scan disk and defrag

[JPC57]

Hi, this is my first time here. A friend told me about this site.

I have a Compaq Presario computer, Windows 98 se. Just over a year ago, it needed a new hard drive. CompUSA put a new drive in. Since then, I have not been able to scan disk and defrag, even in safe mode. Now I am getting errors that Windows cannot scan on boot up and when the computer shuts down and restarts. I hit "enter," and then it goes to the desk top. But it is not scanning and fixing errors. What can I do? I live an hour and a half from the closest computer repair shop. Thanks.

JC
PS: I've been told "computers are cheap now, just buy a new one." I would, but stay-at-home mommies don't make a lot of money. I have tons of pix and a lot of files on this computer, so I need to learn what is wrong with this one and learn how to fix it.

 

[MMUK]

try get hold of a trial version of norton disk doctor or something it fixes more errors

if u scan disk and have bad sectors u will lose data!
so back up ur stuff first!!!!!!

try manually seting ur drives for a CHKDSK on reboot as u have to run CHKDSK before u can scandisk

if that fails i would suggest backup everything to another HD or CD/DVD and format and reinstall win98

try using partitions so u can have ur OS on 1 partition and ur data on another its rare a drive goes down if u keep it cool
then u can format ur Os part without having to move all ur data