# Windows XP - Where did my memory go ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 3, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-where-did-my-memory-go/319934 "2005-09-03T21:23:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aquafina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/50afbb/32.png) [@Aquafina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquafina)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-where-did-my-memory-go/319934/1 "2005-09-03T21:23:54Z")
For a while, I have noticed something unusual is going with my computer/Windows XP. I don’t know what is a technical term for it, but I would name it “memory missing” It appears that my memory is going down over time. A while a go, I remember I had like 1Gb free hard drive left. Today, there are about 400Mb, and I didn’t put in any major softwares or ‘anything else’ (I have a seperate drive for additional stuffs). I suspect the followings - Internet cache (I did clear the cache, didn’t improve much) - Google Desktop Index (dont know how it works) - Disk fragment (I ran disk defragmenter, didn’t improve much) Can anybody tell me what is the problem ? and how to fix it ? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-where-did-my-memory-go/319934/2 "2005-09-03T21:33:28Z")
Do you have [AdAware](http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/) and [ScanBot](http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) on your system? If not, download them, install them, run them; you probably have about 600 mb of gunk on your system. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-where-did-my-memory-go/319934/3 "2005-09-03T21:54:16Z")
**Aquafina** - memory and hard-disk space are not the same thing. Fortunately, telling where your HD space is going is way easier than diagnosing memory leaks. (Also, defragmenting just moves information around on your disk- it isn’t going to reduce the total amount any.) I don’t think it’s spyware - those normally have low HD requirements, and are much more likely to be sucking your CPU. In cases where I don’t know where my HD space is going, I like to use Steffen Gerlach’s free [Disk Scanner](http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/), which will show in easy-to-understand pie-chart format exactly what is using your HD. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-where-did-my-memory-go/319934/4 "2005-09-03T22:02:54Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Do you have [AdAware](http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/) and [ScanBot](http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) on your system? If not, download them, install them, run them; you probably have about 600 mb of gunk on your system. I agree, I just cleaned a computer that had 49 _gigabytes_ of adware files. Hotbar had created 11,000 log files in the last 8 months, and completely filled the hard drive. ---
**Author:** ![Aquafina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/50afbb/32.png) [@Aquafina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquafina)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-where-did-my-memory-go/319934/5 "2005-09-03T23:06:18Z")
Disk Scanner worked great, **Nanoda**. What I thought turned out to be correct. It is the Google Desktop located in Application Data folder. It secretly stole 2Gb from me. I took my precious memory space back, and unplugged the program. Thanks, folks. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-where-did-my-memory-go/319934/6 "2005-09-04T01:12:33Z")
> [@Aquafina](#): > > Disk Scanner worked great, **Nanoda**. > What I thought turned out to be correct. It is the Google Desktop located in Application Data folder. It secretly stole 2Gb from me. I took my precious memory space back, and unplugged the program. > > Thanks, folks. OOOh, but you MUST stop calling it “memory space.” It’s _hard drive space_. Although hard drives and memory are both measured in K, or Meg, or Gig, they’re not the same! ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-where-did-my-memory-go/319934/7 "2005-09-04T02:03:42Z")
> [@Aquafina](#): > > Disk Scanner worked great, **Nanoda**. > What I thought turned out to be correct. It is the Google Desktop located in Application Data folder. Cool. I’ll remember that if someone has similar problems. 🙂