Possible Memory Leaking - RAM upgrade.

Hi Digerati

Do you have a partitioned drive? Or a second drive? In either case, you do it same way as I outlined before, only you set it on the other drive. Just make sure you clear the one on C:. And remember to click on "Set" each time.

Yes I have a C: & a D: Drive. My C: Drive has 7.41GB free space out of 25.2GB and the D: Drive has 21.3GB free space out of 25.7GB. I only wish I could use more of the D: Drives capacity.

To set a fixed size:

Right click on My Computer > Properties
Click on the Advanced Tab, then under the Performance section, click on Settings
Click on the Advanced Tab, then under Virtual Memory, click on the Change button.

Click on the C drive to highlight it, and check the Custom size button.

To set a Page file of 1Gb, that's really 1024Mb so enter 1024 for both Initial and Maximum size.

Then hit Set, and OK, OK, OK.

So instead of doing this on the C: Drive do it on the D:

I only wish I could use more of the D: Drives capacity.

You can! The trick to using the second drive is to always select the "custom install" option whenever you install new programs. Then modify the install location to point to D drive and the folder (or new folder) of your choice. Unfortunately, for programs already installed on C drive, you cannot simply cut and paste to move the files/folder from one drive to the other, you have to uninstall, then reinstall in the new location. Otherwise, the registry is not updated and Windows will not know where to find all the necessary files to run the program. So, to free up some space on C drive by moving your applications to D, uninstall then re-install, pointing the install to the other drive and folder of choice.

You can also create a new "My Documents" on D drive, then copy all the contents of your current My Docs on C to the new folder on D. Do not delete the My Documents folder on C drive yet. Then, on your desktop, right click on My Documents > Properties, and in the Target text box, enter the complete path and folder name of your new My Documents folder - it should be something like D:\My Documents and click Move, and follow the prompts to complete the move and exit your way back out. This now tells Windows to use that folder from now on. Now go back to your Desktop and verify that My Documents takes you to D drive, and that your files are there. If all looks good, you can then use Windows Explorer and delete the My Documents folder on C drive. Note the new documents folder can be named anything you want, but sticking with My Documents is easy.

You can also move the location Internet Explorer saves the 1000s of temporary Internet files it uses, by using a similar method. Create a folder on D drive called Temp (or whatever makes sense to you). For IE7, go to Internet Options> Browsing History > Settings and click on Move Folder, then follow the prompts to move it. This will help keep the clutter off your boot drive. You should be able to do the same with alternative browsers.

So instead of doing this on the C: Drive do it on the D:

Yes.

Once all this stuff is moved to D drive, boot into Safe Mode and run defrag on C drive.

BTW, whenever I set up a new computer, I always create at least 2 partitions on my first drive with the first partition being 10Gb (15Gb for Vista systems). That becomes my C drive. I install Windows and all my hardware drivers on C drive - nothing else! Then I move My Documents, the Page File, and the Temporary Internet Files folder locations on one of the other partitions. From then all, any installed program gets installed somewhere other than C drive.

For systems with two drives, I do the math and set partitions so the last partition is set to 5Gb. Then I move my Page File to that last partition on the second drive. When the Page File is the only thing in the partition, you can let Windows manage the size and not have to worry about disk space, or fragmentation issues with that partition.

Hi

You can also create a new "My Documents" on D drive

My "My Data" folder which contains My Pictures, My Music etc is already on the D: Drive. I think the intention of the company who set up my computer was to solely use the D: as a back drive for these docs although I may be wrong.
But if its ok to install programs on the D: Drive instead of on C: I will start to do that.

Ive moved the PF thingy to the D: Drive and it has released more memory on the C: Drive hooray
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Cheers for everything you've help me out a lot

My "My Data" folder which contains My Pictures, My Music etc is already on the D: Drive

That's fine. You can also tell your word processor and your email program to save their data files somewhere under My Data too.

But if its ok to install programs on the D: Drive instead of on C: I will start to do that

Sure it's okay. As long as the install process allows you to chose where to install it, you can pick D drive and it will work from there.

Hi Digerati

Thank you very much for all your help with my problem.

PS I just wanted to check again and make sure it is 100% o.k to run programs of my Backup file Drive D:

Cheers

PS I just wanted to check again and make sure it is 100% o.k to run programs of my Backup file Drive D:

"of" your Backup file?

If you are asking is it only to install programs (such as Microsoft Word, or a game) on your D: drive and run them from ("off" of) there, then yes, all my programs run off my D: drive.

Yeah my D: Drive has all my backup files on. So its ok then - Great thats brilliant cheers

Hi Digerati / Paws I'm still having trouble with my RAM eating up my hard drive space on C: I know you have already stated that RAM doesn't consume HD space but its happening. I want to install another 1GB RAM as I often use Photoshop which requires a lot of memory. I can run two PC Pitstop tests to prove that this is happening. One test before installing and the second to demonstrate the impact of installing the 1GB RAM has on my Hard Drive (C:) space. I'm just wondering if there is a solution/work around to this? Cheers Guys

Greetings Mancid

Not sure if you are dismissing Paws and Digerati's good advice when you keep repeating that RAM is eating up your HARD DRIVE space when they both have said it is not. I am not sure what you are wanting them to say?


RAM DOES NOT EAT up Hard drive space. It is is still all there . It did not melt, burn, rot ,evaporate, or go into some space time continuum.

WINDOWS the operating system is REACTING to the fact you are adding more ram. You put in RAM it does something.

Now how does it react?

1. Increases Page file size according to a formula by DEFAULT. Usually 1.5 the amount of memory. This is reflecting in REAL decreases in the amount of HARDDRIVE space availible. for you to use for other purposes.

I said usually 1.5 times, If WINDOWS is managing it automatically it could be a bit more or less. So put down the calculator to try prove a point here.

You know what a page file is, because it was explained to you.


2. Increases the amount of HARDDRIVE space RESERVED for the hiberfil.sys file. It will grow to equal your RAM size. More space you cant use for other purposes.

HARDDRIVE SPACE is RESERVED to store information from your RAM should the computer go into a HIBERNATION/SLEEP mode.


Best Recomendation is to enjoy your new RAM and not worry about the loss of a gigabyte of harddrive space. If you want space back, go delete some old or useless data off and reclaim the space.

This horse is dead and no sense in continuing to beat it.

Regards

Kaz

RAM DOES NOT EAT up Hard drive space. It is is still all there . It did not melt, burn, rot ,evaporate, or go into some space time continuum.

This horse is dead and no sense in continuing to beat it.

Regards

Kaz

Ok thanks