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demonvamp
Member
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# Posted: 29 Feb 2004 13:25
Reply
My sister has an older comp running windows ME. It has started doing strange things, such as clearing her aol password to the net *so now she can't log on because the ditz forgot it*  and whenever she tries to run a defrag it causes an error, saying that another program is writing to the drive even though nothing is.
Personally, I think her random tech abuse of the poor comp is the cause, but any advice is appreciated as she's as liable to take a hammer to it as to fix it like a sane person.
Queen Demon 
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quincyw
Member
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# Posted: 29 Feb 2004 16:19
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ME is a horrible Operating System, which is why it was very quickly replaced by 2000 Professional (for home use), which was itself replaced by XP Home/Pro.
My advice is to go straight back to 98. Well, really, anything but ME. 98 is older, but far more stable and reliable than ME.
As for the other problems, the passwords thing, I have no idea, but it's probably a virus. Within 9x/ME, it's very vulnerable as all the passwords are kept in this one file which can be corrupted, accessed or deleted, because the 9x/ME has almost no security features to it.
As for the defrag, that I can believe. If your sister boots up the ME machine and you press Ctrl+Alt+Del ONCE ONLY!, you will see the running processes. While your sister may not have set any programs to run, there are some redundant, automatically start-up programs when Windows starts.
My advice, if you want to defrag any machine, there's a time, can't remember when, but just after you get the Windows (the "Welcome to Windows" thing), press F8 multiple times, then access "Safe Mode". This is Windows with no fluff, just as simple and "nothing" as Windows can get. Turn off the screensaver (I don't think it'll run anyway), start defrag, turn off the monitor and go to bed or out. It'll be done in a few hours.
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demonvamp
Member
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# Posted: 1 Mar 2004 06:52
Reply
Okay, thanks for that quincy, I'll tell her and see what happens  *prepares the nuclear shelter for the resulting explosions*
Hugs much, Queen D
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anth
Member
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# Posted: 4 Mar 2004 01:04
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Not that you need any more advice other than Quincy's. Cos he's quite right.
But i had ME from the word go on my first computer. Now i've got XP on it and its a different world! I used to have problems with de frag, no messages would come up. it just would not do the damn thing at all. Plus huge amounts of problems with stability. It would freeze up faster than a cold night on Hoth.
Definately go back to 98, or get XP.
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demonvamp
Member
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# Posted: 4 Mar 2004 06:31
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I have xp too, and she keeps on asking me thses questions and I stare at her windows version with this blank, helpless expression on my mush
She's fixed some problems now, *thanks* but she really should switch systems, *and or stop treating her comp like trash* 
QD
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quincyw
Member
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# Posted: 6 Mar 2004 00:12
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Well thank you, Anth.
As a general aside with defrag, there is, in one of the Options to like, can't remember the exact wording, but "Check for disk errors" or similar. Unchecking that box/option/whatever, makes defrag run faster, as the checking for disk errors checks for "physical damage" to the disk while defragging.
But generally, if you want to defrag, go to Safe Mode by pressing F8 at startup, turn off the screensaver, set the defrag and go to bed.
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