Quote:

...with a hard drive 96% full. ....




Well, there's your problem.

That's not enough free space for a hard drive.

You are skirting disaster and could lose all of your data at any time.

That disk can't even Defrag with only 4% freespace.

See if you can eliminate some files or archive them, then use Disk Cleanup utility, try to get at least 15% freespace on the drive, then run Defrag program on it. Expect it to take a loooong time to Defrag, good idea to start it at night and go to bed, let the defrag run all night. Also, turn off any Antivirus scanner and disconnect from internet when defragging, it'll go faster.


--Mac