'Not Enough Memory' error when running Microsoft Defrag

[ulrichburke]

Dear Anyone.

I've an ASUS Asrock K7541GX mobo, XP Pro SP3, 1gig DDR SDRAM, AMI BIOS, about 250gig hard drive spare, M-Audio Audiophile 2496 soundcard. The hard drive is a fairly new one, it's a MAXTOR 300gig IDE drive that used to be in its own caddy box, but the box adaptor blew, couldn't get a replacement so it ended up as my comp's main internal drive!

So I wanted to defrag my hard drive. I went to Accessories, Tools, Defrag and it came up 'This program is too big to fit into memory' in a black DOS window (O.K., I know XP isn't supposed to have DOS but if it walks like a duck...)

That's worrying, because I'm sure I've defragged the old drive fairly often without getting that error message. I've tried DEFRAG 3 times, restarting the computer between tries, and I'm still getting that message.

Does this mean I've got corrupt memory, so there isn't enough working memory left to run Defrag? I've been having oddball things happen like programs saying they don't have enough memory (PagePlus DTP program's started saying that, as was Nero, which I uninstalled anyway because I preferred Image Burn - not to be confused with Image TOOL burn which I know only works with Nero!) Image Burn works perfectly happily.

If you think it IS corrupt memory, how do you test memory to find out which stick - I've got 2 sticks - it is, can't find anything to do that! I know using a 3rd party defragger might be a workaround, but I'm more worried about WHY I'm getting the memory error message in the first place!

Yours hopefully

Ulrichburke

 

[jarlmaster47]

I believe that you might have some corrupt memory. Try removing some sticks and running your defrag to see if you can isolate the bad memory. If you can find the bad ram then replace it. If you can't then just replace all your ram and add some more and if that doesn't work you can just send back the ram and get a refund.

 

[rohan23]

How did you install the new hard drive in your computer?

 

[Holysky]

you might need new RAM

 

[ulrichburke]

Dear Rohan. Just to answer your question.

Dear Rohan.

All I did was take out the old hard drive, put in the new one (the Maxtor removed from its caddy, it had Windows on it already) and just carried on quite happily!

Was that the wrong thing to do? That's a serious question, WAS that the wrong thing to do? I don't know. I just thought as it had Windows on it, nothing would notice the difference.

Yours slightly worriedly

Christopher Burke

 

[jarlmaster47]

That may be the problem. I had a similar problem when switching from my old hard drive to the one I have now. I don't know how the person who fixed it for me did that though. I don't use Windows Defrag anymore. I downloaded a free program called Defraggler. It is faster and does a more thorough defrag than the Windows program does. Download that and see if you can use it. Its better anyway.

 

[rohan23]

Usually when adding a new hard drive or replacing one that was previously used, you have to reinstall the OS. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I got an old hard drive from an EVGA 750i SLI FTW motherboard to work with the ASUS P5QL. But, I was getting many problems similar to yours. I just reinstalled the OS, and everything worked.

 

[ulrichburke]

Thanx Rohan - will do!

Dear Rohan.

Thanx for that 'head's up'! I'll try swapping the memory AND reinstalling the hard drive - I've got a couple of dinosaur comps with the same kind of memory in, I'll see if theirs work any better. And I'll reinstall Windows.

Do I HAVE to reformat the hard drive before reinstalling Windows? I mean, is it an absolute necessity? Because this was the backup drive, you see, and I haven't gotten around to buying a new backup drive yet - it's called a slight lack of funds! - there's 180-ish gig of backed up files on it as well as the current version of Windows XP SP3.

So I can put up with things as they are until the paycheck wings its way over the horizon and buy another hard drive to back the current one up onto, then reformat and reinstall Windows, or I can just reinstall Windows over the current installation. Which do you recommend?

Thanks for putting up with all these daft newbie questions, for what must be about the ten thousandth time for you.

Yours respectfully

ulrichburke

 

[setishock]

To use the dos defragger you have to boot to dos. Waste of time.
Try this instead. http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download

 

[ulrichburke]

Dear Setishock.

I love nnime. I'm working my way through all 56 episodes of Aria right now! Have you ever seen Howl's Moving Castle? One of the best pieces of artwork I've ever seen, far better than Walt Disney movies (OK, it was backed by Disney but it was Studio Ghibli They made another classic called Nausicaa and the Valley of the Winds, too! And - I know it's not Ghibli - I LOVE Akira! It's mad, but brilliant.)

I'll try the defragger you mention in the morning, it's 1am here now!

Sleep tight. Don't let the anime princesses bite (TOO hard....!)

Yours respectfully

Ulrichburke