Do you mean memory or hard drive space?

I realize you are trying to speed up your PC and after you have done that you need to put a copy of your files back on your computer. The whole idea of having an X HD is to have them in two places in case the HD or computer goes bad.

Thanks for your responses, I guess what I mean is space on the local disk, which is C, and the space seems to have disappeared rather quickly, scanned for virus etc., am good to go there. Cleaned up files, and all the other little things I could think of to gain memory. I was told I would surely never use up what I had on the machine, and that seems to be not so.
I never was really "up" on this, but have started to worry some about this, don't want to have problems.
The size of my disk is or was 74.5GB, and the sliding bar tells me I have 7.42GB as free space, this seems really small to me, and looking at the pictoral am puzzled, cuz I don't understand this. My HD is loaded with all extra stuff, don't care if I lose anything really, not vital to my life, just a collection of "stuff" garnered over the years. Can I leave the HD plugged in all the time, or is it easier on machine to add after bootup?
Inquiring minds you know.

Shaddy101, most people only plug in the external hard drive when they either want to move files to it or access files that they've already stored there.

Unless you are running an application that backs up the computer to the hard drive, you really should only attach it when you need it.

Do you have a large amount of movies, pictures or music saved to your internal hard drive?

Memory is a different hardware component and works with your computer processor to allow speed of operation and allows multitasking or multiple applications open at the same time.

You seem to be concerned about hard drive space, which is used for storage of saved files and a bit for Windows and your applications. Windows and your installed applications take up a minimal amount of 74+ GB of space.

Maybe I still don't understand what you are asking.

Pam

You say all extra stuff, like what? any unused games or bloated software not used often uninstall and you will free up space on your HD move photo's etc. to Xdrive or flash drive or cloud storage then remove form internal; HD again free up space. then run disk clean up and defrag.

No games, I have cards, only solitaire that I play regularly, came with the machine, and the rest of the "games" have gotten rusty I would say just sitting there, unused since I got the machine, I collect crochet things, and that is what "stuff" I have on my XHD. I do not know what to delete from my computer start up menu, I do word processing from time to time, making pdf's and using Word, I have kept things to a minimum, cuz I don't need a lot of what others consider essential, but have folders with startups of some of the programs etc that have been added to the computer over time, what to do about those? I also do emailing, some snooping on Utube, and perhaps when someone sends a link to investigate.
I appreciate your help, don't know if I can really make sense enuf to clear what I am trying to say even to myself.
Any words to the ignorant would be greatly appreciated, I have tried over the years to take care of my own probs, but this seems to be beyond what I actually know.

OK, what is starting up with the computer? You should be able to open the applications that are starting up and access their settings or preferences. It will take some snooping around on your own, but there should be a setting to not start the app when the computer starts up.

What version of Windows?
How long does it take to startup?

Maybe look in control panel at Administrative Tools and use the disk clean up program. Maybe use the button for system file cleanup too.

I was not referring to start ups, but look in your programs and at control panel programs (uninstall) when list comes up scroll down, look for things you do not use or software you downloaded no longer used and uninstall, stay away from Microsoft or windows, most of those are important, just look for crap...LOL to uninstall right click on it then uninstall.

Is there somewhere that a picture can be shown here, I managed to get a screenshot of what I have for programs installed on the machine, and don't see a lot that have recently been added, tho I may have extras of a couple. Say for instance 7zip, I think there was an update that I picked up a little bit ago, but unsure of what to take out, green as grass in that area, and also a little more than apprehensive, as I don't do this very often, like never. so, if you are willing to stick with this and help me over the hump, would be grateful.

If you want to post a photo use the browse box just above this reply and follow the path to the print screen.

Well, back in the day, was very difficult to get a photo to this site, which is why I asked about it, thinking someone mentioned it had been made easier. Thank you young lady for the assist.
Now, the picture, well, I have AVG, and have run a scan to FIX computer, for free once, and then after that it will cost, I have never done this before, but am leery, so want to ask the folks here their opinion. I have the screen shot of what it tells me, have done nothing with the results, no fixing etc., but wondering what this is telling me? I have no virus problems according to AVG, BUT, wondering . If need be, I will eliminate this, as you always are so helpful in letting people know what the real deal is, so is this something I need to be concerned with? I also know lots of you don't recommend AVG, but I have used for several years, and have found it to be just exactly what the dr ordered, or thought I did anyway. Will know more after I hear from you folks. Will await your replies, and also have pic of the programs that are running if anyone wants to let me know what to dispose of?

shaddy-
If you only have a 74.5 GB hard disk, that is very small by today's standards. I don't know why anyone hasn't mentioned this before suggesting all these fixes. My main computer is 7 years old and has a 500GB hard drive, which came with it; the Windows folder alone takes up 32GB on my hard drive. I think all the things you are doing and that people are suggesting are minimal in their effects and won't help much. Are you really sure you have that small a hard drive? If so, most of it is taken up with your operating system and other programs you have added over time, and you're simply running out of room. How old is this computer, what operating system is it running, and how are you determining hard drive size?

My computer is perhaps 2 years old, was built for me by tech, said was sure I would never need any more memory,. I was skeptical at the time, he maybe didn't have a clue as to what I was needing this for. I go to my computer, click on that, and a menu opens up with Local disk, my XHD when I have that plugged in, and devices with removable storage, and my camera comes on there when I take pics off, along with a flash drive if I am using one of those.
Enclosing a pic of what I see, I know of no other place to find my memory, and the graph seems larger tonite than was earlier today, tho I don't know that I have done much today to increase the memory. General cleanup, and fragment etc. is about all. Windows 7 is what I have, and don't know beans, as you can tell.

That's the right place, and you need to clean up, remove 7GBytes to be in 15% free space and you will be ok for the drive.

I have the same size Hard drive. There's nothing wrong with the hard drive size we just have to be careful to keep 15% free space.

Did you a disc clean up and include system files like mikie said ?

To delete files using Disk Cleanup

The following procedure cleans up files associated with your user account. You can also use Disk Cleanup to clean up all the files on your computer.

Open Disk Cleanup by clicking the Start button In the search box, type Disk Cleanup, and then, in the list of results, click Disk Cleanup.

In the Drives list, click the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK. For you that wiLL be C

In the Disk Cleanup dialog box, on the Disk Cleanup tab, select the check boxes for the file types that you want to delete, and then click OK.

In the message that appears, click Delete files.

Do this one to clean up all files on the computer

Open Disk Cleanup by clicking the Start button In the search box, type Disk Cleanup, and then, in the list of results, click Disk Cleanup.

In the Drives list, click the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK. For you that will be C DRIVE

In the Disk Cleanup dialog box, click Clean up system files. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

In the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box, select the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK.

In the Disk Cleanup dialog box, on the Disk Cleanup tab, select the check boxes for the file types that you want to delete, and then click OK.

In the message that appears, click Delete files.

The More Options tab is available when you choose to clean files from all users on the computer. This tab includes two additional ways to free even more disk space:

Programs and Features. This option opens Programs and Features in Control Panel, where you can uninstall programs that you no longer use. The Size column in Programs and Features shows how much disk space each program uses.

System Restore and Shadow Copies. With this option, you can delete all but the most recent restore point on the disk.

System Restore uses restore points to return your system files to an earlier point in time. If your computer is running normally, you can save disk space by deleting the earlier restore points.

Here's the link try to work on this.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/delete-files-using-disk-cleanup#delete-files-using-disk-cleanup=windows-7

shaddy-
A 500 GB name brand internal hard drive can be purchased retail for about $35. Regardless of what you use your computer for, I can think of no reason why someone would have built a PC for you 2 years ago with only a 70-80 GB hard drive...you'd have to look hard to even find one. Since the screen shot you posted is so tiny, I can't really see anything other than the pie shape which shows a drive that is mostly full. Can you confirm for me: 1) that that is your C: drive?, and 2) that your hard drive isn't partitioned (meaning it could be a larger drive that has been "split" into a C: and a D: drive)? I'm just perplexed about why your drive is so small. Also, this is going to continue to be a problem in the future, because even if you clean out, say, another 10 GB right now, the hard drive will slowly fill up again. If it were me, I'd take it to the shop, have them put in a new 500GB hard drive and copy everything from the old drive onto the new one. That way you won't have to worry about running out of room again and your computer will be peppier. You're spending a lot of time right now trying marginal fixes on something that should not be a problem. I understand that you aren't computer savvy, and that is always a problem when facing something like this because everything is mysterious and you don't know where to start. But I'm trying to tell you that the answer is not mysterious: it's just a physical limitation that can be dealt with in an easier manner than trying a bunch of fixes and never knowing if that's as good as it gets.

That's like adding another closet to the bed room so we can fill it up with even more crap and in 6 months we need to remove 320 GB of crap to get 15% free space, instead of just freeing up 7 GB now.

Let the user learn to manage a small drive just like I have.

kudzu, thanks for your interest, and yes to your first question, and in answer to your second question, I see nothing for another drive, which is why I got myself a XHD long ago. there isn't even a dent in all that is stored there, but I would like to be able to temporarily store more on the machine until I can get it to the XHD.
the only thing about the XHD is having to plug it in all the time to search for what I want, and having to go back and forth to do what could, and should be able to do right off the machine, with no extra work. Is it a hard thing to get an INTERNAL HD installed, could someone with little skills do this? or could someone come to my home and do it? I hate having to lug this out to be done, tho if need be can do.
Also, can the machine support such a beast as the size you suggested? As I am unskilled about sizes, etc., this is perplexing to me.
I have copied the info you and zep have outlined, and hope to get to something shortly. Will keep eyes on the forum here for any updates, and let you know how things are going.
Many thanks!

shaddy-
You may be surprised, but a 500 MB hard drive will outwardly have the same physical size as the one you now have so there will be no problem with having it fit in the space your present one occupies; and many desktops even have room inside their cases for more than one hard drive. It's generally quite easy to swap out drives and reinstall the operating system, but, the best thing for you would be to copy over everything on your old drive to the new one, and that's complicated for someone not computer savvy. By copying your old drive to your new one, your computer will function and look just like it does now, but you will have all the room you need. It would be cheaper, probably, to bring the computer box to a store rather than have a visit to your house, but it can be done either way.

You should also understand that computers don't mysteriously add huge amounts of things to a hard drive without one's knowledge. I have a 500 GB hard drive in my 7 year old computer and it has about 300 GB used. When I first got it, it had about 100 GB used, but I have added more programs and lots of photo files. I expect to add more over time, but I will probably retire it for a new one before I come close to using up too much space. Your problem is that your drive is so small now that you can clear some stuff off to free a little space, but then you get back to being at a critical level as a little more stuff gets added. I'm not encouraging you to get a bigger drive so you can fill it with crap, but simply so that you can operate like you usually do, but not have to be concerned that it's time to do more maintenance every few months.

By the way, there is no reason you can't keep your external drive plugged in all the time: it will make it easier to access that storage without having to take the time to plug it in and have the computer recognize it each time you want to store something. And, if it's big enough, you can set it up to back up everything (or at least the important things) from your internal hard drive so that you won't lose anything if you ever have a drive failure.

There have been a number of people who have talked about having had a PC custom made "down at the shop". It's surprising (maybe even shocking) to me to hear anyone still getting PCs this way, it's a practice that the consumer world moved on from a long, long time ago. Shaddy, if your two year old PC indeed has a sub-100GB hard drive, you got hoodwinked with that component and maybe with others and with the price too. You'd never have had that experience when buying a respectable brand. The standard size found in even basic new models a few years ago was 500 GB or more.

If there's only one backup copy, it's better to not keep it connected to the PC at all times. A better practice is to connect it only when doing a backup, and then disconnect it (and remember to do the proper dismount procedure in Windows or wait until the PC is completely off) One power surge through the electrical system, or a hiccup with the power supply, and both copies can be lost in the blink of an eye.

shaddy-
snidely makes a good point about protecting your backups. Although I have an external hard drive backup pretty much connected at all times, I have an additional set of backups on separate storage media of all irreplaceable files/photos. Regarding power surges, that can be a concern, but I have yet to lose anything on a computer from a power surge in the 25 years I've been using computers...however, I've always had my computer and all the peripherals connected to power through a good surge protector.

This post was edited by kudzu9 on Mon, Jan 5, 15 at 19:37

Thanks for the info snidely, I learned from reading lots of info on this forum, to do that with the old flash drives that I was using before I got the XHD, and have carried over doing the same. Wish I had more info to know more about the memory thing, that never entered my head, I just "assumed" it would be enuf, no one ever said how much was more than enuf even, so went with the flow. Old dogs, and new tricks, guess some of us learn the hard way? Will be in touch.

Could someone please address the fact that she's under the impression that memory equals hard drive space? I don't know how to explain it so that she can understand that they are not the same components. She probably does have more memory than she'll ever need, it's space that she is lacking.

I keep getting hung up on that :-)

Pam

pk, you're as capable as anyone, but I'll try.

shaddy, help us help you by doing the following:

1) Find the "Recycle Bin" icon on your desktop, double click on it to open it, and then one left click where it says "empty recycle bin". Before you do this, I'm assuming there's nothing in your recycle bin that you need to keep. This is a holding place for files when you indicate they should be deleted, you're given one chance to change your mind.

2) Next, look up the column (you're now in Windows Explorer, which shows you what's in drives and folders). Make one left click under Computer where it says "Local Drive C"

3) Without moving your mouse, do one right click, then click on "Properties", and you'll see a table and a pie chart. Please report back what it says as "Used Space", "Free Space", and "Capacity".

This information is for the hard drive. "Memory" is something very different and needn't be discussed. Yet.

pkponder-
I don't know if shaddy understands there is RAM memory that is used to operate the computer, and is separate from the hard drive memory. However, the thread seems to be focusing on issues with her hard drive, and it sounds like it is a very small one with not much space available.

Shaddy, to answer one of your questions you asked earlier, no it is not hard to change out hard disks. I have done this myself when the drive in my old XP machine died. I ordered a new drive, took the dead one out, installed the new one and copied all the information from my external hard drive to the new internal. So you don't need a really high tech trained person to do this. This is not memory we're talking about. It is hard disk space (storage) that holds all the information you have put on your computer. Hope you can find someone locally who will do this and not take advantage of you.

I did try to explain days ago and just don't want her to walk into a shop and tell them that she needs more memory :-) I bet she has plenty already since she stated that someone told her that she would never use it all.

I absolutely do understand that what we are really discussing is hard drive storage space.

pkponder-
Yes, she needs a larger hard drive, and probably not more "memory," too. I'm sure (or hopeful) after all this discussion that she will ask for a bigger hard drive, and not simply say "more memory," i.e., RAM.

Might try CCleaner. Sometimes can be amazing the bytes removed.

Its sounding like it may possibly be a 120gb SSD with an unlettered partition containing some image or install files,, perhaps his restore type stufff? and most likely has a 10% or some size unusable partition for the ssd's over-provisioning.

Shaddy,

Let me give it a try. Since I left my window laptop at work, I will use spec. of my MAC Pro as examples. I am not sure if the following writeup is too simple and too general for you. Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

In general, when people talk about Memory in a computer, they refer to

1. cache memory - it comes with processor, is used for instruction sets. It is the fastest and most expensive type of memory. My MAC PRO has a 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5 Processor. It comes with 256 KB L2 Cache (per Core), and 3 MB L3 Cache.

2. Random Access Memory (RAM) - it is used by operating system and application during computer program execution. Fairly expensive. More RAMs means faster program execution. People purchase lots of RAMs if they need to process huge amount of data and generate high complexity graphics, or to run graphical intensive programs when speed is a priority such as computer games. I do not play computer games, so I only purchased 8 GB memory for my MAC.

There are many varieties of RAM to choose based on the application, implementation and environmental needs. Below is a link for your reference.

Then you hear Storage, it refers to
1. data storage space internal to a computer, it is so called internal Hard Disk such as size of a C drive in a window computer. It is less expensive than RAM. My MAC has 500 GB storage space.

2. data storage space external to a computer, such as CDs, Thumb drive, and External back up drive..etc. These are the most cost effective storage devices. My Samsung external device is 1 Terabyte to keep back up data.

Enough internal hard disk -

You could determine the size of Hard disk/drive space you need by adding file size of operating system, applications, data files and leave room for future growth.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fast Guide to RAM

Azmom, today, is not a good understanding day, I have ADHD, and sometimes, I can "get" things right off the bat, today, what you have written is GREEK, and I can't comprehend. Sorry, will try your response tomorrow maybe better, but do so appreciate your responses, everyone.
Yes, guess what I am truly after is more storage, so that would be a larger hard drive? do I finally have that correct? Then, to get to snidely, I opened up this morning, and found these figures to your questions,
Used space is 60.3
Free space is 14.
capacity is 74.4
As you can tell, I don't understand this one single bit, I am, or "was" under the impression, as referred to in an earlier response, that memory, and hard drive space are one and the same, now I understand that they are different, but do not comprehend the difference, at least yet.
As nice as everyone has been in responses, yes, you too pk, I am sure that you are tiring of this old gals thick head and not getting it, not because I am not trying, just can't make some connections.
To all the rest that have so kindly stepped up with help, I am getting some idea of what needs to be done, but still am anxious, as you know I am the original fraidy cat.
Struggling with what for others is easy makes me always afraid to come and ask for help, but this is beyond my knowledge, and I need opinions, and someone to give me a push in the right direction. Many thanks to all, so grateful, hoping I can resolve this shortly.
So.. if I actually need more storage, which is HD space, I can get "someone" to install that for me? How is it done, and I believe someone threw out the figure of perhaps 50 dollars?
I love what the computer can do, enjoy all aspects of it's capabilities, but looking back, had I known what was involved and my own capabilities, I think I would have passed it by. this struggle is getting me down.

shaddy-
I'm not surprised that you are confused by so many people chiming in with so many ideas and explanations. As long as you understand that your hard drive is one thing and your computer memory (known as RAM, which is a computer chip) is something completely different, you don't need to understand anything more than that. It's nice that people are trying to explain all these technical differences to you, but I can see that it is hurting more than helping.

I'm going to make this real simple:
1. It sounds like you have a too small hard drive, and that is the main problem. If you take it to a shop, the tech will be able to confirm whether that is so about 10 seconds after getting it turned on.
2. A new, big hard drive should cost no more than $35-50, but I can't tell you the cost for a technician to copy the info from your existing drive onto a new drive and install the new drive...maybe $100 or more.
3. Other people here are talking about possibly adding another memory chip (more RAM), which sometimes makes computers run faster, but, if your problem is a recent one, it likely means that you do not need more RAM.

Bottomline: If you decide you want to spend the money, take the computer to a shop, ask them to look at the the size of the hard drive and whether it is almost full, and go from there.

Hard drive space is storage ... akin to a tape (cassette or video tape) ... on which pictures, numbers, words, program code (including the Windows operating system) are recorded. Filling up a hard drive is like running out blank space on a tape ... can't put more info on it unless old info is erased to make room.

Memory (aka RAM or Random Access Memory) is circuit board chips into which the information on the hard drive is loaded when needed so the computer can use/calculate/process it. Everything on the hard drive is not in memory all the time ... only what's needed is loaded is loaded in at any given time.

Information on the hard drive is retained when power is turned off.

Information in memory is lost when power is turned off ... must be reloaded afresh from the hard drive.

This is a hard drive that mounts/installs inside the computer case. Mouse included for scale.

This is the inside of a hard drive.

The metal platters (thus hard drive) spin very fast, such as 5,400 or 7,200 or even 10,000 RPM.

The arm toward the back is a magnetic read/write head. It oscillates over the platters to read or record information. This drive has two platters. Data is recorded on both sides of each platter -- four surfaces, each has a read/write head.

This is an old / bad drive.

DO NOT open up a good, working hard drive. Doing so will damage it.

These are memory (RAM) modules. They have no moving parts.

A quick analogy ...

"memory" or "RAM" is like the top of your desk, where you spread things out to work on. You can only work on as many pieces of paper as will fit on the desktop, then you have to put something away and bring out the next piece. People who work on really BIG files, like architectural drawings and graphics editing need lots of RAM ... bigger temporary work area, less shuffling stuff.

The hard drive is like the filing cabinet under the desk ... where you store things you aren't working on. And it may be that your technician didn't set up this storage correctly and you are running low.

======
IMPORTANT!!! Windows does NOT immediately files when you say "delete". It moves it to the "trash" so you have to not only delete, but tell the trash can to empty before the space is really available.

OK fellas and ladies, I have installed a terabyte of storage, so I am good now, and thanks to all that put 2 cents worth in, was of great value to me, I learned a lot that I didn't know about, and also found some answers I wasn't necessarily looking for. You all have been super helpful, and most grateful to you. All the best, hope I don't have to come back for a lonnnng time, but I do enjoy reading the forum, I have learned a lot this way.
I found this site way back in 98 when I first came online, don't know how but sooo glad I did,. Found lots of friends over the years, and most of all loads of help when needed. Bye for now, best to you in the New Year!

shaddy-
Great...a terabyte should last you forever! I'm curious what the technician said about your old computer hard drive.

Well, kudzu, I got a shocker when I asked about the old hard drive, he said he used it to set up this computer for me. So, now I understand why I was running out of space all the time. Also as I stated in previous posting that I got answers that I really wasn't looking for, but now will ask for opinions again, do you think that when/if I move to another machine in the future, could this terrabyte be used to build around as well? I am asking the tech, and want to compare answers too.
I am hopeful I will never need more space, but know that I will need upgrade in Windows at some time, I am trying to hang on for easier OS, loved my XP, and had some issues learning 7, but have come to grips finally, do you think there will be another coming with the ease of XP? I have read many folks enjoyed working with that one, and thought maybe computer folks would take heed of that. Thanks again fella, appreciate your thoughts a great deal. Such a help you have been.

shaddy-
What it sounds like he did was to take your perfectly good -- but almost full -- old hard drive and transfer everything from it onto the new drive. That was a good thing. This should mean that your computer looks and functions just like before and you don't have to do anything differently. You basically went from a small hard drive with maybe 70 GB used and 10GB free to a larger drive with 70 GB used and 930 GB free. You didn't lose any info and now your computer should not be slowing down due to an overcrowded hard drive.

In the future, if you got a new computer, the contents of the large hard drive you have now can be copied onto another drive. Or you could possibly choose to buy a computer without a hard drive, and just have your current one installed in the new housing. Or you could even have the current new hard drive installed as an additional hard drive alongside whatever is in a new computer (it would be sort of like having an external hard drive, except it would be inside the housing and out of sight).

The only thing to remember is that at some point all hard drives fail, so you should always have critical files, photos, etc., backed up in another location. In addition, even if you kept transferring the contents of your hard drive from one computer to another to another, at some point you will want to have a newer operating system installed. But that is something to worry about some time in the future. For now, I hope you're set for a good long while.

Glad you got a nice, big hard drive. The one I have in my year old Windows 7 computer is 1TB, and I'll never fill it, I'm sure. My old XP had a 500 GB (half that size), and I never filled it, but it did fail on me, so I had to put in a new HDD. Thankful I had all my stuff backed up to an external. I took that drive out of my XP chassis and have it stored on a shelf in a closet. I don't want it falling into the wrong hands. Some day, I'll take a sledge hammer to it. LOL!

Don't think I'd just transfer the hard drive from one computer to another, since eventually it will go bad, so why take the chance?

Secretly, I had hopes that what you stated above was true, and as I said, am waiting for response from tech in that matter, so at least I will have that info at my disposal when the time comes. I am making decisions, not always the right ones, but try my best, and so far, has helped to have "discussions" with the folks here.
Grams, you are always full of info, and you sure seem to be able to take the bull by the horns and get the job done all by yourself. Not so in my case, but with guidance like I got here, will be of great value to me in the future.
all the best, and as the lady in the Progresso soup commercial says, I am keeping my eye on you!, lots of info to be gathered here.

A computer system can of course have more than one hard drive installed, assuming there's room in the case to mount it. A slim or compact case may not have space. I have three hard drives in my mid-tower machine, two CD/DVD drives, a 4mm tape drive (no longer used), 3.5" diskette. And an external (USB) hard drive.

That was another thing I learned from the tech, that having a tower, not a sleek case, is perhaps the best route, as you did, can add much to the machine. I had no clue, as to how much could be supported by the computer, now I know it is far more than I thought. Those inventors of this amazing piece of machinery were far sighted to say the least, and I do applaud them - SOMETIMES, and then sometimes, I could wring their necks!

I've noticed that others FINALLY caught onto the difference between MEMORY and hard drive space. Memory is not hard drive space so if the person that made your computer said you wouldn't need more memory, he was not talking about hard drive storage space. What you need to do if you ever buy another computer is to be clear that you need hard disk storage space. Memory is important too but has nothing to do with saving files to disk other than to make it happen. HA!

My operating systems storage space is made of non volatile memory. An SSD drive.

Well whatever, normally when speaking of memory you are talking about the RAM and not the hard drive space...we are speaking of the OP's computer.

I generally keep a copy of my most important documents in the xhd. But the files or documents I know I wouldn't need after some months, I copy those in my Google or Sky drive. Cause every now and then I also face this trouble of having less space in my C drive and sometimes cannot even download a 700 MB movie or episode of some series. This happens maximum time, I have noticed when I play some online games like those NFL games, pet games or those running/chasing games and the time I go through online manga reading sites like Mangafox.me etc. It becomes really bothersome when all you want to do is just download one movie and want to watch it immediately or read that interesting chapter in a manga series and your system would show you the message that due to low disk space you cannot download! So, now-a-days I don't wait until I get this message, and take a back up of important documents and delete it from the desktop. I also regularly clear cache, and temp files. Seems to help so far. But soon may be I have to invest in another xhd.

I didn't see any mention of CCleaner above. My aplogies if it's there and I missed it.

Several years ago one of my chilluns 40 Gig HD was down to 4 gigs free. I merely ran Ccleaner and it removed 4 gigs of crap. 4 Gigs! Took a lotta minutes but got him to 8 free Gigs.

Then it turned out all his stored pics (work/business related) were duplicated somehow someplace so eliminating that freed up about 8 more Gigs. Got us to 16 free.

I think I finally got it down to about 18 free with other tweaks. He used that 40 Gig HD till 2 years ago with no further problem till switching to W7. I'm still using an 80 gig about half full with no problem.