Freeing Up Virtual Memory

Hello again..this is Cathy returning. I have a new mess now. I have switched from a Windows XP notebook...to a Presario Compaq. It was not new, had belonged to 1 of my daughters. She had never done a disc clean or defrag. Long story short., I have been spending about 10 hours a day trying to clean out viruses, spyware, malware and unwanted programs trying to free up space. Well, this is the 1st time I ever saw TWO places tp defrag. I am running a program right now I downloaded from you called JK defrag. Here is my main problem. I have like 75% storage on C. On the virtual memory drive, I have 17%. I have dumped so much u would not believe it..but it has not freed up ANY of that space. I see it is a big gold lock, and will not let me in under any circumstances. I understand it is for restoration. I want it GONE from there. I cannot buy a CD RW to burn it to, and wondered if maybe I can't put it in a zipped folder or ANYTHING rather than have to buy more storage when I know I am NOT using all that stuff. This was unplugged for a yr.apparently it had no battery or it is dead, another problem I need to tackle. But I am disabled and live on a really fixed income, and I cannot afford to do things I could if I was still able to work,. Is there ANYTHING I can do with this partition? She said there were no sytstem restore discs which is what I would have done if I had any. Any help would really be appreciated. Thanks again...Cathy:confused

 

I am alsp running your FreeRAM XP....

 

If you really want to remove the recovery partition try:
http://partitionlogic.org.uk/
to delete it. If you that desparate to free up disk space & this is XP, turn off system restore, that will give a bit back too.

 

The Recovery Partition is as important as a Windows install disc. I would advise against removing it.
It should have nothing to do with your Virtual Memory problem.
First, by 75% storage on the Hard drive, do mean it is 75% full?
Try uninstalling programs you don't use.
If you have alot of music and pictures , save some of the more seldom used ones to a disc.
How much RAM do you have? The less RAM you have the more Virtual Memory used.
How many processes do you have running at normal use? Are there a lot of Start-Up programs? Try taking the programs that are not needed for normal use, out of Startup. Any that you can start when you need them should not be running at startup.

To change Virtual Memory size:
Click Start>Control Panel>Performance and Maintenance>System.
On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
On the Advanced tab, under Virtual memory, click Change.
Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive (probably C: ) that contains the paging file that you want to change.
Under Paging file size, click the Custom size check box. You can enter the amount of memory you would like to reserve for Virtual memory by entering the initial and maximum size. (Usually 1.5 of your RAM) (You should choose the same amount for the initial size and maximum size. This will stop your PC from constantly changing the paging file.)
Click Set
Restart your PC.

 

Hi again guys....an update on what I did. First of all, the reason I even cared..was that I keep getting a warning about low virtual memory and how it is slowing me down. So..I read your advice, all I could at HP, and had a friend over~who sent me here in the 1st place...and she said just dump it & restore to factory. She was going to bring me disks for another Windows XP..but I read u could not do that with this computer. Here is what I am working with~Compaq Presario AMD Sempron...model# SR1303WM. Ok..I HAD a notebook that had system recovery disks that NEVER dropped below 50% storage in the 4 years I have had it..I would not let it get lower. So this is VERY new to me. 2 nights ago, I thought I was doing a system recovery...made 7 system restore disks & an Application recovery disk. After all night doing that...I still had only 17% storage on my Presario_RP (D. SO.....I decided last night, to do a destructive restore. Because the first one said it was only a partial restore. This time I did a FULL one. I immediately downloaded my AVG..deleted all the Norton and other stuff I DID NOT NEED.....did a disc clean & defrag after I dumped all that stuff. Again...I have only 17% storage left on that D drive. So I am thinking maybe it takes that much to START this thing from factory? My C drive is great...out of 32.0 GB I now have 25.4. My D drive..virtual memory and restore partition....had 5.25 GB..and has only 930 MB on it now. I really only want to LEARN for myself. I have downloaded a program you all recommended to burn to disk for that partition..but have no disk to do that yet. I thought I'd be a smart *** and put the restore back to Jan. 1 04...before she got it I think...and it automatuically started one at yesterday's date too. So did I do anything wrong? Also...why can I NOW format those drives? I almost did it to D...because it said it would wipe it...but I was scared to. I was scared to do the restore..but I did it. I have read a ton of stuff on the computer..but am wondering if I did something wrong in the restore. I cannot find out at HP or anywhere just how much D drive is required to set this thing up when it is new. By chance do you know where I can find out? I guess if it ends up I have to buy memory I will since it is slowing this down....but being disabled I do not have much extra money. You guys are great and I really appreciate all your help. Thank you and have a great day...Cathy

 

If I am understanding correctly, you want to free up space on your D:\?

You can't really free up the D drive because that is where all of your restore info is. If you free it up, you can't use the built in restore. Your D drive doesn't have much to do with how your computer runs either. I highly suggest you don't touch the D drive and that you just buy another hard drive for your computer.