Re: Writing Script for ScanDisk and Defrag

Thanks for all the help Jeff. One more question, if I set the pc's up to run
the scheduled task how can I get it to actually run them without needing any
user input? We will run this over night so nobody will be in the office. I
tested the tasks on my pc and it only opens it but you still have to hit OK.
Is there anyway to automate this?

"Jeffery Hicks [MVP]" wrote:

Very well put. Unfortunately, it is Jaybee's management that needs to see
this. I agree that if this is something to be done on a regular basis, then
create a scheduled task.

--
Jeffery Hicks
Microsoft PowerShell MVP
http://www.scriptinganswers.com
http://www.powershellcommunity.org

Now Available: WSH and VBScript Core: TFM
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"Al Dunbar" <AlanDrub@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OlckckaTIHA.1204@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
There are a number of ways something like this could be implemented (as
noted by the other responders) - the best one for your situation would
likely be the one that you find simplest - and seems to make the most
sense to you. I prefer scheduled tasks over startup scripts because then
they would not run too frequently on machines that are rebooted many times
per day or too infrequently on machines that are rebooted only rarely. If
you are more comfortable setting up startup scripts through group policy,
however, that would be a point in favour of that method. But you might
want your script to actually do more work to make sure it is not
defragging and scanning too often.

However, I would still recommend that you go back to square one and make
sure that the *reason* for doing these things is well understood. If, as
you say, it is a bit of preventive maintenance, then I would ask you who
it was that suggested that this include a run of scandisk (or chkdsk).

As I indicated in an earlier response, there can be some validity in
simply running defrag.exe periodically. We do this daily on our file and
print servers, but not on our workstations - although I have tried to make
a case for it. Pegasus recommends against it because of the possibility of
corruption in the event of a power failure reboot. That seems a small risk
to me, however, as defrag is designed to avoid committing changes that
would leave the file structure in an invalid intermediate state. Also, it
would depend on how good your electrical power is, and whether or not you
have good UPS capability in place.

But running something like scandisk or chkdsk makes very little sense -
UNLESS you are routinely capturing and analysing the error messages they
produce. If you were just running one of these to fix whatever problems it
can find that might seem nice. But it would be far better for you to know
which systems are experiencing disk problems of this nature. If not, the
scan program is merely going to defer the problems until the drive crashes
completely to such an extent that revival is no longer possible.

You seem to have been thrust into a situation that is currently a little
bit over your head. What you really need to do is to start understanding
what it take to keep a fleet of computers reliably operational, and
realize that you do nobody any good by simply making it look as if good
things are happening. A good case in point would be a backup and restore
capability. There is no point at all in running backups if you have never
tested to make sure you can do a restore, possibly even simulating some
types of drive failures (preferably in a test lab environment).


/Al

"JayBee" <JayBee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:65328973-E801-4C7F-B5BA-2237A188E185@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Deskstops only, Windows XP OS, some users have admin rights, some don't,
it
would need to be done once a month, no need for results reporting,
probably
quite a bit a free space on most pc's, only concern is C:\.

No problems has occurred, just want some sort of preventive maintenance
done.

"Jeffery Hicks [MVP]" wrote:

I know you're stuck in a bad position. Managers think scripting can be
a
"cheap" solution, but that is not always the case and I suspect in your
situation this is going to be the case. But back to the situation at
hand...

First, are we talking desktops, servers or both? What OS do you have to
support? Do user's have local admin rights? Is this a one time deal or
something you want to do on some sort of repeated basis? Do you need
any
sort of centralized results reporting? Do you have an idea of how much
average free space, as a percentage, users or servers have? Do you have
to
worry about drives other than C:\?

Can I ask what is driving this? Is there some suspicion of a problem?
Did
somebody read something in a trade mag that they think everything needs
to
be defragged?

This is not necessarily a difficult task but let's make sure we do it
right

--
Jeffery Hicks
Microsoft PowerShell MVP
http://www.scriptinganswers.com
http://www.powershellcommunity.org

Now Available: WSH and VBScript Core: TFM
Coming Soon: Windows PowerShell: TFM 2nd Ed.

"JayBee" <JayBee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ACB16357-3B13-4403-BA6F-718C750CF54B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am quite positive I wouldn't get the approval to buy something like
DiskKeeper. The big bosses want a simple script wrote to run this. Is
there
not an easy VB script I can write to get this going? Please Help!!
Thanks.

"Jeffery Hicks [MVP]" wrote:

As much as scripting can help, this may be a situation where a third
party
like DiskKeeper or PerfectDisk may be warranted. You clearly have
the
need
to manage multiple machines. Using a third party tool gives you much
more
control and information. Plus you can do things like boot time
defrag
which
you can't do with the built-in defrag tools.

If management has identified this task as business critical they
should
recognize the need to get the best solution.

--
Jeffery Hicks
Microsoft PowerShell MVP
http://www.scriptinganswers.com
http://www.powershellcommunity.org

Now Available: WSH and VBScript Core: TFM
Coming Soon: Windows PowerShell: TFM 2nd Ed.

"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:#Th4HMWTIHA.4656@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Put these lines into c:\Windows\MyDefrag.bat:
@echo off
chkdsk.exe /.. /.. /..
defrag.exe /.. /.. /..

Add your own switches as required. As Jeffery recommended, type
defrag /? and
chkdsk /?
at the Command Prompt to see what the switches mean.

Running these commands frequently may give you a warm feeling
inside but is neither necessary nor recommended. Chkdsk.exe does
not need to be run all the time in a healthy system and defragging
your partition frequently makes no difference to the speed but
could
corrupt the file system if the system gets rebooted in the middle,
e.g.
because of a power failure.


"JayBee" <JayBee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6743AA97-3527-4296-986B-9C8762C701A2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Can you give me an example of a basic script for them? I am not
real
sure
how
I would write it to get it to work. Thanks in advance.

"Jeffery Hicks [MVP]" wrote:

open a command prompt and run defrag /? and chkdsk /? to see the
syntax
for
each command.

--
Jeffery Hicks
Microsoft PowerShell MVP
http://www.scriptinganswers.com
http://www.powershellcommunity.org

Now Available: WSH and VBScript Core: TFM
Coming Soon: Windows PowerShell: TFM 2nd Ed.

"JayBee" <JayBee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:954818FD-6444-4411-8E96-3584E87D8ABB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Do you know of just a basic script I can write in Notepad to
run
defrag
and
scandisk?

"Jeffery Hicks [MVP]" wrote:

You could make it part of a user's logon script, assuming
their
account
has
rights to run defrag. Another option would be to make it part
of
a
computer
startup-script. Or as a variation, use a computer startup
script
to
set
the
scheduled task to run one time only. You could then use a
computer
shutdown
task to delete the job if you wanted.

--
Jeffery Hicks
Microsoft PowerShell MVP
http://www.scriptinganswers.com
http://www.powershellcommunity.org

Now Available: WSH and VBScript Core: TFM
Coming Soon: Windows PowerShell: TFM 2nd Ed.

"JayBee" <JayBee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2E9F79A2-BCC4-43AF-B5DC-CA179509280C@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks for the info, but I need a script I can run once and
it
push
to
all
the computers on our network. We don't want to have to go to
every
pc
and
set
up a scheduled task. Any ideas?

"Al Dunbar" wrote:

Running defrag as a scheduled task makes sense;
fragementation
occurs
naturally on a healthy volume, so there is really no need
to
know
what
is
going on with defrag unless it reports a serious disk
error.
But,
as
far
as
I know, any conditions that CHKDSK might resolve would be
better
known
about
than simply "fixed".


/Al

"Jeffery Hicks [MVP]" <jhicks@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ume6yL%23SIHA.4104@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If you have XP and later clients you can use DEFRAG.EXE
from
the
command
line. You can't run it remotely. You might try setting
up a
scheduled
task to do it. You can do that remotely using
SCHTASKS.EXE.
You
could
do
the same thing with CHKDSK.EXE.

--
Jeffery Hicks
Microsoft PowerShell MVP
http://www.scriptinganswers.com
http://www.powershellcommunity.org

Now Available: WSH and VBScript Core: TFM
Coming Soon: Windows PowerShell: TFM 2nd Ed.

"JayBee" <JayBee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message
news:60D55911-5707-4B16-B650-06FE51D6E1DD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I need help figuring out a good script to write for
running
ScanDisk
and
Defrag on our network. It would need to be able to run
on
all
the
.

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