Fix Windows 98 Never Ending Defragmenting

Fix Windows 98 Never Ending Defragmenting Issue

Tutorial for Microsoft Windows 98

Note: before we start, if you have a screensaver, you may want to turn it off temporarily. sometimes it can interfere with disk defragmenter.

Step 1:

Disable virtual memory

To do this, open Control Panel. Then select the Performance tab. Click on the Virtual Memory button near the bottom of the tab.

Select "Let Me Specify My Own Virtual Memory Settings" option. (make a note of your current settings, we will need to change them back later)

Click the "Disable Virtual Memory" check box (ignore the warning, yes, things may get slow but this is a temporary change.)

Important! Do not restart yet. Choose NO when prompted.

Step 2:

Install the hidden tool from the Windows 98 CD-ROM

To do this, go to "My Computer" right-click on the Windows 98 CD-ROM and select "Explore"

Go to the Tools\Mtsutil folder

Right-click on "Defrag.inf" and select "Install" from the menu. You wont see anything happen, but in the background Windows 98 is adding a special command to run disk defragmentor on start-up BEFORE the operating system loads.

This is a one-time commad. For future use, you may want to save a copy of the "Defrag.inf" file somewhere on your hard drive.

Step 3:

Restart your computer.

Step 4:

Allow Disk Defragmenter to run completely.

Note: if you normally use a password to login to Windows, do not press anything. You need to let Disk Defragmenter do its thing before you try to login to Windows. Otherwise, it won't work.

Step 5:

Restart Windows again (login first if you need to)

Step 6:

Re-enable virtual memory. Remember what we did in Step 1? Well, just do the same thing but this time enable virtual memory.

-End of tutorial-