where has all my memory gone?

My computer has recently started telling me I have low disc space. I have done the usual disc clean up along with removing more and more programs. I have defragged my computer and over time the problem persists. I switched to AVG free edition thinking I had a virus mcafee was not finding with no luck. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

What size HDD do you have and how much free space is available?

 

I have a 37.2 gig hardrive and as of right now it is telling me that i have 859 mb left. This will get smaller with time, as I remove programs the empty space continues to dissappear.

 

Try deleting your old system restore points with Disk Cleanup and see how much free space you have left then.

 

I had only one restore point and I have deleted it and there still is no change. Whatever i take off of my computers memory is slowly taken away, but by what i dont know. I am using my laptop now because my computer has slowed way down and at some points it stops working altogether.

 

Windows uses a dynamic swap file. It can grow and shrink from time to time.

 

I know a program that will answer all of your prayers, and more!

CCleaner

-Cleans temporary / junk files
-Cleans the Windows registry
-Includes a start-up manager.

If you are looking for something a little more powerful and you don't mind spending a bit of money, check out Tune-Up Utilities 2006.

Both programs have to power to speed up Windows, especially TuneUp. If you need help with either of these programs, just post on these forums

 

Do you think that there is not something more sinister going on with my computer? I do not even have solitare on it any more and have low disc space. I have had age of empires III and three of the joint operations games on the computer before along with several misc. programs and it has always worked fine with plenty of disc space. I basically have the O/S on here with msn and now have virtually no memory.

 

I dont know if this has any bearing on what is going on or not but before i started losing memory space i had my computer repaired because my fan went out and if memory serves shortly thereafter is when I started having problems. This may be unrelated but it may be relevant. By the way happy easter and I appreciate the time you guys take in helping a computer noob such as myself.

 

I am looking at my bill for the repair on my computer and it shows that he replaced the fan and the psu unit. I am not sure what the psu unit does exactly but it sounds important. Sorry for being such a noob.

 

The PSU is the power supply unit, which most probably had something to do with your fan like you said. I am pretty sure that it would not affect your HD at all.

 

Run CCleaner and if the problem persists please post again.

By the way, are you talking about memory as in RAM, or memory as in hard drive space?

 

The message I get is low disc space repeatedly, sometimes low virtual memory.

 

Have you run CCleaner yet? :x:

How much RAM do you have installed? You either need to install some more, or disable some of your programs running in the background.

For a quick fix, you could increase the amount of virtual memory available to your computer. Do you know how to do this?

 

Low vitrual memory means Windows is out of swap space. This really doesn't have much to do with RAM, since Windows swaps like crazy whether you have 64mb RAM or 4GB RAM. While you may need more RAM anyway, you definately need to free up some HDD space.

 

No i do not know how to do this, I am in the process of running TuneUpUtilities 2006 and I will see what happens when I am done. Ill post again when I have more info. Thanks

 

With the start up manager I get a list of programs that are ran by windows automatically, how do I decide which are necessary and which I should not have start up .

 

Please post your start up entries. I can advise you which ones to delete

 

Here is a list of the entries on my start up
ctf loader-microsoft, java online program update-microsystems, lexmark x125 settings utility-lexmark international, mcafee security center agent-mcafee, mcafee security center update-mcafee, mcafee virusscan active shield-mcafee, mcafee virusscan command-mcafee, mcafee virus scan oas client-mcafee, microsoft intellipoint-microsoft, microsoft picture it-microsoft, microsoft windows taskbar-microsoft, msn messenger-microsoft, pdp rpc server-deviceguys, spysweeper client executable-webroot software.

 

Ok I have downloaded and run the tune up utilities 2006, I am now showing 226mb of free space out of 37.2 gb Any suggestions?