running on low disk space

[gawdknows]

Most of the times I am getting this message from the system tray
"you are running on low disk space..."

I have 635 megs free space at any given time on my c drive[only drive], but when this message pops up, I see that there is 1.1 meg or even in kilobytes of space available.
This beats me .How is this possible and why is this message showing itself ? How can 600 megs of free space suddenly change into 1 meg....beats me

Thx.

 

[kippy13]

When you reboot the machine does it return to 600 meg?

"Sometimes I do not know but I try hard"- R.F. Haughty 1923

 

[wolluf]

Virus scan?

How large is your drive?

 

[Marcs41]

As wolluf said, scan for viruses first.
But also delete all the .TMP files, clean out IE history, empty the trash can and do a scandisk (full), takes a while, followed by a defrag.

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all. Please specify details.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC![/sub]

 

[Statinman]

Is Windows managing your Virtual Memory? VM will suck up a lot of real estate unless you rein it in.

 

[kippy13]

A bigger disk would be the best option as it will be needed in the next few months,.

"Sometimes I do not know but I try hard"- R.F. Haughty 1923

 

[gawdknows]

When you reboot the machine does it return to 600 meg?

Yes it does.
~
How large is your drive?
1 .1 gigs (old machine)
~
As wolluf said, scan for viruses first.
shall do
~
But also delete all the .TMP files, clean out IE history, empty the trash can and do a scandisk (full), takes a while, followed by a defrag.

Shall do
~
Is Windows managing your Virtual Memory? VM will suck up a lot of real estate unless you rein it in.

Can I have more info on this one. sort of 'how to'
~
A bigger disk would be the best option as it will be needed in the next few months,.
Yes, my last resort.

Thx..

 

[Marcs41]

Start with the cleaning, it would surprise me if your pagefile would suddenly grow to 600MB, unless you are using some heavy duty applications.

 

[Statinman]

From the Control Panel, open System, then Perfomance and write down how much Ram you have. Then click on Virtual Memory. On that screen you'll see a couple of statements: Let Windows manage the memory and Let me manage the memory (loosely translated Windows is probably managing the virtual memory. Pick 'Let me specify my own virtual memory settings'. The trick now is to set the Min and Max to the same value. Somewhere between 2.5 and 3 times the amount of ram you have, will do. It doesn't sound like you have a lot of hard drive left so go for 2.5. DON'T MAKE IT TOO SMALL or your computer probably won't be able to boot up. When the Min and Max values are set to the same value, Windows doesn't change the size of the swap file while your trying to work. You should notice less disk activity. And it really sounds like you need to add another harddrive to your computer

 

[Marcs41]

Somewhere between 2.5 and 3 times the amount of ram you have, will do ????

That is a very outdated theory and even wrong! The figures used back then were 1.5 to 2.5 times the RAM, but that was only valid if you had 128MB or less.
The ideal amount of virtual memory is the amount the swapfle reaches after running all apps you normally use at the same time and add about 50MB.

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all. Please specify details.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC![/sub]

 

[Statinman]

Fair enough...But I have two outdated machines with 128meg of ram running Windows ME Just for reference I have the swap file set to 350meg.. Indeed, if someone had 512 meg of memory, let's see 2.5 x 512 is 1280... hmmm, yes I see your point. It probably is time for a new rule of thumb on swap files.

 

[gawdknows]

Scan disk and defrag was already carried out.
Virus scan went bugless. So all fine that end.

I carried out the 'Memory Mgt' and denied windows to do it ,as advised.
Well I must admit , since the time I have played around with the 'virual memory' section as advised, I've not encountered that funny message anymore.

I have a theoritical qustion here. It was mentioned, do not assign low memory otherwise the PC will not boot. OK Fine
what happens if I assign a high memory to both the "minimum" and "maximum" parameters. what is the tradeoff ?

Thx.

 

[wolluf]

Don't quite understand last question - if you make min & max large, you'll get a permanently large (as the min size) swapfile. Advice is to make them same, so swapfile is fixed size (no fragmentation & you know how much space it takes). Marcs41 method for determining reasonable size is a good one IMO (you haven't actually said how much RAM you have).

 

[Statinman]

The bigger you make the swap file (by assigning a high value to min and max), the less space you have on the harddrive for other files. I thinks it's just a question of wasting space if the swap file is too big.

 

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