Microsoft KB Archive/96519

= Situations in Which DEFRAG Cannot Run =

Article ID: 96519

Article Last Modified on 11/19/1999

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.2 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.21 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q96519



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

Keywords: KB96519

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