I was able to do it easier in Windows 98 as there was a Maintenance Wizard. But in Windows XP, I feel like lost. I want to schedule Defragment and Scandisk to be done at nights. Any help appreciated. Thanks. :)

Not sure if I get your drift as there is a "Scheduled Tasks wizard" and it is pretty straight forward. You chose the program and then the launch date/time.

As per the XP on-board HELP and SUPPORT

"To schedule a new task
Open Scheduled Tasks.
Double-click Add Scheduled Task.
Follow the instructions in the Scheduled Task Wizard.
Notes

To open Scheduled Tasks, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Scheduled Tasks.

If you want to configure advanced settings for the task, select the Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish check box on the final page of the wizard.
Confirm that the system date and time on your computer are accurate, because Scheduled Tasks relies on this information to run scheduled tasks. To verify or change this information, double-click the time indicator on the taskbar.
You must supply the password for the account on which you want the the scehduled task to run. The password cannot be blank."

Hey win4now, thanks for the reply. You can also defrag by typing defrag C: -f which does the job when the hdd is even below 15% free space. :)

The problem is neither of those two programs i.e. defrag and scandisk are not in the Schedule Task Wizard. I couldn't find them in \Windows either. :unsure:

OK you peeked my curiousity, I did a quick check on my HDD and found that "DEFRAG" was resident at a number of places. Found it via CMD prompt doing a simple C:\>DIR DEFRAG.* /s/o/a/p (noticed that it was even part of the SP1 Update package).

As per the Sceduled tasks I did see that it wasn't part of the pre-defined list but I then did a MANUAL entry using C:\WINDOWS32\SYSTEM32\DEFRAG.EXE C: as the target file as I didn't want it run on my other HDD's.


I now have a JOB in the Scheduled Tasks that can be modified for launch date/time.

As a note though I generally don't run it via the CMD line method but use the Microsoft Management Console version via "%SystemRoot%\System32\dfrg.msc" which has the hooks imbedded for FAT & NTFS drives.

Also after seeing the shortcomings in the stock M$-DEFRAG I switched over to a great little proggie called "VoptXP" that allows me batch defrags and other advanced controls.

* SCANDISK is another kettle of fish though.

Thank for your time dude, that was the information I was after. Never expected that to be in \System32 as I hardly believed I could find it in \Windows. Thanks again. :D


Oh BTW, it was C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DFRG.EXE :huh:
Next hopeless thing happened was, when I ran the Schedule Task, it just opened Disk Defragmenter and did NOTHING, as if it was waiting us for press the Defragment button. What the hell? I scheduled it to run at 0230hrs and is it expecting me to get up from the bed and press the damn button? Bullshit. There should be some other alternative. My mind's not working....:(

Must be a version diff on our computers as DEFRAG.EXE is stock on my XP and as I mentioned it was on the XP SP1 as well.

Question for you is did you specify a TARGET drive for your defrag job ?

In my example above you will see I set it to "C:"

BTW most of the the files starting with "df????" are for the MMC version to run with.

Great Help! Very much appreciated. :)

The schedule task now says to run:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\defrag.exe C:

Had a trial run and works great even though it is running via command prompt.
Thanks heaps! :D

P.S:
If anyone would benefit, the Scan disk works as follows:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\chkdsk.exe C:

Glad to hear you got it sorted out.

Scratching my head though regarding your "PS" to SCANDISK ?

He He. Just to make the life easier if there was someother n00b who was exactly like me. :D

He He. Just to make the life easier if there was someother n00b who was exactly like me. :D[/b][/quote]
I think you were missing my point abt yer PS as we were in a discussion abt DEFRAG and you then POSTED as a SCANDISK command.

SCANDISK looks for HDD file faults

DEFRAG optimizes (kind of) your HDD

But I know thats what U meant. :lol: