Here's my problem. I have a 27.9 Gig HD. Had it partitioned into 4-10-13.9 Gigs. When I defrag the drives/partitions, I run into a problem--W98's defrag utility has coughed when defraggin the primary, and on the second partition AFTER the primary, and when it does--it restarts the computer and every partition except the primary is gone.

This has happened 3 (THREE) times, and I am so mad I could spit nails right about now. Anyone know what's going on, and how to correct it?

BTW, for info, I run W98, and I have a version of Norton Ghost that came with my Epox Mobo, but I haven't mastered Ghost, so I did not have the partitions in question backed up.

Also, is there ANY way to recover the data on the partitions W98 "lost"? I had games, video, and images on them, as well as game patches. I would like to be able to recover the data, but most of all, I want to find out why this is happening and how to keep it from ever happening again.
Thanks.

i've never used the default defragger that comes with windows.

u can get norton's speed disk, which comes with norton utilities, which comes with norton system works (which includes norton antivirus & other utilities) .. for ~$10. see the ghost guide for details on 'where to get your copy'.

http://ghost.radified.com/

i've been using diskeeper lately and like it. it's fast. i've also used o&o, but it's not as fast. i mention some defraggers here:

http://radified.com/TheBest/programs_03.htm

ppl who use ghost normally only back-up their boot drive/partition. data partitions are typicaly back-up by burning the data (mp3s, movies, etc) to cd-r's.

i don't know what is causing your problem. i've never heard of anything like it. i wouldn't using that defragger any more.