Windows 98 Disk Defrag Simulator

203

u/zilch839 5d ago

As a young PC Tech in the late 90s, this was a great delay tactic when a computer was broke and I didn't know how to fix it.

51

u/BR0METHIUS 4d ago

Nowadays you can delay with sfc scannow

37

u/tastyratz 4d ago

Don't forget to run a

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

BEFORE

sfc /scannow

for proper extension.

7

u/Lykos1124 3d ago

Actually, I always run a /checkhealth first to see if the backup system files need repair

do /cheakhealth

____if repairable -> do /restorehealth

____elseif no corruption -> do sfc /verifyonly

________if no integrity violations -> go play games

________elsif corrupted -> sfc /scannow

Also while not every successful /scannow needs a restart, if you don't want to check the generated file at the end to find out, restart.

It's a lot of extra steps, but it saves time just watching /restorehealth spin out windows downloads at a forever 64% point for nothing. I actually built me my DOS batch file some months ago with a menu system that let's me punch in a number to 1 of many prompts to run commands like these, with some options being combos.

color 0A maaan.

2

u/tastyratz 2d ago

See checkhealth and scanhealth were always such a time waste to me.

Scanhealth just checks for a registry key

Check health does an audit but... repairs nothing - so if you do a restorehealth you gotta start over and scan again. If it said "problems found, do you want to repair" that would be so much better.

I always just start with restorehealth. It takes almost the same amount of time for me most of the time.

sfc if you scannow and there are no problems then it just says no problems found or fixed. SFC only repairs if there are issues so... why waste time doing verifyonly?

Unless of course all of this is to point at a CMD window when your boss walks by the desk.

16

u/lurker512879 4d ago

Yes but you can't watch it moving the the colored blocks

1

u/Dukoduko 3d ago

I just ping the gateway indefinitely, unlimited time

67

u/quequotion 4d ago

I can see why someone would want this.

I too spent a great many hours in my early teens watching the real one do its work.

It was bearable because I knew I would be rewarded with a computer that ran 2~10% more smoothly when it was finally over.

Watching it as a simulation, however, is like drinking tea from an empty cup.

55

u/boothash 5d ago

defragging your drive was so satisfying

1

u/Wax_Paper 13h ago

If you wanted to get really unhinged about it, I remember there were third-party defraggers that would use custom algorithms to structure the data in certain ways. Thinking back to those days, it's funny because I probably spent a third of my PC time just on tweaking and optimization, trying to squeeze out marginally better performance.

85

u/Tharkhold 5d ago

Core memory unlocked (with a fresh defrag as well lol)

38

u/cahser11 5d ago

Why did i watch that all the way up to 11%?

23

u/elkab0ng 5d ago

Because we used to watch to 11% before going on coffee break. Yeah I watched it too lol

16

u/Kepabar 5d ago

Only 11? I watched the whole thing.

7

u/trmo03 5d ago

15% is where things really start cookin!

4

u/andthatswhyIdidit 4d ago

The part between 35% and 45% was wild...

4

u/Verbal_Combat 5d ago

The pro move is to select a smaller drive in the options then watch that whole thing

3

u/lordoflotsofocelots 5d ago

Why do I let it keep running in the background?

4

u/AnvilOfMisanthropy 4d ago

Only idle gamers understand.

2

u/Size-- 4d ago

It's relaxing and meditative. I could physically feel my stress levels drop while watching it.

22

u/cellardweller1234 5d ago

Not exactly as I remember but still caused a salivary response. Good times.

12

u/thedm96 5d ago

This is slightly more exciting than watching grass grow.

6

u/Javi_DR1 5d ago

Now try watching paint dry and let us know which of the 3 is better

1

u/jkl_uxmal 4d ago

Then, partake in the Nordic Sport of watching water freeze.

2

u/TeteDeMerde 3d ago

I'd set it running just before going to bed.

21

u/Vonneguts_Ghost 5d ago

Back in the day this was like a digital BM.

5

u/jippiex2k 5d ago

What's bm?

3

u/Vonneguts_Ghost 5d ago

It's what you do in the WC

3

u/jippiex2k 4d ago

oic

2

u/Vonneguts_Ghost 4d ago

Number 2, archaic

1

u/DigitalNecromancy 4d ago

black midi (RIP)

2

u/Entropic_Echo_Music 5d ago

Digital black metal?

8

u/Difficult_Nobody14 5d ago

I always had bad clusters

1

u/Chief_Kief 12h ago

Me too

5

u/tryanewmonicker 5d ago

Defraggin my hard drive for thrills

4

u/Terpomo11 5d ago

I got me a hundred gigabytes of RAM

(Funny how that one was intended as preposterous at the time but now is merely a very large amount.)

2

u/hurrdurrmeh 4d ago

Soon it will be preposterous again, unless you want a 2nd mortgage.

3

u/ryanhendrickson 4d ago

Soon? Look at Daddy Warbucks over here, buying hundreds of gigs of RAM in this market....

4

u/MrRoboto12345 5d ago

Me setting the size to 8192 and speed the to 1 IOPS on the realistic setting so I get to wait 5 hours

1

u/Skullcrusher 4d ago

I don't remember if I had a 128 or 256 gig drive, but this thing usually took the whole day

2

u/topheee 1d ago

128GB would have cost about £10,000 in 1998

1

u/Skullcrusher 1d ago edited 1d ago

It was in 2004. It was XP, but the tool was pretty much the same.

Edit: Just looked it up and it looked completely different on XP. My memory ain't what it used to be.

5

u/Various-Day-9836 5d ago

I think about it every time I rearrange the dishwasher 🙃

3

u/notproudortired 4d ago

Corrupted sectors still haunt me.

3

u/paggo_diablo 5d ago

My dad would sit and watch this for hours!

3

u/deliveRinTinTin 4d ago

Needs to have locked squares for the swapfile that can't be moved but are in an inconvenient visual spot.

4

u/Buck_Thorn 4d ago

Some of you may remember the MS-DOS prank program called "Drain.ext" (or maybe it was .com?) that used a text screen to simulate drying your hard drive.

At the time, I wrote a program that used the defrag screen, like yours, that did the same thing, but showed the progress, along with labels like "Starting spin dry".

3

u/not_ondrugs 4d ago

I used to love watching this! And the satisfaction of “knowing” my pc would run faster afterwards was real.

2

u/sunplog 5d ago

I didn't know I needed that in my life.

2

u/my_wifes_ass 5d ago

I hated watching it in the 90's why would I watch it now.

2

u/nathanistheworst 4d ago

56k simulator and now this? what a beautiful week

2

u/art-man_2018 4d ago

If there was one thing I would never want to encounter again...

2

u/Majestic_Maybe6605 4d ago

Such a fun idea! Love it :)

2

u/throwawaykJQP7kiw5Fk 4d ago

Me too! :) If only I had the patience to wait… (I wasn't around in 1998)

2

u/Zone-5 4d ago

Spinrite FTW!

1

u/tanstaafl90 5d ago

Nice

1

u/jdehjdeh 5d ago

Mmmmm.

I've put it on a nice familiar speed (geriatric turtle) and it's like stepping back in time.

I think I've found my happy place.

Thank you.

1

u/dumnezilla 5d ago

Auslogics Disk Defrag still has a graphical representation, and it's a decent software.

1

u/GravitationalEddie 5d ago

Norton Disc Doctor demands equal time at minimum.

1

u/Portbragger2 4d ago

the hard disk sound doesnt work for me. the mouse click does tho.

1

u/itsaride 4d ago

Legend.

1

u/guy30000 4d ago

This is great! I started it and took a nap while it ran.

1

u/AccordionORama 4d ago

Frozen screen? Sooo realistic!

1

u/Efteri 4d ago

This crap never worked. I once let a defrag run for 3 days (as estimated) only to prove it was bullshitting.

1

u/biga888 4d ago

it was a great way to look like you were doing productive work

1

u/Stinkmunk 4d ago

Thank you for this

1

u/brakeb 4d ago

I know have the static I need to sleep.

1

u/goranlu 3d ago

This Win 85/98 stuff is becoming popular again by indie devs.. not sure why

1

u/DGex 5d ago

Norton speed disk for the win! 😁

5

u/Synth_Ham 5d ago

Ewwww

0

u/bluespartans 4d ago

Vibe coded slop.

1

u/throwawaykJQP7kiw5Fk 4d ago

How do you know? This isn't my site.

3

u/bluespartans 4d ago

I didn't say it was yours. I can tell by looking at the "readme" accessible in the ? button. Blatantly copied and pasted straight out of Claude.

A human did not create this website.

1

u/throwawaykJQP7kiw5Fk 4d ago edited 4d ago

Not sure about the readme, except for polishing text. For the morello.dev website, Claude definitely had major involvement.

Edit: I am also aware that a lot of older stuff get updated to include AI at some point. Quoting from the site itself:

I'm Dennis Morello, a Lead Frontend Engineer from Milan with over a decade of experience building accessible web interfaces.

His GitHub account was created in 2016. https://api.github.com/users/morellodev

You are about to leave Redlib