False Low Disk Space warning

[Chigworthy]

My old desktop:

Windows XP
80g Main Drive (Defragger states 42% free space)
20g Secondary (50% free)

System Restore: Turned Off
Defragged: Today
Malware Bites : Performed last night
Easycleanup: Registry, Duplicates, etc performed last night
AVG antivirus: Up to date

I keep getting the Low Disk Space warning, and the OS behaves like the disk is full (Can't write large files). Both Explorer and Defragger show plenty of room. I would think it was the hard drive going out, but both drives behave the same way.

Anyone got any ideas?

[boosterp]

My old desktop:

Windows XP
80g Main Drive (Defragger states 42% free space)
20g Secondary (50% free)

System Restore: Turned Off
Defragged: Today
Malware Bites : Performed last night
Easycleanup: Registry, Duplicates, etc performed last night
AVG antivirus: Up to date

I keep getting the Low Disk Space warning, and the OS behaves like the disk is full (Can't write large files). Both Explorer and Defragger show plenty of room. I would think it was the hard drive going out, but both drives behave the same way.

Anyone got any ideas?

How much system memory do you have and what is your page file size?

[Chigworthy]

How much system memory do you have and what is your page file size?

How would I procure this information?

[Reynolds]

How would I procure this information?

Control panel, system, advanced tab, performance settings, advanced tab, number at the bottom for virtual memory.

[styckx]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/285107

[boosterp]

How would I procure this information?

ctrl +alt + del pull up the task manager and give me all the info under the performance tab. Then as reynolds stated give me your virtual memory settings.

What Styckx pulled up requires a registry tweak, I have a simpler solution but need the info first.

I still need to know how much RAM you have, and knowing about your processor may give me just another idea.

I have had to solve this issue for buddies several times.

[Chigworthy]

4095 MB Virtual Memory

Page FIle usage: 389mb

Totals
Handles 10167
Threads 473
Processes 36

Commit Charge
Total 398652
Limit 4935964
Peak 590660

Physical
Total 785392
Avail 276900 (+/-)
Sys Cache 366700

Kernel
Total 64350
Paged 46400
Nonpaged 17896




Intel 4 2.66
768M RAM

[Chigworthy]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/285107

That appears to just disable the warning, I don't know if it would allow my OS to "see" that there is actually space on the drives and use it.

Sidenote: AVG scanned main drive and found no virus (Virus DB up to date)

[boosterp]

Your system RAM is way too low. What happens is that when you run out of RAM Windows uses space on you HD as a virtual RAM.

Your page file and commit are way too high meaning it is using up a significant amount of HD space for cache.

When you add things like AV programs, iunes, etc. these are RAM resident programs that take up valuable RAM space causing Windows to have to use your HD more.

I would spend the $50-70 to upgrade your RAM to at least 2 gig and then I can talk you through reducing the amount of space Windows needs as a cache on your HD.

[Chigworthy]

Your system RAM is way too low. What happens is that when you run out of RAM Windows uses space on you HD as a virtual RAM.

Your page file and commit are way too high meaning it is using up a significant amount of HD space for cache.

When you add things like AV programs, iunes, etc. these are RAM resident programs that take up valuable RAM space causing Windows to have to use your HD more.

I would spend the $50-70 to upgrade your RAM to at least 2 gig and then I can talk you through reducing the amount of space Windows needs as a cache on your HD.

I wasn't planning on spending money on this fossil. I'd like to pimp this bitch out for free. I basically want to use it as an emergency computer/backup. I have uninstalled tons of programs since I got my new laptop, and the problem popped up after that. I actually added 50% more RAM about a year ago by using a cannibalised module from mom-in-law's old system. There's got to be something that has changed (hidden malware/virus or hardware failure maybe?). Is it jealous of my sexy new laptop?

[Devo37]

do a find for > 100000 kilobyte files. maybe you've got some big files you can get rid of.

and then move your porn collection to an external drive :tongue:

p.s memory is cheap nowadays. it won't take much money to get a decent boost in ram. the other option is reducing your virtual memory, which will make your pc a slow pain in the ass to use.

[boosterp]

I wasn't planning on spending money on this fossil. I'd like to pimp this bitch out for free. I basically want to use it as an emergency computer/backup. I have uninstalled tons of programs since I got my new laptop, and the problem popped up after that. I actually added 50% more RAM about a year ago by using a cannibalised module from mom-in-law's old system. There's got to be something that has changed (hidden malware/virus or hardware failure maybe?). Is it jealous of my sexy new laptop?

At 768 of actual RAM you are way low and anything can bottle neck it causing performance issues

[Chigworthy]

:wacko:At 768 of actual RAM you are way low and anything can bottle neck it causing performance issues

Maybe I'm missing something, but it never was a problem until recently. I used to play WoW on this thing. What would cause this issue to pop up now?

[Reynolds]

:wacko:

Maybe I'm missing something, but it never was a problem until recently. I used to play WoW on this thing. What would cause this issue to pop up now?

As a last resort you could try formatting the drive, and just doing a clean windows install.

[Chigworthy]

As a last resort you could try formatting the drive, and just doing a clean windows install.

Believe me, I would do that in a heartbeat, but it's going to take weeks of strategic planning, training, and fundraising to prepare the archaeological expedition into my attic to find the install disc.

[boosterp]

:wacko:

Maybe I'm missing something, but it never was a problem until recently. I used to play WoW on this thing. What would cause this issue to pop up now?

There is something missing from the story here that I need to know. WoW is not a resource jog like Crysis or to a lesser degree Sins of a Solar Empire.

What has been recently installed?
What Windows updates recently installed?
How often do you clean your case? You could have a chip on a bank of mem go bad, but this is less likely.
I may need to advise you to tweak some settings, but I'll wait for a reply.

And, unless you are buying a computer in the next 6 months it can't hurt to drop in 2 gig at $50-60 spent.

[sailor]

do they even sell pentium 4s with that little ram (assuming that's what intel 4 meant)? it just doesn't sound right.

[boosterp]

do they even sell pentium 4s with that little ram (assuming that's what intel 4 meant)? it just doesn't sound right.

The P4 was around for some time. Because of the P3 and the P4 AMD had captured the market with faster processors due in part to AMD's on die memory controller.

The P4 sold with as little as 512 mb on board and some of those Intel MBs need a major BIOS tweak to take anything over a gig of memory.

[PD]

I run an AMD at home on XP with only 1gig ram. (it's DDR mem, and I don't feel like spending for more of that now) As boosterp alluded, if you run low RAM, you need to make sure crap isnt running in resident memory.

Get autoruns
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

that will show you what windows is launching. You will find plenty of stuff that doesn't need to be preloaded- like acrobat assistant, acrobat speed launcher, quicktime, etc.

you can uncheck those and that might help.

[Chigworthy]

do they even sell pentium 4s with that little ram (assuming that's what intel 4 meant)? it just doesn't sound right.

This hotrod came direct from dell in 2006 with a whopping 256 ram