I have run defrag from Computer Management and from My Computer, C:
properties, tools.

Last night I ran defrag from the Run: cmd as suggested: defrag c: -f
(I have NOT yet tried the file from almico.com that Mike Hall suggested or
the Ctrl Alt D that was suggested.)

The defrag started and I could hear the processor just churning like crazy.
I don't know how to describe the sound -- just like it's extremely busy.
Anyway, after maybe 10 minutes it came up with the analysis that only 7% of
my HD was fragmented. After that there were no messages or changes on the
screen of any kind. Then I let it continue for 2 hours and it made a lot of
"processing" sounds, but for awhile it sounded like it was actually moving
things around. The screen never changed (I was in the "DOS command"
window?? so I couldn't see the little squares or graph representation of the
defrag). After 2 hours on a 40GB HD with only 60% used, I figured that was
enough and by then it was sounding different -- more like it was stuck in
one place. I was afraid the whole thing would blow! I couldn't figure out
how to end the defrag so I brought up my Task Manager and ended defrag.exe
in processes. I notice that the process that was using memory was
DFRGFAT32.EXE (or something like that). For CPU usage, it would alternate
between System Idle Process and DFRGFAT32. I could see defrag.exe in the
process list, but it wasn't doing anything.

I contacted DELL about a diagnostics utility. They didn't know what I was
talking about. Maybe I didn't ask the right question.

Maybe I should mention that when I UPGRADED from ME to XP, I never was asked
if I wanted to change my file system to NTFS; hence it is still FAT32. I'm
not sure whether the upgrade went smoothly or not. I had lots of problems
with printers and scanners, but that has been resolved.

I have a Pentium 4 with 256mg RAM (I know that's barely enough, but it IS
enough). I don't really need to defrag, BUT it bothers me when things don't
work right. When the MS technician said my HD was likely giving out, I
couldn't/wouldn't believe it. As best as I can tell, all is functioning ok.
There is lots of frequent cpu activity for no apparent reason, but I am
guessing that McAfee is running checks in the background. I didn't have
McAfee before, so I can't compare.

Sorry this is SOOOOOOO long. Anybody have any more advice? Thanks,
Jeannine