A computer question

[coriolis]

this new used computer has windows NT4.0 on it.
This OS does not include scandisk or defrag utilities.
I did some looking around on the internet and the lack of these utilities in NT is an issue.
There are lots of downloads out there for these utilities for NT
I was wondering if I could copy the defrag.exe and scandsk.exe from my other computer (windowsME) and run them on the NT machine.

I saw several places where you can copy these utilities from ME and run them on windows 98 because the ME versions run better than the 98 versions.

But isn't NT different in some fundamental ways?
Does anyone think that this will be a disaster?

[weatherlover427]

I wouldn't if I were you ... Not to be rude or anything but from what I have heard ME is a POS operating system. I use Diskeeper 7.0 and it does a fantastic job defragging. They have a 30 day trial at http://www.diskeeper.com . Dunno about the scandisk part though.

[coriolis]

Well I couldn't wait and tried it before you posted Josh. I tried to run the scandisk and got an error message that "this application is not supported by Windows NT" So it saved itself from my attempt to screw it up. Thanks.

[weatherlover427]

Hmm, you actually taught me something. Avoid NT because of the fact that it doesn't have Scandisk or Defrag.

[coriolis]

These machines ran great at work but they had a 3rd party utilities package installed on it. It's working fine and seems more stable than my ME machine. This was actually upgraded to XP but then they took it off when they sold it at auction. They may be able to transfer the upgrade to me too, but they are looking into it. It's always something. What do you expect for a $15 computer?

[stormchazer]

Hmm, you actually taught me something. Avoid NT because of the fact that it doesn't have Scandisk or Defrag.

These programs are not required for NT. NT uses a totally differnet file systems called NTFS. This file system is error correcting and does not become fragmented like the FAT16 and FAT32 systems in WIN9x. WinXP uses a variant on the NTFS system. It does have a Defrag utility because the file system is a bit different and can be fragmented.

Why not have NTFS on all Windows OS? The NTFS file system does not handle multimedia and graphics like the FAT file systems do. That is one of the variances that WinXP has built in and why the system can become fragmented.

There are 3rd party defrag programs out the for Windows NT. The work mostly on the paging file in NT and can be helpful if you are having performance problems. Here is a link to one common one:

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pagedefrag.shtml

Here is the site with other utilities:

http://www.sysinternals.com/index.shtml

[mf_dolphin]

NT can and does become fragmented just like the other OS. As far as NTFS, NT had the ability to use either the older Win32 file system or NTFS. It was an option at installation. To answer Ed's question, you can not use the Windows ME defrag utilities. You need to either upgrade to XP Professional or get a third party utility for Windows NT.

Hope this help

[VanceWxMan]

Marshall hit the nail on the head. NT is its own Operating system and yes it runs NTFS. Also YES it gets fragmented just like a FAT 16 or FAT32 HOWEVER NTFS is a more SECURE file system and is a great system to use for your operating system. It also handles files better than previous versions.

Now just upgrading to XP thats great but why does everyone totally forget about Win 2000? I mean if it wasn't for it XP would not exist :o sure it was buggy but SP3 took care of them. This is what I run and LOVE IT. I have not had one single problem with it and its STABLE as all get out

Just my opinion

Aaron

[rick-g]

windows NT has a chkdsk utility to check the disk for problems. You may have to start it and then reboot. NT doesn't have native defrag, you will need to get a 3rd party program.

I wouldn't use NT for anything today. IT was designed for server/ hi end business apps. Get a copy of windows 2000 and then you can use some of the other software that is available.