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Q96519: Situations in Which DEFRAG Cannot Run

Article: Q96519
Product(s): Microsoft Disk Operating System
Version(s): MS-DOS:6.0,6.2,6.21,6.22
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 19-NOV-1999

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft MS-DOS operating system versions 6.0, 6.2, 6.21, 6.22 
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SUMMARY
=======

Microsoft DEFRAG operates on the MS-DOS logical drive level only. Third-party
partitioning utilities that modify or translate disk geometry (such as Disk
Manager and SpeedStor) operate beneath the MS-DOS file system and are therefore
transparent to DEFRAG.

DEFRAG cannot share access to a drive with other tasks; therefore, you cannot run
DEFRAG if Windows or DESQview is running.

MORE INFORMATION
================

DEFRAG does not work in the following situations:

  Situation        Reason
  ----------       ------
  Network Drive    Network software usually does not allow full
                   single-tasking access to the entire drive,
                   including the file tables. Often network drives
                   (such as Novell NetWare) use another file system.

  CHKDSK Errors    Errors in the drive organization can cause
                   unpredictable results from DEFRAG. DEFRAG
                   identifies most CHKDSK errors while reading
                   the drive organization, and then refuses
                   to run until you correct them.

  Windows          DEFRAG cannot operate properly in a
                   multitasking or task-switching situation;
                   therefore, it detects Windows in real, standard,
                   and 386 enhanced modes and does not run.

  Task Swapper     DEFRAG cannot operate properly in a
                   task-switching situation; therefore, it detects
                   the MS-DOS Shell task swapper and does not run.

  Interlnk Drives  Interlnk is not designed to support defragmentation
                   and other low-level utilities. Specifically, it does
                   not implement interrupts 25 and 26.

  Fastopen         The Fastopen program tracks which files are located
                   in which clusters on your disk. DEFRAG rearranges
                   data on a cluster level, which confuses Fastopen.

  JOIN             JOIN does not allow normal access to a drive.

  SUBST            SUBST drives do not have their own file tables or
                   directories to optimize.

The products included here are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft;
we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance
or reliability.

Additional query words: 6.22 6.00 3rd party defrag 6.20

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbMSDOSSearch kbMSDOS621 kbMSDOS622 kbMSDOS620 kbMSDOS600
Version           : MS-DOS:6.0,6.2,6.21,6.22

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