Out of Hard Drive space with more RAM installed

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Guest

Hello, I run Windows XP Pro SP2. I had 1.5 GB of RAM installed ( 2x256MB;
2x512MB).
I installed two 1GB sticks of ram to increase my memory (2x1GB; 2x512MB)

Now I get a "Low disk space" alert every time I open a program in windows.

Is there any way to fix this? I read something similar in the Knowledge base
on the Microsoft website, but it applied to Win98/ME, not windows XP.

Thanks in advance.
 
"Low disk space" means you're running out of room on your hard disk.
Installing more RAM doesn't help.

Start with the Disk Cleanup Wizard (Start > All Programs > Accessories >
System Tools > Disk Cleanup. Do not "compress old files".)
 
I know. I had enough free space before I installed more ram.

When I put in more ram it seems like it used hard drive space, and now I am
low on space.
 
Shigure said:
I know. I had enough free space before I installed more ram.

When I put in more ram it seems like it used hard drive space, and
now I am low on space.
Click to expand...


Go to My Computer, right-click on your drive, and choose Properties.. How
much Used space does it say you have and how much free space?

Installing RAM didn't use up any disk space.
 
Ted & Ken:

Could the additional RAM make the paging file just a little bit bigger (if
it is being managed by Windows) so as to push the disk for more space? If
so, then this may be why he is getting the warning.

GP
 
Your hard drive must be getting near full.. look to clean it out, or install
a slave drive and move data files etc to it..

While you can set the pagefile to a fixed amount, it is not the best of
ideas.. the warning comes before an inability to defrag or data loss because
there is no longer enough space for Windows to strut its stuff..
 
Grand_Poohbah said:
Ted & Ken:

Could the additional RAM make the paging file just a little bit
bigger (if it is being managed by Windows) so as to push the disk for
more space? If so, then this may be why he is getting the warning.
Click to expand...


Yes, I hadn't thought of that. If he's using the very poor Windows default
of 1.5 times the amount of RAM, adding 2GB of RAM would use an additional
3GB of hard drive space for the page file. If free disk space were already
low, this would make it lower and could account for what he reports.

If so, the solution to his problemi s to stop using the Windows default page
file size, and lower the size of the page file dramatically. With more RAM,
you need *less* page file, not more.
 
Okay, I found out the problem.

I'm using an 8GB system drive (Windows/operating stuff), 40GB and 300GB
slave drives for data.

Before I installed the ram I had 2GB free on the system drive, and after I
installed the 2GB of ram, it dropped the free space to 520MB of space.

I looked around and found out that my pagefile might be the problem. It was
set to use 2GB-4GB, and apperently it wanted to use way too much.

I lowered it manually and now things seem to run perfectly fine, and all of
my Harddrive space returned to normal.

Thanks for tryin' to help me.
 
If you were that short on disk space you would have known about it even
before you added RAM.
 
I have a 20gb partition, the first of four on an 80gb HDD.. presently, a
little over 11gb is being used up..

A breakdown of the used space

25.8% is taken up by the Windows folder
13.5% is taken up by Documents and Settings
17.6% is taken by the Windows pagefile
31.4% is taken up by Program Files
8.4% is taken up System Restore
3.3% is taken up by MSOCache and other bits and pieces..

The Windows folder is what it is..

Documents and settings would be considerably larger if I kept saved files in
their default folders.. I don't..

The pagefile size is Windows Managed based upon the 2gb RAM installed..
Windows Managed is the best way in a general purpose home or small office
system..

Program Files would be smaller if I installed programs to another partition,
except that there is little point in doing that.. if the OS takes a dive, so
do all of the programs as they are so embedded in the OS.. I do have games
installed to another partition, but they still place entries into Program
Files.. there is a full complement of MS Office applications installed..

System Restore I have used only ever twice, and that was to a point some
48hrs backwards, so I could save some space there.. however, it is safer to
leave a few points..

The rest of the used space is again what it is.. little can be done, or
saved by messing with stuff..

Also note that I remove all of the uninstall files for updates etc..

A hard drive works better if at least 25% is kept free, regardless of the OS
installed or the size of the pagefile.. it is just the way of hard drives..

Windows, all versions, requires 15% free space to defrag with any accuracy..

Anything less than 15% on a primary boot drive, and you risk losing all of
the contents simply because the hard drive can't cope..

My system works because I have approx 9gb free which gives me a little more
space for stuff, while still allowing me to keep at least 25% free space..

I would be hard pressed to remove 5gb of files etc, and still have a
productive computer that could be compressed into 8gb and still work
according to the parameters set by XP and the hardware..

An 8gb partition is good for 6gb of files et al, and if you look at the size
of some of the folders above relative to 11gb, you can see that it doesn't
leave a whole hell of a lot of space for anything..

I would not install XP in partitions smaller than 15 to 20gb if any kind of
reliability is required.. hard drives are cheap enough these days such that
a user has no need to try to install an OS like XP into a tiny partition..

Now I will just sit and wait for the inevitable flak.. :-)
 
Shigure said:
Okay, I found out the problem.

I'm using an 8GB system drive (Windows/operating stuff), 40GB and 300GB
slave drives for data.

Before I installed the ram I had 2GB free on the system drive, and after I
installed the 2GB of ram, it dropped the free space to 520MB of space.

I looked around and found out that my pagefile might be the problem. It
was
set to use 2GB-4GB, and apperently it wanted to use way too much.

I lowered it manually and now things seem to run perfectly fine, and all
of
my Harddrive space returned to normal.

Thanks for tryin' to help me.
Click to expand...
The problem will return because 8GB is not nearly enough. A 20GB partition
is more appropriate.
Jim
 
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