dzudzi said:
After my pc started showing a message saying I was running out of
space on my hard drive I got an external hard drive and transferred
all my music and photos and as many programs as possible. As well
as running the disk cleanup thing and defragmentation thing, I
deleted as many programs as I possibly could and now as far as I
know there are less files and programs on the hard disk than I've
ever had since I got the computer. However, it still keeps saying
I'm almost out of memory and it won't let me do things like scan
photos (even though these are supposed to get sent straight to a
folder in the external hard drive) because it says there isn't
enough space on the C drive. Is there any way to solve this
problem?
Things you left out/I am confused about...
You seem to be using the terms 'memory' and 'space' interchangeably. First
you said it was giving you a low disk space message and then you said it
keeps telling you it is almost out of memory. Those are two different
topics.
You never mentioned the actual full size/free space left on your hard disk
drive.
You never mentioned how many internal drives/partitions you have and the
free space on each as reported by My Computer (at least..)
In addition:
Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?
If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed..
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but yuor
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..
How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312
You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..
When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:
- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.
You can control how much space your System Restore can use...
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.
You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...
Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 128MB and 512MB..
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 128MB and 512MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.
You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:
Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
Other ways to free up space..
SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/
DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx
JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html
Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.
