Urgent help needed

[jedi1]

When I got home last night I could not start my computer. The message said "not enough system resources to start API."
[img]/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] I almost died. So today I told my pastor about the problem and he gave me a few instructions. Anyway to make a long story short I ran the XP disc and it automatically rebooted the computer with a few instructions on the way of course. When I finally got my start up screen back the little blurb popped us and informed me that I only had 30MB rams of space remaining. After cleaning house frantically I ended up with a paltry 339mb of space freed. Finally i went into the system defrag to find out how much GB this computer is carrying. It turns out that I have 13.96GB with only 413MB rams of space available. Mind you I have just about cleaned out every thing leaving just word and a few other very low mb items left in my control panel.

I called my pastor and he was shocked and couldn't figure out what could be using up at least 10GB. Please help me someone because I have deleted everything possible and I can't figure out where all my free space is gone. Plus I couldn't even defrag because only 2% of space is currently available to me. All I have are a bunch of word files currently. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70367-help.gif[/img]

[j-kid]

Re: Urgent help needed

You may need to adjust your virtual memory settings:


Start > My computer > View system information > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Virtual Memory > Change > "C" drive > Paging file size for selected drive > System Manage Size > Set > OK

[jedi1]

Re: Urgent help needed

thanks J-Kid I just copied the info. I will try it when I get home, I am currently on the job [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70373-kiss.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]

Although now that I look at it [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70392-silly.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70392-silly.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70392-silly.gif[/img]

I don't know if I can do it but I will try

[Rebycman]

Re: Urgent help needed

It may be a good idea to review your files to see what is sucking up so much space. When you uninstall programs it doesnt always remove all the files. Go check your hard drive file folders for old garbage and clean it up.

Couple other ideas:

1) Throw in another Hard Drive and use your C drive for your OS and the new D drive to install programs (easy quick fix)

2) If you have a lot of large files (like pictures) back them off onto a CD and burn a couple copies. You can give them to family or archive them in your backups so you can always go and preview them right off the CD.

3) Clean out tempory folders and files...housekeeping must be done to keep the clutter down [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Let us know how it goes.

-Reby

[j-kid]

Re: Urgent help needed

Also this may sound trivial, but don't for get to empty your RECYCLE BIN(s). Also go into your browser and clean out your cache for history, cookie and files.

[jedi1]

Re: Urgent help needed

Okay...what exactly do you mean by throw in another hard drive? I understand the rest.

Yes I went into my files and found out that I still had some very old programs taking up mega space such as Logos and Corel from the ME edition. I also found ME stuff. Thing is after deleting and emptying and restarting I still find that I only have 2% free space so what else is there to do. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70392-silly.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[jedi1]

Re: Urgent help needed

[ QUOTE ]
Also this may sound trivial, but don't for get to empty your RECYCLE BIN(s). Also go into your browser and clean out your cache for history, cookie and files.

[/ QUOTE ]

I do that everytime I log on because of the annoying blurb which hasn't shown up since I rebooted. The only thing left is to do the virtual memory check, but I am going to bed now. I'll do more tomorrow. Meanwhile I must have deleted 12 instances of windows media player or more. And another thing I ran into, a file that I had checked for Windows initialling. The check said that it was another file that was not approved by windows acting or functioning like a windows file. Well when I tried to delete it the warning said if I delete it windows might become unstable or something or other. I deleted it anyway, and when I come back I will reinstall Pack 2 which it recommends to replace those files. If I don't come back because I shegged it up royally, just know that I love you all and I appreciate your help. I just suspect that I have a perfectly good computer with a few bugs or screws up on board. At anyrate I can't buy a new one now so I will try to fix this one myself or take it to get it re-programmed if all else fails. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Rebycman]

Re: Urgent help needed

You can buy hard drives fairly cheap now days. Its fairly trivial to open up the case, plug in a few wires and change a jumper..boot up and format the new drive and *Poof* you now have another hard drive in your computer that you can use for storage, programs...anything.

I keep a extra hard drive around at all times (just in case). You can pick up a mid sized hard drive for a very good price in most areas (Figure about a buck per gig for internals).

Overview:

1)Power down computer and unplug power cable from back of PC

2) Pull PC out and open the left side panel

3) Touch the Power Supply to ground yourself before reaching into PC

4) Find your old hard drive and make sure the jumper settings are set to 'Master'.

5) Pull out your new hard drive and set the jumper to 'Slave'.

6) Mount the hard drive in a open bay (make sure all cables will reach!)

7) Plug in your IDE and power cable

8) Make sure everything looks good (now's a good time to use canned air to blow out dust/debris from inside case)

9) Put the side panel back on

10) Plug the power in and turn it on

11) Usually the motherboard is set to auto-detect new hardware (If not you will need to enter your bios and add the new hard drive, usually just setting IDE2 to AUTO does the trick).

12) Your computer should boot up and see the new hard drive, the only other thing you need to do is format it and you are off and going. (From the OS you can right click on the new drive and select Format)

I know the above sounds complicated, but it is really very simple. Anybody should be able to do this. If you want an easier (although more expensive) you can get a USB external Hard Drive instead.

Make Sense?

-Reby

[j-kid]

Re: Urgent help needed

Is it possible that your computer may have two versions of windows installed on it, or maybe the recovery files option (some PC's do)? You usually will see them at the black boot-up screen. Also you can press F8 during the initial boot-up time, to find out. This could also happen if you did a re-install at anytime in the past.

[Sisda]

Re: Urgent help needed

[ QUOTE ]
You may need to adjust your virtual memory settings:


Start > My computer > View system information > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Virtual Memory > Change > "C" drive > Paging file size for selected drive > System Manage Size > Set > OK

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry to jump on your thread Jedi, but got to say thanks to J kid for this info [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70409-waytogo.gif[/img]. I been told "my virtual memory is too low" for a long time and not known what to do about it. Now I know!

[jedi1]

Re: Urgent help needed

[ QUOTE ]
Is it possible that your computer may have two versions of windows installed on it, or maybe the recovery files option (some PC's do)? You usually will see them at the black boot-up screen. Also you can press F8 during the initial boot-up time, to find out. This could also happen if you did a re-install at anytime in the past.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bingo I suspect that this is my problem...because believe me I have emptied or am in the process of emptying all my files and still I only have 351mb of space availabe. I believe when the young man installed XP he either didn't uninstall ME completely or I may have inadvertently reinstalled XP again over the ole program. So what should I do now? Can you tell me how to uninstall everything and restart from scratch? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70384-praying.gif[/img]

[jedi1]

Re: Urgent help needed

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You may need to adjust your virtual memory settings:


Start > My computer > View system information > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Virtual Memory > Change > "C" drive > Paging file size for selected drive > System Manage Size > Set > OK

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry to jump on your thread Jedi, but got to say thanks to J kid for this info [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70409-waytogo.gif[/img]. I been told "my virtual memory is too low" for a long time and not known what to do about it. Now I know!

[/ QUOTE ]

No problem Sista-D. I don't mind being an idiot if someone else can learn a thing or two from it. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[j-kid]

Re: Urgent help needed

Well the easiest way is to format the drive. You would do a clean boot from the boot disk in your drive. I dont know what file system you have (FAT or NTFS)?

With FAT it is much easier to accomplish, because you can use just about any windows boot-disk (floppy or CD). NTFS wont let you use just any boot-disk.


I will assume that you have Windows-XP and NTFS, and don't have a customized boot disk like I do.


1) You will have to re-boot your system into safe-mode. When you see the Black/Blank screen at re-boot before (the windows splash screen shows up), start pressonf F8.

2) Use the Safe-Mode with networking, because on some systems the other two dont work.

3) You will need to know the volume name of your C-drive. You will have to go to Start > All Programs > My Computer and view the volume name.

4)Now go to: Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.

5)At the prompt type: "format c:", without the quotes > press enter.

6)You will be asked; What is the volume name?

7)Type it in, and press Enter.

8)The process should start. It will take a while to do a full format.

9)When it completes you may be asked; What 11 character volume name you want?

10)Type it a short name and press enter.


11)I dont know what kind of Windows disk you have, but this is the time to put it in the CD drive and reboot the computer again.

12)Follow the STEPS on screen and do a NEW full install, NOT an upgrade. You will install to Partition "C". I am assuming that you only have one big partition instead of two separate partitions (which is the better way to set-up your system).

[jedi1]

Re: Urgent help needed

Okay I am just getting back to you J-Kid. Before I start let me tell you what happened to me recently. I logged on to windows and two screens side by side saying "Windows XP showed up on my screen. This is after I trashed or saved all my word files and anything else i could fin and restarted the computer. So I am convinced that I have two instances of XP running.

Okay next thing is this I have the windows XP cd which includes the system restore or reboot on it. Is that what I will use to do the first and the second reboot?

[j-kid]

Re: Urgent help needed

Well, in your case you would put it in for the second re-boot. ONLY, if you have issues on the first re-boot running in safe mode, you would have to use your CD disk initally.

Both copys probably are not running simultaneously, it may be just showing that they are there and eating up your hard disk space. It is hard to tell from your brief statement if they both are running.