Low memory on PC???

pagangirl

Help needed please. Keep getting popup saying low memory on pc hard drive. Have tweaked everything I can think of, done diskcleanup etc, deleted any unused programs, minimal stuff on my docs, all pictures are on external drive. No music on hard drive.

Capacity 9.30gb / Used 8.97gb / Free 343 mb

Through a program called recuva - have discovered 10304 deleted files and 2371 images - none of which I want to keep.

What I can't find out is how the divil can I get rid of all this carp that is clogging up my hard drive???

Can anyone help please as I don't want to wipe the hard drive as not got original install disks.

Many thanks for any advice.

Leeham720

Does it say 'Low disk space' or does it actually say 'Low memory'?

These are two different issues.

pagangirl

Says low disk space (didn't realise there was a difference).:o

ryantcb

Its a very small Hard drive then. No point trying to move things off to save space as it is so small anyway. get a larger Hard drive or a new PC as im guessing at just over 9gb of space it has to be over 10 years old

penrhyn

You really have a tiny HDD by modern standards, have you considered installing a bigger one?

Anywho, Recuva will identify files that have already been deleted and thus will not be taking up disk space.

I suggest running ccleaner and see if that frees up some space.

BTW What operating sytem are you using, and how much RAM do you have?

(ccleaner will report this for you)

Leeham720

Righty, it's worrying first off that you only have 10gb of space, Windows uses a lot of space by itself and then takes a little more of the free space (called a Page File). When you buy computers or laptops with Windows already on, they sometimes split your hard drive into two pieces - one to hold Windows and the recovery image and another to put your own stuff on. In 'My Computer' is that the only hard drive that shows up?

Recuva recovers files (strangely enough). The files it's showing are already deleted, but Windows likes the mark their place on the hard drive (there's a long and pointless explanation).

It sounds obvious, but the first place to start is making sure the Recycle Bin is emptied. Finally, what version of Windows do you have? We can get a little space back by removing some Windows programs that you don't need.

ryantcb

Im guessing you have partitioned your c: drive

pagangirl

Yeah - Dell Optiplex - either 2001/2003. Already have CCleaner - run this every day. Recycle bin empty etc. NTFS System 256mb ram.

checked My Computer - only 1 hard disk showing.

Windows wasn't pre-installed. Bought puter through place I was working at at the time, boss installed windows XP pro on all 5 new computers + I bought mine. I left company 4 yrs ago & boss now retired, so no chance of borrowing install disks.

Have no idea what partitioning C drive means - can you explain to novice ???

Leeham720

Wow, the best way to proceed is to upgrade the whole comput...oh sorry, kind of got snobby there

The best best option is to buy a new hard drive at this point, 10gb is just too small in 2011. Check for stickers that give the exact name of your Dell, you may be able to just add a second hard drive - this would also avoid the need to buy Windows again. Without knowing the model number we can't really say if a second drive would 1) be attachable and 2) fit inside the case.

penrhyn

I am amazed that XP runs on 256M of RAM, I'd increase the memory to a 1Gb, as atm Windows is having dump stuff onto your HDD whilst its working which is just making the problem worse.

As above its probably time to upgrade to something a bit more up to date.

https://www.dmxdimension.com

Leeham720

penrhyn wrote: »

I am amazed that XP runs on 256M of RAM, I'd increase the memory to a 1Gb, as atm Windows is having dump stuff onto your HDD whilst its working which is just making the problem worse.

We really need an exact model number of the computer first, the motherboard may not take over 512mb or even over 256mb - even then the OP needs to know what type of memory to buy. The low ram is causing the problems, because as you said, Windows takes a bit of the hard drive and pretends it's RAM (this is the Page File).