windows98SE

[vicky]

My IBM 365Thinkpad laptop is not able to do a complete defrag. I bought this used 1998 laptop recently, and removed a whole bunch of old temp and internet files. I ran scandisk and it found several bad clusters but nevertheless it completed the scandisk. However, it will not complete a defrag not even in Safe Mode. Since there was no antivirus/firewall/spyware security previously installed, I went ahead and d/loaded these programs which I have not yet installed.

My question is: there may be some damage to the harddrive,(???) and I need to know if I should go ahead and install these security d/loads and then run them to clean up, then try to defrag after that? If I am not able to do this, then my other question (alternative) is: Is it possible to install a new harddrive, and then install Win98SE from a CD which a friend copied for me from his (Win98) pc? Any replies will be much appreciated.

[Yawgm0th]

Re: windows98SE

I'd try Diskkeeper Lite on it, but it that hard drive is really bad, you can indeed get a new one. It's not even that hard to install them, though they tend to be quite a bit more expensive than regular hard drives.

[amd_man2005]

Re: windows98SE

Well first off you need to install the Anti-virus and a Firewall, and they may eliminate viruses that are still active on the laptop, if any. Second, as Yawgm0th said, give Diskkeeper a run on it and see what happens. Replacing laptop HD's is generally simple. A new 40gb drive runs ~$60US