How do I fix my computer having low memory?

At BestBuy they have this thing called the Geek Squad, they can expand the memory on your computer for a price.

There are a few options for you right of the bat. The first is to upgrade your physical RAM. The way this is done is by knowing what speed your RAM runs at (800MHz DDR2 is standard) and upgrade to something higher. The downfall with is you must know what the max. capacity of RAM your PC can support, and how many slots you have. If your PC can handle 8GB, but you only have 2 slots, that means the maximum RAM you can get per stick is 4GB. To check how much you can support, you can run CPU-Z(free) and see how many slots are available and what speed each stick is at.

The second option is buying an external Hard disk drive(HDD). Buying an external drive will allow you to store backup files and/or use as a second place to store files. You can buy a cheap one that is 80-200GB cheap at any store or online.

The third option would be to burn some of those files onto a CD. This might get a bit frustrating though, in case the lasers get scratched or you lose the CDs.

Hope I helped. If you need any online stores that are cheap, I can provide my service to you and find you a great price. :D

Thanks. I stated that I’m already running the Maximum 4G of RAM. I’m wondering if I can do something on my system (like a defrag), short of re-installing a fresh Vista.

Ah, you could use Ccleaner or run a defrag of your setup for any ‘crapped’ up disk space that was once used. You could also store some of your files online, like on Windows SkyDrive or similar. The external drive can also be something you can consider.

I don’t see how deleting files will help with RAM…restarting your computer clears the physical memory. “Files” don’t use physical memory just sitting there. So I’m thinking something is using it up when you turn on your computer…a program running in the background, maybe, that you’re not aware that it’s running? Or. that you’re running too many programs at one time…that would also suck up more physical memory.

Did you right click on My Computer then “properties” and make sure that you’re gettin all 4 Gigs of RAM? It will show there…

Defragging always helps, because the computer can find things faster…ccCleaner will clean up files in your Registry, too…

Thanks :)

What your computer is telling you is that your hard drive is getting full. Get an external hard drive or a large USB key and plug it into a USB port. Then right click on the “Start” ‘button’ and click on ‘Explore’. Your USB storage device will have been given a drive letter. I right click on the drive letter and rename it something helpful like “myname USB” or something like that. Then I copy files in the ‘My Documents’ folder and anywhere else I’m keeping files that I want to keep that can be sent somewhere other than my hard drive (doesn’t work for programs as they won’t run from anywhere other than your main hard drive). Then I paste those files into my USB device. Then once I’m sure they are in the USB device, I delete those files from the hard drive. If they are something especially hard to replace like photos, I save them on more than one USB device (like a USB key and an external hard drive).

Once all the files are out that I want to save, I go through folders like my Temp, Documents, Downloads etc and sort them by file size (click on the heading above the column that shows how big the files are). Then I consider how important each file is and delete the unimportant ones, especially the big ones. Generally speaking, if it hasn’t been opened or updated in many months and it is not required for Windows to run properly, it’s unimportant.

If I want to do this automatically, I run programs like CCleaner or System Mechanic to help me get rid of unneeded files and file fragments. But not until after I have backed up my important files on something else.

One device I’ve found that is even better than a normal external hard drive is Simpletec’s Clickfree Storage Appliance. Mine is 60 GB but it compresses as it saves so it hold a ton of data. I runs automatically without having to install any drivers (or you can customize its settings and add a password if you want). I can keep the data from three different computers organized separately on one of these neat things.