Losing memory fast

jessmist

Hi

On monday i had 16.9gb of memory left,yesterday it dropped to 6.3gb left,and this morning it has dropped down to 2.2gb left.
I have not installed or downloaded any files or programs in the last week?
I have ran disc clean up but my memory seems to drop every time i switch my computer on.
Any ideas how to solve this

Thanks

LuciferTDark

Memory (RAM) or hard drive space? there is a difference, if it's Ram then you've got a serious hardware problem (either ram chip failure, motherboard failure or the chips are loose) , if it's hard drive space you've got some form of virus that needs cleaning out asap.

djheath

If its RAM then I am very impressed, so I assume it is hard drive space.

You need to find what is eating up the space. find if its a large file size;

Go to start, search, choose find all files, choose the "what size is it" arrow and put a specified size of aqt least 500 mb say. see what that finds.

superscaper

You've not mentioned operating system. First thing I'd check is how much memory is allocated to System Restore. http://vistasupport.mvps.org/decrease_storage_space-allocated_to_system_restore.htm for vista
http://www.theeldergeek.com/system_restore.htm for xp

jessmist

Yes its hard drive space
I am running a virus scan
I am on windows xp
thanks for the replies

isofa

Download CCleaner to clear out any old temporary system files etc.

Then you need to search for files over say 5Mb in size to see what is consuming the space, it could be system restores, or do you have an automatic backup?

jessmist

I have mcafee installed on my computer and i am doing a virus scan now.
Will the mcafee quick clean do the same job as the cc cleaner?

hc25036

There's a great free utility called WinDirStat that searches your drives and shows the sizes of folders and files. Makes it much easier to track down those space-wasters! I had a similar problem with memory dumps after a crash - some firewalls save a huge amount of data on the C: drive when that happens.

WinDirStat is at http://windirstat.info/

isofa

CCleaner will only clear data that isn't required, such as browser caches, cookies, windows temporary files etc - and there isn't a better tool for this. However it will not clear viruses or spyware.

f1charlie

I haven't used WinDirStat, but I have used Tree Size:

http://winbytes.net/treesize-free_download/

which gives a pretty clear and simple view of where your disk space is being used up.

BillScarab

I prefer Spacemonger for seeing what space is being used.