Virtual Memories

[dmegametal#1]

hi there..i sometime get this message..

you are low on memories..windows is creating more virtual memories..please do not restart your computer,please wait a few minutes to take place!

what is this and what happens to the Harddrive space,since i have around 18gb left on the C-drive.or does it have nothing to do with harddrive space?

[King_Nothing]

Correct me if I am wrong, but perhaps it is referring to your RAM and not the harddrive space.

[oip]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Memory

[dmegametal#1]

are you sure this will work(de-frag)..i am working on a older system..windows 2000 my work PC..we closed the business now doing work at home now on this old PC!!

[sorrowman]

It's actually quite a bit simple. In short, if Windows feels there's not enough regular memory available it'll attempt to compensate the lack of RAM memory by temporary using harddrive space as an extension of the RAM memory (hence the name 'virtual memory' since it's not actual RAM memory) Your regular RAM memory will be used to store only the data the system uses a lot, in addition virtual memory will be used to store temporary files/data and data/files that are used less often.

In Windows you can actually manually control the amount of hard-disc space reserved for virtual memory by setting the maximum size of the so-called SWAP-file (which is kinda like the container that contains all the data stored in the virtual memory), but in most cases it's better to leave Windows to automatically adjust the virtual memory size if need be. In certain cases virtual memory can be turned of completely, but obviously that would mean you would have to have a LOT of regular RAM memory in your system to make sure no virtual memory would be needed under any circumstances, otherwise problems (stability issues, hanging systems etc.) might show up.

[Cjlcooter]

are you sure this will work(de-frag)..i am working on a older system..windows 2000 my work PC..we closed the business now doing work at home now on this old PC!!

hey doug man get rid of that garbage windows 2000 man it is one of the worst OS's out there.

Cj

[sjmike]

Actually Windows 2000 is pretty stable, we have it on over 20 machines here at work. In some cases, it actually out performs XP. If he was on Windows ME or Vista then he should jump ship.

[dmegametal#1]

i did a system de-frag..got rid of over 2GB of old files..it's work quite good now

[sorrowman]

Actually Windows 2000 is pretty stable, we have it on over 20 machines here at work. In some cases, it actually out performs XP. If he was on Windows ME or Vista then he should jump ship.

Jump shiip....especially when it's ME, that's is a true piece of garbage, but indeed Windows 2000 is actually pretty good.

[dmegametal#1]

well,since the defrag as done..and ran a virus scan..it shows up again..does Norton has anything to do with the memory??