Defragmentation Problems: Dr. Watson

ApolloTreatingYou

I've been trying to defrag. my computer and every time it finishes, im told that a file could not be defragmented. I view the log and it lists a system file called "Dr. Watson". I did some research and discovered that Dr. Watson is a build in Windows error logger/information gatherer.

Now, I'm not sure why this is running since I don't seem to be getting any errors. And the problem is that it's listing this file as like 45gigs with 300,000 fragments. Why won't it defrag this? I have a feeling it's part of a larger problem, but i have no idea where to begin.

b0bd0d

uh...run a disk check utility. Sounds like something aint right with the file system

ApolloTreatingYou

Is there an alternative to Norton Disk Check? Cause that's the only one I know of, and I really don't want to go buy it.

Janin

ApolloTreatingYou wrote: »

Is there an alternative to Norton Disk Check? Cause that's the only one I know of, and I really don't want to go buy it.

How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP

ApolloTreatingYou

So the log file for Dr. Watson was 50gigs... why the hell is it that big? Does this mean my pc has tons of errors or something? I am confused.

supabeast

If you're getting Dr. Watson errors that's usually a terrible, awful, damned near apocalyptic sign. Dr. Watson isn't something that's really meant for normal users; hell most advanced Windows geeks I've known haven't touched it—at least not on purpose—since the Windows 3.1 days. If your system has generated a 50 gig Dr. Watson log, something is horribly wrong, and it's unlikely that you'll be able to fix it. Backup all of your data to an external drive ASAP, and then do a total reformat and reinstall on this machine.

supabeast

On a related note: you might want to try reading the Dr. Watson log in case its recording some sort of hardware failure. Don't try to open the 50 gig file! If windows will let you, delete the file, run the computer for a little while, and then open up the newer, hopefully much smaller log file. It probably won't make any sense, but there's a very small chance it will say something useful.

ApolloTreatingYou

I don't understand. I'm literally having 0 problems with my PC. It was just this thing that wouldn't let me defrag. I deleted the file and now everything is fine.

supabeast

So the log isn't filling up again? Sorry, I just assumed that there was something else going on and that's why you were defragging—and having issues doing so. Usually if stuff is getting logged by Dr. Watson it's because something *really* bad is happening, and so I assumed that a 50 gigabyte log was a sign of really bad shit.

If the log isn't filling up again, it could just be some crazy disk issue that made Windows think you had a 50gig file sitting around. Stranger things have happened.

ApolloTreatingYou

Well, no I wasn't having any problems when I tried to defrag. Everything seems to be running ok, except it was a little slow. Hence the defrag.

I really wouldn't be surprised if there was a problem with my HD. A while ago I overheated it repeatedly while playing Star Wars: Empire at War. The computer would just randomly crash for about a week, along with deleted and corrupted files. I reformatted and it eventually just went back to normal. The log file could have been left over from that I guess. Not really sure.

So I deleted the log file and disabled it's ability to log anymore. So I don't know if it's still logging errors. Ther quite possibly is some permanent damage from the overheating, but I don't know what to do about it except get a new HD.