"ScanDisk," & Controllers - help?

Is there a Scandisk-like program for WIN98SE, from a 3rd party, that runs "weally weally" fast? I lost several hours of work/play time today, waiting for that lard*** MS crap to go thru' measly 10 gig HD; sigh... It could be, technically, that such a process can't be rushed? I don't know, personally.

My PC info tells me that primary and secondary IDE controllers "have a problem..." - like they aren't there, or this or that is missing, or... Can you put that in English for me please, anyone? Is there a sword hanging over my PC's head right now, that spells approaching doom? Missing driver/s?

Any help's appreciated, as always.
Best, SG1 (Pat)

 

SG1,

I believe that Windows 98 SE came with a DOS version of Scandisk that you could run from a boot floppy. I may be wrong, it has been a while. As a matter of fact, I am almost certain that it came on the installation diskette.

You problem appears to be a controller problem, and not a hard drive issue. Could you please post the make and model of your motherboard, hard drive, and controller if it is a PCI card? With this information, I can walk you through fixing it.

Close

 

Re: "ScanDisk," & Controllers - help? ATTN: Close Hauled

Thanks for your offer to help; below is info:

Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A7N266VM REV 1.xx
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software, Inc. ASUS A7N266-VM ACPI BIOS
Rev 1004/AA 08/23/2002

HDs Samsung, and Maxtor.
30.66 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
2.76 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

c: (FAT32 on drive N) 10.19 GB 279 MB free
d: (FAT32 on drive N) 20.47 GB 2.48 GB free

Standard Floppy Disk Controller
Primary IDE controller (single fifo)
Secondary IDE controller (single fifo)
Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller

SG1 (Pat)

 

Thanks SG1. I have what I need to help you. I will get on this a little later today.

 

Sorry to be late on this.

The BIOS version you have is old. Version 1007 is the latest, yours is 1004.

I recommend that you go to Asus support and download the latest BIOS.

Your motherboard uses an nVidia nForce chipset. You need to download the latest drivers from nVidia on their download site.

Please let me know if these fix the problem.

 

I always thought the defragger in Windows 98 was really really really slow, and most people with 98 use another defragger, like the one listed on the wilder.org free software page.

The one they have listed is called "Fast DEFRAG Utility" it says it will speed up the Windows 98 defrag dramatically. Go here http://www.wilders.org/free_tools.htm to check it out. You'll find it under "cleaners". Click on it and it will take you to a download page. Look for "newdfrag.zip", that's the one you want, and it's free.

I think some folks also used the defragger from Windows ME for 98 too, and that is supposed to work real well, from what I've heard. But it's been so long since I've heard anyone talk about it, I'm not completely sure anymore that's what they used to do. But you may want to look into this option also. Best of luck.

 

The application in question is not Defrag, but ScanDisk. There is also a driver issue here that needs to be addressed before applying any applications. Fix the driver issue. Then run ScanDisk to see if it is still slow.

I would not download, or use any utilities unless they are recommended by long time users of Wilders Security. Most of them have tried of these utilities, and can be relied upon to give good advice.

 

Re: "ScanDisk," & Controllers - help? ATTN: CLOSE HAULED (Part two)

Thanks for your research/help.

I went to one site that you mentioned the other day, and a big window opened wherein one had to accept the license agreement and I clicked on "agree" but that was it - no matter how I changed browser settings and put site in trusted zone, etc., I could go no farther, so a no-go on that account (and I think it was nVidia web site).

The asus site was often busy and redirected one to here or there, and then they asked for socket type - info I didn't have handy just then, so I had to stop there, run utility again to generate a report. I'm also bit leary of messing with flash bios update, and video drivers, as it's a perfect way to really jam up a PC. Sigh... but again, many many thanks, for your kind assistance in this matter.

SG1 (Pat)

*** P.S. PC has begun just killing/shutting down, in midst of things. Did get bios update, but did not install yet. Still can't get other driver. PC is off to the repair shop soonest, I fear. Time for more RAM, bigger HDs, etc., so I'll have our fixit guy do that as well.

But why's PC just killing, like that? PC World mag said that failing power supply, for instance, can lead one to think m'board is bad or going bad? But, PC seems bit hotter, than it should, also; took 1 side cover off to cool it.

 

Re: "ScanDisk," & Controllers - help? ATTN: CLOSE HAULED (Part two)

Anytime.

This is odd. Did you try Firefox too?

If you use this address, you will bypass the license agreement part:

ftp://download.nvidia.com/Windows/nForce/4.27/nForce_4.27_Win98ME_international.exe

I should have given you this information. I figured it all out when I first looked at the Asus site. If you use this model number:

A7N266-VM/AA

You should find everything you need.

This problem is typical of a power supply failure. I would check the fan inside the power supply. Sometimes they fail, and you don't know it. The power supply, and/or system will over heat as a result, thus crashing your system.

If you added something recently, like another drive, or a powerful graphics card, then you may have exceeded the wattage limit of the power supply. Systems today are now demanding more power.

If you have to replace the power supply, I recommend supplies from PC Power & Cooling. Select one that is at the same wattage as yours or higher.