Increase in RAM?

[dwlpl]

I have two hard drives one (the original) of which I don't use.

I remember reading somewhere that a PC allocates RAM to all drives.

Can the RAM for the original hard drive be released in order to increase my current 256mb?

Or is there another way of getting more RAM keeping in mind all the PC's internal slots are full?

[Led Zep]

That is known as virtual memory. Your PC will use any free space on your harddrive as "RAM" should your physical RAM be all used. If you run out of RAM often, using virtual memory can slow your PC down very much!
To answer your question, no. Your PC does this for you, but you can change the settings if you wish.

RAM is cheap these days, what have you got in your slots? IE 64MB+64MB+128MB? Time for an upgrade! :}

[dwlpl]

How do you increase virtual memory (presuming that you can)?

[Led Zep]

If you are using Windows XP:

Start
Control Panel
System (if you can't see "System", click "Performance and Maintenance", then click System)
Find the "Advanced" tab and click it
Click "Settings" under Performance
Again, find the "Advanced" tab and click it
Click "Change" under Virtual Memory

I really don't recommend you allowing your system to use too much virtual memory. More RAM (physical) is a much better bet! :ok:

[dwlpl]

Is there an ideal setting for virtual memory with my PC having 256mb of RAM?

[Led Zep]

Where you get to change your virtual memory settings, there should be a line which tells you of the "ideal" setting for your PC. It is generally what Windows will be using without you playing with anything. What does yours say is recommended?

[Irish Steve]

if you're running XP and have anti virus and firewall running, I would strongly recommend upgrading to at least 512, or more, depending on budget and motherboard slot availability.

Virtual memory is very slow compared to real memory, XP and all the other things that pretty much have to be there for safety is probably using about 320 before you load any application, so even loading just IE will mean it's into virtual memory, which will slow the machine down, and if you happen to be using Norton, it will be a serious slow down!

Best of luck with sorting it,

[Mac the Knife]

I have two hard drives one (the original) of which I don't use.
I remember reading somewhere that a PC allocates RAM to all drives.

If you mean that the PC allocates some RAM to manage each drive, the answer is technically yes, but the amount is very small and essentially irrelevant.

Can the RAM for the original hard drive be released in order to increase my current 256mb?

See above

Or is there another way of getting more RAM keeping in mind all the PC's internal slots are full?

Yes (and you ain't going to like this) - replace original RAM modules with higher capacity modules.

All the talk about virtual memory is confusing you I suspect!

What the PC does is to create a special (large) hidden file on the hard drive and use it as sort of fake RAM. This is called Virtual Memory, 'cos it isn't real memory. Its also called a swap file, 'cos data in real RAM that hasn't been used for a while is swapped out to the disk fake RAM.

Swapfile fake RAM is much slower than real RAM of course, but it does allow the machine to work even if the amount of real RAM is small.

When you install Windows the creation and use of Virtual memory (a swapfile) is done automatically, no matter how much real RAM you have, using default values for size etc. that work pretty well. If you wanna be smart it IS possible to tinker with these default values and produce some speeding up of the system, but for the average guy/gal it isn't worth it.

Just for completeness sake, if you have LOTS of real RAM then it IS theoretically possible to work without ANY swapfile fake RAM - but not all machines are stable in this configuration and I don't advise it.

Bottom line: If you want your PC to work better you'll have to replace the original RAM modules with higher capacity modules if all the memory slots are full. 512MB should be OK, but if you can afford 2 matched sticks to make 1GB that's even better. More than 1GB is a waste unless you're editing humungous files (like video).

PS: There's memory and memory I'm afraid - there are grades of memory speed (usually the faster the more expensive). You'll need to make sure that the new memory modules that you get are at least fast enough for your machine. Unfortunately the PFY (pimply faced youth) who sells you the new RAM won''t have a clue about this and will happily sell you el-cheapo slow RAM that will cause your poor machine to bluescreen regularly - try to find a pal who knows that they're doing.

More of the unstable machines I see are due to mismatched or defective RAM than bad drivers or malware.

Luck!

Mac :ok: