C drive out of memory... any advice?

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Hello

by animatech · 14 years ago In reply to C drive out of memory... ...

I am a bit confused are you having a memory problem or a space problem.
If space problem did you emptied the recycle bin as well?
Did you try o run disk clean up on the drive?

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hi

by mistys_here · 14 years ago In reply to Hello

to be honest... all I know is that when I check the properties of the c drive it shows just a tiny sliver of available space...

with that said I empty my recycle bin every day...

and the funny/strange thing is that I can run a clean disk thing... delete everything. then run it again and it will have tons of things to delete again!!

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Well firstly Memory Space & HDD space are different things

by HAL 9000 Moderator · 14 years ago In reply to C drive out of memory... ...

You can have 90% unallocated Memory and still no room on the HDD.

Now you say that you've cleaned up the HDD by deleting everything that you didn't want to use and burnt your pictures to a Disc so how much space did you free up?

After you burnt your pictures to that Disc did you remember to delete them from the HDD?

What you can do is run the Disc Cleanup Wizard or do this manually by clicking on any Computer Window Tools/Folder Options/View and then mark the show hidden Folders and then apply and OK the change. Then go into your c Drive Documents & Settings your Account Folder and then Local Settings and then Temp and delete all the temp Files in there as well as any Temp Internet Files in the Temp Internet Folder then empty your Recycle bin.

Then go to the Windows folder and open the Temp Folder there and delete everything that it's possible to delete there. Do Not Touch Any Other Windows Folder! After you have deleted these files empty your recycle bin again and then look at how much HDD space you now have available. You may need to copy all of your Documents over to another HDD to free up some more space and allow the system to work better. Also while you are at it look at th Page File and see how big it has been set to as it's possible that someone has set it to the Max size allowed which is all the free space on the HDD.

To get to the Page File open the Control Panel then System then click on Performance then chose Performance on the next window and then settings Advanced and Virtual Memory and look at the size that it is set to. If it's more than 2 times the current RAM Load it's been set too big and you can decrease its size down to 2 X the current available RAM and then once again look at the available space on the HDD.

Incidentally Kodak recommends that pictures burnt to a CD are only safe for up to 4 years as they start to degrade and will eventually become unvieable so if these are important pictures it would be a good idea to make sure that you store them safely and copy the CD regularly and dispose of the old CD once you have copied it to a new CD.

Col

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by mistys_here · 14 years ago In reply to Well firstly Memory Space ...

I hope I understand everything here...

When I delete things out... even uninstall programs it doesnt do anything for the available space! I removed a huge program. first it showed a big chunk wa given back to us but then I checked it again not more then an hour later and it was back to been a small sliver.

I do not understand it. Almost like there is a virus but I have scanned and scanned and nothing...

I also did the page file thingy and it is set at 2 for the min. and 754 for the max which it says is the recomended. I hope that is the right info. Because when I went into the system there was no performance tab. I had to click around the other ones to find a performance button and followed what I Hope was correct lol. (I didnt change anything though btw)

Oh and yes the temp file is empty, the cache is empty.... I have removed a huge chunk of my documents and picture files.

I actually did not know about the pics fading. Thank you for that info. I have tons of cds running around here that I would have been devistated (sp) if I lost...

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2 for the min. and 754 What?

by HAL 9000 Moderator · 14 years ago In reply to .

Is that Megs or Gigs.

Also when you ran the AV and Spy Ware Scans did you run these in Safe Mode that is press the F8 key before the Windows Splash Screen appears and chose the Safe Mode to boot into. Please take notice here that is just Safe Mode NOT Safe Mode With Networking as that can allow infections to spread while the system is running and there is nothing running to stop the infections from being caught and spreading.

Do Not Rely on Windows Defender as it doesn't work at all well and is much more dangerous than helpful.

If you don't have any AV or Spy Ware Products you can install these update them and then Boot into Safe Mode and scan the system

AVG AV

http://tinyurl.com/yt4c8z

Ad Aware SE

http://tinyurl.com/lvov4

Spy Bot S&amp

http://tinyurl.com/yrwy2

Please Note that Spy Bot can give some False Positives on some software like Internet Banking Programs and Windows Defender as they act like Spy Ware and just about every downloaded program that runs as a Plug In for IE or similar programs. If you are using these programs make sure to remove them from the list of programs to be deleted before deleting the files.

Crap Cleaner

http://tinyurl.com/3yeav

You should install all of these update as required and then scan in Safe Mode to delete any infections that you have picked up. If you scan in Normal Mode some files may be in use and are impossible to remove so the infections can not be removed.

Col

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by mistys_here · 14 years ago In reply to 2 for the min. and 754 Wh ...

sorry 755 megs... we are going to upgrade and add a better or another not sure which hard drive to this along with some memory but for now...

Okay I went ahead and rescanned everything in safe mode. Including the virus scanner. Nothing. No virus. The things that they found as far as spy where goes I deleted. In one program I ran it said it deleted 600,... megs of something but yet no change in my pie thingy.

this is SOOO Aggravating! Esp since I only know half of what I am talking about!

Could this be a well hidden virus? Or a hard drive gone bad? Any clue?

ty for all your help btw!

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Actually it sounds like some infection

by HAL 9000 Moderator · 14 years ago In reply to .

That is consuming the unused HDD space. I haven't seen one of these in a very long time and I'm not sure how to get around it so perhaps reboot it log onto the Inter net and then Symantec and get them to scan the system and see what they come up with.

If I remember correctly the last HDD Stealing Infection was a Root Kit which needed to be cleaned from a Boot CD where you ran the AV Program to clean up the System.

Col

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This might help

by Jacky Howe · 14 years ago In reply to C drive out of memory... ...

Do you have internet access on a clean PC?

Do you have access to a Memory Stick?

If so read on. Follow the link to this site and Download an emergency copy of SAV32CLI. You will also need to download the relevent IDE files as well they are at the top of the list. Extract everything to SAV32CLI folder and then copy that folder to the memory stick. Resart the PC in safe mode and follow the instructions. You will be running the AV from the memory stick.

http://www.sophos.com/support/knowledgebase/article/13251.html

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by mistys_here · 14 years ago In reply to This might help

No to the clean pc
No to the memory stick

:-(

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Go

by Jacky Howe · 14 years ago In reply to This might help

to the site and download everything to a folder on your pc. Follow the instructions. When you are ready restart the PC in safe mode and run the Antivirus.

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