Windows Vista Out of memory error

I've recently installed Vista Home Premium and when I try moving files from one h/drive to another I get the following error message:-
"There is not enough memory to complete this operation "

This only occurs when I try to move any folder containing picture files(eg: .jpg, etc). All the other files get transfered but not the pictures.

If I try to transfer the files individually or as a group I get yet another error message saying:-
"Are you sure you want to move this system file? If you move this file, Windows or another program may no longer work! "
My system is as follows:-
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium m/board.
AMD Althon 64 3200+
2 Gigs of DDR400 RAM (How much more does Vista need?)
Gigabyte GeForce 7600 GS graphics card
Seagate SATA 2 320 Gig H/Drive
Seagate SATA 300 Gig H/Drive
Pagefile - 3096 M/byte

I can't find anything on the Microsoft site any latter than Windows 95/98/ME with this problem

HELLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

 

Hello Mike and welcome to the Board

Do you have Hidden Files and Folders and Hidden OS Files view turned on?

My Computer > at the top: Tools > Folder Options > View tab > tick Show hidden files and folders and un tick the Hide protected operating system files option and also for known file extensions.

I went searching for this as well, one condition is document files being used as picture files which can be enormous.

What are the sizes of these files?

One file you should now see is the thumb.db type. How big are they?

Regards - Charles

 

Dear Charles,
Thanks for the interest and your comments.
Yes I already have those settings enabled in Explorer.

The file sizes seem to be irrelevant as I have the same problem with 30K files as I do with 300K ones????????????????????????????????????????

One thing I noticed this morning when I tried to transfer some more files was that initially the files transferred without a problem but after I had transferred about 500 megs the problem arose once more.

It's almost like a cache or the swap file (3 gigs) is filling up and not flushing or the clip board is filling and not flushing but I don't know how to check these or fix them if that's what the problem is.

Regards from Oz

Mike

 

Hi Mike,

Ok, if the problem is not size per se then first try to eliminate hardware problems.

Run chkdsk on both drives http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx use the /r switch

Test memory http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Can you tell how much RAM is being used while trying to do this? I'm running Ultimate which has a CPU/RAM meter in the Gadget sidebar. Don't know if Home has this.

Do you reboot the system every once in a while or is it running constantly?

Have you tried in Safe Mode or with as many other apps shut down as you can? You may have another app(s) running that's interfering.

Regards - Charles

 

Dear Charles,
In the end I finally gave up and as a last resort rebooted the system and guess what - NO MORE PROBLEM. By the way I did try Chkdsk and found no problems. Home Premium does have the CPU meter and it showed heaps of free memory. I also ran the memory test function with no problems found and also ran a DOS level memory check program to eliminate faulty memory as the culprit.

This begs one question and re-inforces my experience with XP when it was first released.
The question is "What was wrong with the initial install? "

And my experience with XP is that you shouldn't activate until you have it running sweetly. This is especially true of Vista due to Microsoft's policy on the number of times you can activate before you have to buy a new licence. At least you can extend the trial period up to 120 days which gives you ample time to sort out the bugs and make a disk image to get around the limits of activation.

This install seems to be running sweetly and I was able to copy all the files easily using Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier for Windows available from www.roadkil.net - there are some very handy little utilities available there if you're interested.

Now if I could only find a replacement for Explorer like Directory Opus that WORKS I'd be in Windows' heaven.

Regards

Mike

 

Dear Arie,
Thanks for your comments and help.

As staed in my reply to Charles, I have fixed the problem by re-installing Vista but am none the wiser as to what the problem could have been.

Regards from Oz

Mike

 

Mike, thanks very much for your resolution

Hope to see more of you - as time goes on, this section will need people with Vista experience.

Regards - Charles