error message

We run Win 98. The computer will sometimes freeze and we have to re-boot to get it to unfreeze. When we get that blue screen where it is scanning for errors, we get a message that says "Scan disk found a long file name" and we can click ok and continue with the reboot. Where can we find this "long file name"? I think the error message suggest we do a complete scan, but tried that and it would freeze up. We have just in the past few months, completely reformatted the hard drive and reloaded all software. Can someone help? Hopefully this is enough info. Thanks

pennydog--No personal experience, but here is what Google found
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...=Google+Search
I guess you know that ScanDisk runs by default on reboot when you shut down without going through the Start|ShutDown procedure. That can be disabled, but I suppose the error would still show up when you purposely ran ScanDisk as part of your maintenance procedures.

Thank you for the info. I still need to know "where" the long file is and how to get rid of it if we do not need it. Obviously it has just appeared in the past couple weeks. If the computer freezes the only way we know of is the re-boot, otherwise we shut it down properly. I have done the house call scan and the one with AVG and it shows nothing infected. But something is going on for this to have just started. Suggestions please, thank you.

I don't have any personal experience with long file names either, but here is some info on searching for them on your computer.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...x/lfn_73ub.asp

Thank you for the link. I read what it said about long file names, howevr, it does not tell me where they are located so that I could change them. To my knowledge, we have not named any files in the past couple weeks. I looked at any documents we had saved and any programs we have added, but they did not seem any longer than normal. Thanks!

Try running scandisk in Windows and look at the advanced section, there is an option to report long file names.
When you see the filename(s), make a note of it.
(There could be more then one)

Thank you. I will try that in a bit and see what happens. Thanks for the suggestion. Will post back the results.

Ok. I have tried to scan, but I got a message that said it could
not scan due to programs running in the background. I disabled the firewall, but cannot figure out how to disable the other programs that run on start up. Can someone tell me where to disable those? Thanks

pennydog--
"cannot figure out how to disable the other programs that run on start up"
Well, I would not worry about programs that start at boot (because some of them shut off right after boot), but rather End Task all but Explorer when you simultaneously click Control+Alt+Delete. These are most of the programs that run while your PC is on. However, also disable your screensaver (if you have one), anti-virus and you might consider disconnecting from the Internet if you have cable or DSL.
If that does not work, have you tried running ScanDisk in Safe Mode?

Start up in safe mode
(Press F8 during startup, choose safe mode)

MS-DOS does not allow paths to files or folders to be longer than 66 characters. Any folders listed are those that cannot be opened in MS-DOS mode because the MS-DOS path is longer than 66 characters.

This is generally, a "who cares" error. In Windows, don't select the option.
To fix the Scandisk after a bad shutdown, edit the \Windows\Command\Scandisk.ini
and change the line
LabelCheck = On ; On, Off
to read
LabelCheck = Off ; On, Off

Thanks for the input. So I need to scan in safe mode? I have a lot of stuff running in the background, but not sure where to disable it all. Sometimes when the computer is in safe mode, we cannot get it out of that mode. How do we manage that? Not very smart when it comes to computers, but that freezing and the error message about the long file name is annoying. Thanks for any help.

pennydog--The third reference on the Google search URL I gave you seems to answer your questions--both how to avoid the problem and how to find the problem file(s) if you still want ScanDisk to tell you if it finds long file name files.
http://howto.lycos.com/lycos/step/1,...9+3855,00.html
BTW--this site takes a long time to access, but eventually will work.

Thank you. I guess I need to go back and re-read the info. Will post back if solved.

Oh yeah, we cannot complete a scan because of all the stuff running in the background. If I read the instructions from the link correctly, you have to scan then look for the file. My question I guess again is, do I scan in safe mode or disable the things that run in the background. If so, where do I go to disable? Thank you.