Re: Disk Space Low?

Years back, the conventional wisdom was that setting the swap to more than
2x your physical RAM was pointless. The swap file doesn't actually
replace/add to the RAM as a dynamic workspace for the computer, it only
functions as a holding area.

If the RAM is filled (because you have a memory intensive app running,
opened a large doc, whatever) and you now want to open another doc, the
computer swaps the data in RAM to the hard drive so it can work on the new
stuff. When you switch back to the other program, doc, etc., the computer
swaps the new doc to the drive and puts the other stuff back into RAM. In
theory, in a maxed-out situation, you would need 2x RAM in the swap; half to
hold the data being held, half for the data to be written (since that has to
occur before it can grab the old stuff and put it back into RAM). In the
real world that would never happen, because some of the bits in RAM are
never going to be swapped out (system stuff, background apps, etc.), the
number of 1.5 times is probably a realistic sweet spots. That said, I still
used to set mine to twice the RAM -- figured couldn't hurt and drive space
is cheap.

So adding more swap to a low-RAM PC isn't magically make it run like it has
more RAM. Adding more RAM is always better, all that reading and writing to
the drive is not as efficient as reading and writing to RAM.
--
James
Orlando (Goofy says "Hey!"), Florida




"Gene E. Bloch" <hamburger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns97C68CAF62DDginoblochgcom@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Be sure to read the other replies - it's good to get second, third,
... opinions in these areas. *Especially* when my opinion was the
first one!

If you right-click on 'My Computer' and select Properties, you
should get a window labelled "System Properties" with seven tabs.
This gives you a few ways to mess things up :-) Big thing to be
aware of: all the screens I'm talking about have Cancel buttons!!

1. Advanced tab. Press the Settings button in the Performance box.
Choose Advanced, and there's a button to change Virtual Memory. It
can go on any drive, looks like, and a frequently mentioned size is
1.5 times your RAM. (This doesn't make sense to me; I think less RAM
needs more swap.) Mine is set that way, but I don't remember doing
that. Usually I let Windows manage it. And I don't really think you
need to mess with it :-)

Maybe I did set that. I have heard that a fixed swap file size is
more efficient - less overhead, and it won't fragment. In that case,
the size I chose was the one Windows had chosen before I got there.

2.System Restore tab. Highlight a drive and press the settings tab
and be sorry... I have discovered that if you turn off, say the D:
drive, you also lose all prior restore points on the C: drive. This
can be bad if you do it when you were about to need one of those
restore points :-( Remember the Cancel button!!

The Recycle Bin has its own settings. Just right click on its icon
and there are tabs for global settings and for each drive's
settings. If you set "Use one setting..." you can't change the
individual drive settings.

Whew. That's probably more than enough for now.

Gino

Larry Jordan <LarryJordan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:877883E8-4A2A-4DC6-B4D5-D6BF66C0BCF4@xxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Thank you very much Gene,

How do I find and change that swap file and what is re reccomended
size? As for the second suggestion: I constantly empty the
recycle ben. I will look into re-partitioning the drives. I've
never tried to do anything like that before. I've used
application mover to clear some space, but is is quickly reclaimed
by something.

Thanks again,

Larry

"Gene E. Bloch" wrote:

Larry Jordan <LarryJordan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:C97EEA52-5640-4457-8DC6-5735862C399D@xxxxxxxxxxxxx:

I have a VAIO MCE with 200G. 13 on C and the rest on D Drive.
Problem is that C drive constantly fills up. I do not record
TV, I constantly have to move something to do so I don't get
the message. I will get do the 400m range. Most all of the
prgrams I ;use are on D drive. If I manage to free it up to a
gig by moving a program it fills back up in less than a day.

Does any one know what causes this? What can I do to stop the
space usage? Any help will be appreciated.

Probably 13 GB isn't really enough for what you're doing.

Other possibilities exist.

1. Your swap file (virtual memory file) allocation is too big.

2. You are deleting files to the Recycle Bin and not emptying it
often enough, so you don't really free up any storage. Or you
have allocated too much space to the Recycle Bin.

3. Your System Restore disk space allocation is too big.

I would not recommend reducing the third one (System Restore) too
much - I have been burned by not having a good Restore Point
because of that.

However, there is one idea for a solution that I think is good.
Resize your partitions so that C: is around 20 or 25 GB (mine is
50 GB with 18 used!).

Don't use Windows XP's tools - they will wipe out your
partitions. There are third party products available that can
non-destructively change partition sizes.

I have used Partition Magic with good success in times past;
there are others. Read current reviews to be sure you get a safe
one.

Note: the process is NOT fast! And there are no free products,
AFAIK.

HTH,
Gino

--
Gene E. Bloch (Gino) ... letters617blochg3251
(replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")




--
Gene E. Bloch (Gino) ... letters617blochg3251
(replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")


.