisk.html
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Jack" wrote in message
...
i tried running scandisk and it just keeps restarting itself and doesn't
finish. i closed and diabled all programs except explorer and then
started in safe mode and got the same result both times. any
suggestions on how to get scandisk to run and finish?

os win 98 1st edition

On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:00:20 -0400, "glee"
wrote:

Reboot into DOS mode:
-Start the computer and hold down the CTRL key till the Windows 98 Startup menu
(boot menu) appears.
- If that does not work, restart the computer and repeatedly tap the F8 key after
the memory count, till the boot menu appears.
-Use the arrow keys to select "Command Prompt Only" and press Enter.

At the DOS prompt, type the following and press Enter:
scandisk c: /surface

This will run scandisk and check the drive surface for errors. When it is done you
will be brought back to the command prompt. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart in
Windows.

Have a look here, by MS MVP Ron Badour:
http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/scandisk.html

Glen,

Do you think Smartdrv would help speed up the surface scan? I ran a
surface scan recently and it took a long time. I forgot to use it
that time. It does help with some other Dos operations.
At the Dos prompt enter: Smartdrv.

I have DoubleBuffer=1 enabled in the Msdos.sys file.

I don't want to divert from the Scandisk problem here, just wondered
if you ever use Smartdrv.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

I use Smartdrv a lot in DOS, especially when using Deltree or Scanreg. I have not
used it with Scandisk and never noticed it taking any longer than it does in Windows
to do the surface scan....but I never tried or did a comparison. I always assumed
that the less loaded the better in that situation.

Something *else* to test..... ;-)
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Bill Watt" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:00:20 -0400, "glee"
wrote:

Reboot into DOS mode:
-Start the computer and hold down the CTRL key till the Windows 98 Startup menu
(boot menu) appears.
- If that does not work, restart the computer and repeatedly tap the F8 key after
the memory count, till the boot menu appears.
-Use the arrow keys to select "Command Prompt Only" and press Enter.

At the DOS prompt, type the following and press Enter:
scandisk c: /surface

This will run scandisk and check the drive surface for errors. When it is done
you
will be brought back to the command prompt. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart in
Windows.

Have a look here, by MS MVP Ron Badour:
http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/scandisk.html

Glen,

Do you think Smartdrv would help speed up the surface scan? I ran a
surface scan recently and it took a long time. I forgot to use it
that time. It does help with some other Dos operations.
At the Dos prompt enter: Smartdrv.

I have DoubleBuffer=1 enabled in the Msdos.sys file.

I don't want to divert from the Scandisk problem here, just wondered
if you ever use Smartdrv.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:42:58 -0400, Bill Watt put
finger to keyboard and composed:

Do you think Smartdrv would help speed up the surface scan? I ran a
surface scan recently and it took a long time. I forgot to use it
that time. It does help with some other Dos operations.
At the Dos prompt enter: Smartdrv.

I have DoubleBuffer=1 enabled in the Msdos.sys file.

Paste the following commands into a .bat file, say scan.bat, and run
the file after rebooting in DOS mode. The test results are written to
scanlog.txt.

================================================== =====
mem /m smartdrv scanlog.txt
echo. scanlog.txt
echo Scanning C: without smartdrv scanlog.txt
echo Start scan scanlog.txt
echo.|time| find /i "current" scanlog.txt
scandisk c: /surface /checkonly /nosummary
echo Scan complete scanlog.txt
echo.|time| find /i "current" scanlog.txt
echo. scanlog.txt
echo Loading smartdrv scanlog.txt
smartdrv
mem /m smartdrv scanlog.txt
echo. scanlog.txt
echo Scanning C: with smartdrv scanlog.txt
echo Start scan scanlog.txt
echo.|time| find /i "current" scanlog.txt
scandisk c: /surface /checkonly /nosummary
echo Scan complete scanlog.txt
echo.|time| find /i "current" scanlog.txt
================================================== =====

In my case the results with and without smartdrv were the same, ie 26
minutes. I can understand why a surface scan would not benefit from
caching, but not a file system check. The former involves sequential
track-to-track seeks, as opposed to time consuming random seeks, and
read data would be cached by the HD itself.

-- Franc Zabkar

Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

| after rebooting in DOS mode

| mem /m smartdrv scanlog.txt
| echo. scanlog.txt
| echo Scanning C: without smartdrv scanlog.txt

Interesting, really, & informative... BUT it ain't necessarily so!
"START, Shutdown, Restart in MS-DOS Mode" normally will run
"C:\Windows\DOSStart.bat" during the reboot. The file may not exist,
but, if it does, it could look like mine...

@echo off
c:\mouse\mouse.exe
LoadHigh C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:IDECD001 /M:12
LoadHigh C:\WINDOWS\SmartDrv
LoadHigh C:\WINDOWS\Command\DOSKey
mode con lines=50
REM C:\ESSAUDIO.COM

Naturally, there could be a line in Autoexec.bat loading it too.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"Franc Zabkar" wrote in message
...
| On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:42:58 -0400, Bill Watt put
| finger to keyboard and composed:
|
| Do you think Smartdrv would help speed up the surface scan? I ran a
| surface scan recently and it took a long time. I forgot to use it
| that time. It does help with some other Dos operations.
| At the Dos prompt enter: Smartdrv.
|
| I have DoubleBuffer=1 enabled in the Msdos.sys file.
|
| Paste the following commands into a .bat file, say scan.bat, and run
| the file after rebooting in DOS mode. The test results are written to
| scanlog.txt.
|
| ================================================== =====
| mem /m smartdrv scanlog.txt
| echo. scanlog.txt
| echo Scanning C: without smartdrv scanlog.txt
| echo Start scan scanlog.txt
| echo.|time| find /i "current" scanlog.txt
| scandisk c: /surface /checkonly /nosummary
| echo Scan complete scanlog.txt
| echo.|time| find /i "current" scanlog.txt
| echo. scanlog.txt
| echo Loading smartdrv scanlog.txt
| smartdrv
| mem /m smartdrv scanlog.txt
| echo. scanlog.txt
| echo Scanning C: with smartdrv scanlog.txt
| echo Start scan scanlog.txt
| echo.|time| find /i "current" scanlog.txt
| scandisk c: /surface /checkonly /nosummary
| echo Scan complete scanlog.txt
| echo.|time| find /i "current" scanlog.txt
| ================================================== =====
|
| In my case the results with and without smartdrv were the same, ie 26
| minutes. I can understand why a surface scan would not benefit from
| caching, but not a file system check. The former involves sequential
| track-to-track seeks, as opposed to time consuming random seeks, and
| read data would be cached by the HD itself.
|
| -- Franc Zabkar
|
| Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 18:02:39 -0400, "PCR" put
finger to keyboard and composed:

| after rebooting in DOS mode

| mem /m smartdrv scanlog.txt
| echo. scanlog.txt
| echo Scanning C: without smartdrv scanlog.txt

Interesting, really, & informative... BUT it ain't necessarily so!
"START, Shutdown, Restart in MS-DOS Mode" normally will run
"C:\Windows\DOSStart.bat" during the reboot.

That's only the case if you "Restart in MS-DOS mode" from within
Windows. A proper reboot doesn't look at dosstart.bat, whether it
exists in the Windows directory or in the root directory. In my case
it is C:\dosstart.bat that is executed after a Restart in MS-DOS mode.

Anyway, if you examine my code you will see two "mem" lines which test
for the presence of smartdrv in memory.

For completeness you could add the following two lines to the start of
the scan.bat file:

mem /m smartdrv | find "SMARTDRV is not currently in memory" /i
if errorlevel 1 goto end

Add these lines to the end of the file:

more scanlog.txt
goto end2
:end
echo.
echo Smartdrv was found in memory. Test aborted.
:end2

-- Franc Zabkar

Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 20:58:25 -0400, Jack wrote:

i tried running scandisk and it just keeps restarting itself and doesn't
finish. i closed and diabled all programs except explorer and then
started in safe mode and got the same result both times. any
suggestions on how to get scandisk to run and finish?

os win 98 1st edition

Jack,

How did Glen's suggestion work out?

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

"Franc Zabkar" wrote in message
...
| On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 18:02:39 -0400, "PCR" put
| finger to keyboard and composed:
|
| | after rebooting in DOS mode
|
| | mem /m smartdrv scanlog.txt
| | echo. scanlog.txt
| | echo Scanning C: without smartdrv scanlog.txt
|
| Interesting, really, & informative... BUT it ain't necessarily so!
| "START, Shutdown, Restart in MS-DOS Mode" normally will run
| "C:\Windows\DOSStart.bat" during the reboot.
|
| That's only the case if you "Restart in MS-DOS mode" from within
| Windows.

I THOUGHT that's what you said to do, but... I suppose... "reboot in DOS
mode" can legitimately mean... "shutdown & boot directly to DOS". Then,
there is only Autoexec.bat to fear under normal circumstances.

| A proper reboot doesn't look at dosstart.bat, whether it
| exists in the Windows directory or in the root directory. In my case
| it is C:\dosstart.bat that is executed after a Restart in MS-DOS mode.

Interesting. Are you sure you didn't fiddle with that?

|
| Anyway, if you examine my code you will see two "mem" lines which test
| for the presence of smartdrv in memory.
|
| For completeness you could add the following two lines to the start of
| the scan.bat file:

Looks like that fixes it, all right. Mine is no 30 minute run in DOS
even on 8GB, & I'd HATE to do it TWICE unnecessarily!

|
| mem /m smartdrv | find "SMARTDRV is not currently in memory" /i
| if errorlevel 1 goto end
|
| Add these lines to the end of the file:
|
| more scanlog.txt
| goto end2
| :end
| echo.
| echo Smartdrv was found in memory. Test aborted.
| :end2
|
| -- Franc Zabkar
|
| Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

....or even ONCE necessarily!


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"PCR" wrote in message
...
....snip