it says i have only 900 MB of memory left, but thats not possible i don't have anything that big, i also have already done a disk cleanup and it didn't help.
2006-08-19 08:38:46 · 12 answers · asked by Koll 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
thanks the avast seemed to help, but i think the problem is my earthlink virus protection, it has this back up file with a few billion files all numbers i don't know what its purpose is but im pretty sure thats whats eating my memory. Does anyone know why this file named "backup" file would exist.
2006-08-20 06:40:58 · update #1
Try using avast it is very good it will do the trick download avast .com
2006-08-19 10:09:52 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hmmmmmmmm, could be a virus. There are some really notorious viruses out there and you could have gotten one of them. Two possibilities if that is true.
1.The virus just makes your computer THINK that there is only 900MB free.
2.The virus actually wrote junk and stuff on your hard drive to take up all of the space.
One recommendation I can make is to "search" your entire hard drive. Just go to start - search files and folders. One handy feature about it that most people don't know about is that, it can simply be used to make a list of all files and folders ina particular location.
Here is what you do. Go to search and before you do anything, go to Tools - Folder Options and go to the View tab. Under Hidden Files and Folder and make sure that Show Hidden Files and Folder is selected and right below it, the checkbox labeled Hide Extensions for Known File Types is UNCHECKED because we want to check every file's extension.
Click ok. After that on the left side, click All Files and Folder. Under look in, select the C drive. Make sure that the the name of the file and phrase are empty. Click search, and the computer will just start listing EVERYTHING on your hard drive. Let it run for a few minutes. When it finishes, rearrange the files by the file size and see if there is anything suspicious. Or look for something else that is fishy. Once I got a virus that just took a snapshot of my desktop like every second and saved it. I noticed it when space was getting taken up rapidly. So when I searched my C drive I got like a million pictures all in sequence.
A note of caution: if you do have a virus and it is taking up RAM/memory and you are pretty short on drive space, this might not work, because the OS requires a bunch of space and RAM to do a search like this. This is just an option if you want to solve the problem on your own.
Otherwise, get somebody close to you who knows what he is doing.
Also you didn't specify if this is your master hard drive we are talking about or just another (maybe external) hard drive like for backups.
If it is not your master hard drive, then just save what you want and completely reformat it. If it IS your drive with your OS on it, you may be in trouble.
2006-08-19 08:44:17 · answer #2 · answered by The Prince 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would do a complete search of the hard drive. First thing I would look for is anything over 1GB, that will help identify any large files. If that doesn't help do a search for everything on the hard drive and look for multiple files of the same name and same location. If you were downloading something from say an online media store and the file did not finish properly it could keep trying to download again and again. I have seen this happen with Windows Media Player 11.
2006-08-19 09:57:15 · answer #3 · answered by Ray M 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, thats a virus, sounds like a memory sapping one. if you can, in windows, do an alt-control-delete and look at your processes,, check the mem usage column, and see if theres anything taking big amounts of memory, if there is, terminate it and see what happens, some viruses can be very good at camoflage, and make themselves look like bona fide applications when they're not. Make a list of anything you're suspicious of and google it, if its a virus it should come right up, like kernel32.exe, theres a genuine kernel32 but its a DLL file, not an EXE, thats just an example, though! If your not confident enough to sort this out though, consult an IT Technician. Hope this helps!
2006-08-19 08:59:02 · answer #4 · answered by Alf Garnet 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are many software products on the market that can restore your data. Normally, you need a secod drive to write the restorded data. (So that you do not write over data that you are trying to restore)
RESTORER2000, is one of the good utilities that will restore your data.
Product: Restorer2000 Professional
Amount: 49.99 USD
BITMART Inc.
PMB 2174, 13035 Yonge Street
Richmond Hill, ON, L4E 1A4, Canada
2006-08-19 09:20:13 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Have you empy your recycle bin? If the drive says you only have 900 mb than you have data on the drive unless you have not empty your recycle bin.
2006-08-19 08:46:16 · answer #6 · answered by Grasshopper 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Are you running limewire? Do you have a firewall? If you dont have a firewall i suspect someone else is using your HD are a storage area. disconnect from the network and start diggin around your HD.
2006-08-19 08:48:24 · answer #7 · answered by late_sleeper35 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
check for a virus
2006-08-19 08:46:08 · answer #8 · answered by bomber123433307 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
defragment ur comp... maybe u got a virus... use a virus checker... log into other user accounts, maybe they got something!
2006-08-19 09:49:06 · answer #9 · answered by bunnyBoo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
go to remove programs and see if maybe there is a big program there.
sounds weird if you can restore i'd try that.
2006-08-19 08:44:52 · answer #10 · answered by Nutty Girl 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋