Safe Mode: How Do I Get There?

[Brian Damage]

I just need to scan and defrag my mum's drive, and the blasted thing keeps stopping and restarting the process because something's writing to the drive while it's being scanned.

I heard that a way to get around this is to run the defragmenter in safe mode, but I don't know how to get into safe mode.

Any tips? Win 98, by the way.

 

[Mr. Redundant]

restart comp
Enter Windows SAFE MODE by holding down the F8 or Ctrl key just before the Windows Graphic User Interface, (the colored start screen or GUI), displays on the monitor. If you see the Windows GUI you missed your opportunity and you will need to cycle through, shutdown and try again.
if you did it correctly it should bring up a pre-windows menu asking what you want to do.
select run in safe mode


however its usually best to run it from windows normally, so first
press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the
'Close Program' window. Close every program listed except Explorer and Systray
by highlighting each item and clicking 'End Task'. also disable your screensaver
see if that works.

 

[Brian Damage]

Okay, I'll try the latter. If that doesn't work, the former it is.

Thanks.

 

[Mr. Redundant]

Okay, I'll try the latter. If that doesn't work, the former it is.

Thanks.

anytime senore.

 

[Frank]

On my computer you just have to hold down: "SHIFT" when you restart your computer...

 

[PainLord]

Usually depends on the OS. For XP, its F8, for 98 its ctrl.

 

[Maxi]

for 98 its f5

 

[lePobz]

i thought it was F5 for 98.

 

[ComradeBadger]

For different BIOS chips, it's different.

EDIT: My advice, use a startup disk whack that in, and wait, and it will let you boot into Safe Mode if you wish

 

[psyno]

One of the function keys or Ctrl gives you a menu, some of the others boot straight to different modes, e.g. safe mode, safe mode with networking, etc. I'm sure MS has it posted somewhere...

When I defrag a Win9x computer I always do it from safe mode. It isn't that it can't be done from Windows normally, but you have less to worry about, and actually defrag more of your drive since there will be less unmovable files.

 

[Brian Damage]

Woah...

Well, it didn't work properly. I think there may have been a power failure last night, because the computer had restarted when I got up this morning, and it wasn't supposed to do that, was it?

Ehhh... I'll try the other things mentioned...

 

[psyno]

No it shouldn't have restarted by itself, though it may have prompted you to restart it. Keep in mind Occam's razor.

 

[Brian Damage]

Occam. Yeah. 'k.

What do you mean "prompted you to restart it"? I never saw a prompt.

 

[psyno]

Nothing. It was late and I thought Win 98 might prompt you to reboot when it finishes defragging, but come to think of it at a decent hour, it doesn't. Generally a scan disk and a defrag are good things to do after a power outage.

 

[Brian Damage]

Ah. Well, I'm giving it another go tonight.