The Connection To The Defragmenter Engine Has Been Lost

Discussion in 'Software' started by J8son, Feb 17, 2006.

  1. J8son

    J8son Corporal

    I'm having an issue with Windows XP disk defragmenter. It will analyze the hard drive and at the 1% mark (during the Compacting Files stage) I get the following error message:

    "The Connection to the defragmenter engine has been lost. Restart defragmentation."

    I've run Disk Dr that is included with Norton System Works and it didn't find any errors.

    I've also tried running the following commands in the command prompt but to no avail:

    regsvr32 dfrgsnap.dll
    regsvr32 dfrgui.dll


    The last thing I tired was browsing to the windows\inf folder, right clicked on the dfrg.inf file and clicked install.

    So far, nothing works. Any thoughts?
     
  2. Matacumbie

    Matacumbie Rocky Top

    Try safe mode. If it completes the defrag, restart and try again in normal mode.

    Steve
     
  3. J8son

    J8son Corporal

    Well, what we have here is a good news, bad news situation.

    The good news is I ran defrag in safe mode and everything went off like a charm!

    The bad news is when I reboot and run the defrag in normal operating mode I get the same "Connection to the defragmenter engine has been lost" error.

    What should I try next?
     
  4. Wavetar

    Wavetar Sergeant

    I honestly wouldn't worry about it...most people actually recommend running utilities like defrag & disk checking in safe mode due to the fact many different programs/drivers can interfere with it in normal mode. XP isn't so bad, but it used to be practically a fact of life with Win 95/98.
     
  5. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    I wouldn't ignore it.

    Run chkdsk /f on the drive from a cmd prompt, and reboot to run it (it will ask to schedule it for next boot).
     
  6. snakefoot

    snakefoot Sergeant Major

    What happens if you run defrag.exe from the command line ?
     
  7. J8son

    J8son Corporal

    I ran chkdsk /f but when it listed the info the screen popped off so fast I didn't get a chance to read the results.

    Is there a way to pull up a log of the previous tests results?
     
  8. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    Run it from a cmd prompt, not start, run.
     
  9. J8son

    J8son Corporal

    Yes, I know. I did that from the cmd prompt when I restarted the computer it schedule a scan.

    The results that show up afterwards with all the info about your disk is only on screen so briefly I didn't get a chance to read into what the problem might be.

    That's why I'm wondering if there's a log. Does the scan automatically corrected any errors it finds on the disk?
     
  10. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    Yes. Results are logged in the Event Viewer.

    Have you tried defragging since?
     
  11. krit86lr

    krit86lr Corporal

    I have to agree with Wavetar. If defrag works in Safe Mode, then there isn't anything wrong with the defrag utility itself.

    There are 2 reasons that defrag won't work in Normal Mode. 1. You don't have Administrator privileges (sp?), or 2. There is a process running in the background that is grabbing hold of the HD while the defragmenter is trying to use it.

    In Safe Mode only a few specific processes are running, and they don't grab the HD.

    If you aren't having any other problems then there probably isn't anything wrong. If you want to you can stop 1 process at a time, and determine which process is interfering with the defragmenter, but that's really time consuming. Just use Safe Mode.
     
  12. J8son

    J8son Corporal

    I've never had a problem with the defragmenter up until this point. Therefore, it's something recent that has caused this problem. Rather than just ignore this problem I would rather identify the cause and fix it.

    In the Event Viewer I have three options: Application, Security and System. Not sure what I'm looking for. Where would I find the results of the scan I ran checking the disk?

    Also, I closed all background applications (ones not used by XP that is) and re-ran the disk defrag. At this point it gets to the 87% mark of the Compacting Files stage and then looses the connection to the defrag engine.

    Any thoughts?
     
  13. Matacumbie

    Matacumbie Rocky Top

    One other thing you might check is a screensaver running. If you have added one recently, disable it and see if it makes a difference.

    Steve
     
  14. krit86lr

    krit86lr Corporal

    If you stop all of the processes at once you don't know which one is causing the problem. If it's getting to 87% you've stopped one already. Good suggestion on the screensaver.

    You can stop 1 at a time, reboot, and defrag. If the one that you stopped didn't help, restart that processes, and stop another.

    You can stop all EXCEPT the following.
    taskMgr.exe
    explorer.exe
    svchost.exe (you may have 2, or 3...don't stop any)
    MsMpEng.exe
    lsass.exe
    services.exe
    winlogon.exe
    csrss.exe
    smss.exe
    System
    System Idle Process SYSTEM

    Good luck!
     
  15. krit86lr

    krit86lr Corporal

    Sorry I forgot something. Before stopping 1 process at a time this may, or may not work, but it's worth a shot.

    Command Line defrag /f Note the space after defrag.

    This command line forces defragmation. Let me know if it works.

    Good Luck!! :)
     
  16. J8son

    J8son Corporal

    Why would it make a difference if I closed one at a time? If I closed all the tasks not being used by XP and the defrag still doesn't work that would rule that out wouldn't it?

    Also, I still need to check the Event View but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Also, we can rule out the screen saver option because I only have the default XP screen savers installed and they are always off.
     
  17. krit86lr

    krit86lr Corporal

    You've already stopped 1, or more processes that were interfering. This is proved because originally you got to 1%, and now you're reaching 87%. But...you don't know which one's were causing the problem because you stopped so many at once. If you want to defrag in Normal Mode I'm thinking that you don't want to stop every process everytime that you defrag. It would be easier to just stop the few that interfere.
     
  18. krit86lr

    krit86lr Corporal

    Pull up Task Manager and compare your running processes against the list I posted. If you stop the extra you be able to reach 100%. But until you stop 1 at a time you won't know which one's to stop.

    As for event viewer...double click Applications > double click on the error messages, and the Warning messages. This will display details about errors occuring.

    I hope that some of this helps. Did the command line work?
     
  19. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest


    Actually, it may not have been stopping a process. It could have been the chkdsk.

    Check the system event log, for events with the source of winlogon. I believe thats where results are stored for chkdsk.
     
  20. J8son

    J8son Corporal

    I should have been more clear about this. I was able to reach 87% after I did the defrag in safe mode. Also, the reason I can rule out interference from running background programs is that they've never caused a problem like this in the past and I have the same set of installed programs and apps running as I did when the defrag did work.

    Here is the error I see that is repeated several times in the Event Viewer:

    Usernev
    Event: 1517
    User: System
    Description:
    Windows saved user NEMESIS\The Nemesis registry while an application or service was still using the registry during log off. The memory used by the user's registry has not been freed. The registry will be unloaded when it is no longer in use.

    This is often caused by services running as a user account, try configuring the services to run in either the LocalService or NetworkService account.


    The Nemesis is the name of my computer by the way.
     
  21. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    That is just an informational thing, it won't cause any problems.
     
  22. J8son

    J8son Corporal

    I found the results. There doesn't appear to be any problems on the disk. Take a look:

    Winlogon
    Event: 1001
    User: n/a
    Description:
    Checking file system on C:
    The type of the file system is NTFS.
    Volume label is Drive.


    A disk check has been scheduled.
    Windows will now check the disk.
    Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
    Cleaning up 4 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
    Cleaning up 4 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
    Cleaning up 4 unused security descriptors.

    312560608 KB total disk space.
    46137584 KB in 68046 files.
    29700 KB in 4932 indexes.
    0 KB in bad sectors.
    198824 KB in use by the system.
    65536 KB occupied by the log file.
    266194500 KB available on disk.

    4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
    78140152 total allocation units on disk.
    66548625 allocation units available on disk.

    Internal Info:
    90 e0 01 00 1c 1d 01 00 2b a9 01 00 00 00 00 00 ........+.......
    37 02 00 00 01 00 00 00 9c 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 7...............
    44 e6 2d 02 00 00 00 00 64 80 26 1d 00 00 00 00 D.-.....d.&.....
    54 44 8d 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 TD..............
    00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 b0 7d 0d 29 00 00 00 00 .........}.)....
    99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 90 38 07 00 ce 09 01 00 ..6......8......
    00 00 00 00 00 c0 03 00 0b 00 00 00 44 13 00 00 ............D...

    Windows has finished checking your disk.
    Please wait while your computer restarts.


    What should we try next?
     
  23. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest


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