Windows Vista low disk space but later 1.+GB of space?

I'm having troubles with my mom's laptop. I'm struggling on the memory space of the laptop which is below 200MB and from time to time, it's become 50MB. After some time, it became 1.0+GB. Is there a program doing this? I do have TuneUp Utilities 2009 that fixes my laptop and defrags and sometimes after "it" is activated from automation, the HDD space is in GB.

Are there any malware that involves eating so much space? Is there any chance that Windows is acting like this - having low memory but later on it's now in GB?

I'll back up my files to free as much as 10GB when I have the money to buy DVDs. Thank you for your time

-Chris

PS: At one point, I deleted so much data, it became 4GB but later on, it became 1GB and I didn't downloaded or put anything that ate so much space. What's going on?

 

I can't access the link or the website. Perhaps it's a territory issue or something. Thanks for your time. Like I said, I'll free up some space when I have the extra money on DVDs.

Thank you very much. I really appreciated.

 

One or two things that might make space. Go to Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Browsing History, delete the temporary files (and cookies). Look in Programs and Features, uninstall any programs you don't need or may be able to reinstall when you move the files to DVD. Have you done a disk cleanup? Do you use Windows Mail or another "local" email program? Delete any old emails you don't need and empty the trash folder.

The Page file can grow and shrink depending on how many programs you have open, although it may not shrink, even when you close programs, unless you restart the computer.

Matt

 

I'm looking at the program and my surprise that I can see the folders clearly. I can see winsxs being 7.53GB with naturallanguage being the most in 200MB each. I see Backup at 344MB (I wonder if that's system restore?). Overall, Windows is at 13.56GB (I wonder which to delete?hmmm)

I can see Speech, Installer, MEMORY.DMP, inf, IME and assembly being at 200MB while the last one is 500+MB.

I can see MSOCache at 2GB solid. I wonder if I can do some deletion on it?

--

Oh. So the pagefilel is causing the confusions. Now I know. I'll try to open programs one at a time. Thank you so much for the help. It's the pagefile afterall. I like to open multiple programs.

where's the resolve button? I'll try to free some space and will do the things you said to me.

 

The only things I would delete in the Windows directory is in the Temp folder. I learnt that back in Windows 3.1, when I deleted one file accidentally and it stopped working.

http://www.winvistaclub.com/f16.html
http://www.davidlenihan.com/2008/11/winsxs_disk_space_usage_its_no.html

Matt

 

Oh. I fully understand what winsxs is all about and should avoid that at all cause.

My problem is solved by understanding what the pagefile is all about. I think it's a new feature in vista (perhaps in XP but I haven't noticed it until now) that sometimes, your HDD is reduced.

Thank you for letting me understand what contains in Vista and its system files. I will go buy some DVDs to "back up" or save more space on my mom's laptop.

-Chris

 

Sounds good. Thanks for letting us know.