02-07-2003 14:59									#1
	Defrag questions Put an end to popups!

I plan to defrag my PC’s hard drive soon. I assume that it’s a good idea to shut down as many running processes as possible before doing so.

However, seeing as I’m totally clueless, I have no idea exactly what processes are required to make Windows keep running. Which processes must I leave on?

OS = XP Home

	02-07-2003 15:21									#2
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I upgraded to XP home recently (after reformatting the hard drive). When I try to run defrag it just says that I don't need to do it yet.

If you are going to do it just pick a time when you can leave the computer to it for a while, start it running defrag and leave it alone.

I assume it is not networked. If you have a broadband connection you might want to ensure that is disabled, or at least not set to check for email periodically.

The last time I did a half full 40MB drive under Win98SE it took about two hours. You might find it worthwhile leaving it running overnight if your HDD is much larger than that.

Disclaimer: if you break it after reading my advice, I know nothing about computers

	02-07-2003 15:26									#3
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Disconnect from any and all networks. Disable all programs that run periodically by scheduling. Disable virus scanners.

	02-07-2003 20:11									#4
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bump to get it off the second page

	02-07-2003 20:17									#5
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Boot into safe mode, and run Defragmentation from there.

	02-07-2003 20:21									#6
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quote: Originally posted by Zopperoni Boot into safe mode

How do I do that?
The only times I've been in safe mode is when the comp has crashed and it's done it automatically.

	02-07-2003 20:27									#7
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Press [F8] when the computer finishes doing POST.

	02-07-2003 20:37									#8
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Don't bother with safe mode.

ctrl-alt-delete everything except Explorer and Systray.

	02-07-2003 20:43									#9
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For XP Home?

	02-07-2003 20:46									#10
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Oh, sorry. I didn't see that

I have no idea what processes are important in XP (damnit, there are like 5000 from MS).

	02-07-2003 21:20									#11
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Well, you can generally go through the list and terminate them all. XP doesn't let you terminate the processes it needs, so whenever you get a "This is Critical Process and can't be terminated", go on for next one.

	02-07-2003 22:48									#12
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Get everything out of your system tray, too. I let mine run for hours only to find I had forgotten to disable seti@home. The first 10 MB of my drive looked great though.

	02-07-2003 22:54									#13
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It took hours to do 10 megs?

Mine takes an hour or two to do 60 gigs

	02-07-2003 23:01									#14
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If you have something like seti@home running though, it has to restart every few minutes/seconds. Tends to slow the process somewhat.

	02-07-2003 23:51									#15
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Seti accesses the disk, changing the information and forcing defrag to start over.

	02-07-2003 23:55									#16
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As long as you kill anything that shows up in the system tray (in the lower-right corner by your system clock), and close all your open applications, you've probably done enough to let defrag run smoothly.

	03-07-2003 00:09									#17
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Oh sorry