Need help with disk space problem (1 Viewer)

[Chris Dias]

Hi can somebody help me, I don't know what is going on. First of all I have a rather old computer, it is a Pentium 200 with a 2 gig hard drive and 64 MB of RAM running Windows 98. It does the job as all I do is surf e-mail and listen to the ocassional mp3.
Now the problem is I know I have at least 300 MB of hard disk space left. If I boot up and check windows explorer it says that. But as I leave the computer on the available space keeps fluctuating between 300 and 0. Then the "No Disk space" sign keeps popping up. Does anyone know what could be causing this? I can't even defrag my drive because everytime I start it goes for a while and then it stops because it says the information on the disk has changed. I have a cable modem so I thought that maybe something was secretly being downloaded in the background but then I unhooked it and the same thing was happening.
Can somebody help me? Thanks,
Chris Dias

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I would say it's either your web cache (Temporary Internet Files) or files going in and out of the recycle bin. Or both.

 

[Chris Dias]

Thanks for the quick response Rob, but I don't think that's the problem. I've tried deleting the cache and mt recycle bin is empty. Also, I can just leave the computer on without doing anything (even with the modem disconnected) and after a few minutes the "Out of space sign will pop up. Then I'll check the space and it will be at or near zero, but then after a few minutes of not doing anything it will be back up to 100 or 200 or 300 MB. It's weird.
Any other ideas? Is it a virus maybe?
Thanks

 

[Joel Mack]

Is Windows managing your Virtual Memory? That would be my guess.
Might be time to drop a hundred bucks and get a 30GB drive...
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"If we blow up, whatever's left of me is kickin' your butt."

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Joel's probably right. Even with 64mb of memory (which used to be considered the most you'll ever need for Win98) the OS will need to do a lot of swapping about.
You could try something as an experiment. Change your virtual memory settings and leave the swap file as a fixed size rather than letting Windows control the size. If the theory is right, you shouldn't then get these fluctuations.
Of course, a bigger drive and more RAM would be a good idea