Memory: Desktop vs Laptop

[Setsuna]

I was just looking at the memory in my laptop, and noticed that it was almost topped out because of some video files. Then I looked at my desktop, which has the same amount of storage available, and it still has a ton of space left. And, of course, I have a huge more amount of stuff on my desktop. Why the difference? (Ex. 401GB used of 465GB on my laptop. 286GB used of 465GB on desktop.) I'm upgrading to a SSD 500GB hard drive on my laptop in a few days, btw. (Which now doesn't seem like much more space.)

Thanks!

 

[Celery]

Kinda hard to compare without knowing what apps are running at the moment.

 

[Setsuna]

Kinda hard to compare without knowing what apps are running at the moment.

I am running Google Chrome on both. Two tabs (this and gmail) on the desktop, and one tab (Facebook) on the laptop. Also, Avast Antivirus in the background on both.

 

[strollin]

First, a little clarification for future reference. The term memory refers to how much RAM is in your PC. What you're talking about is disk space.

We would need to be able to look at the files on both of your systems to understand why your laptop has less available disk space than your desktop.

Have you tried emptying the Recycle Bin on both systems?

You could try running this program: windirstat on both systems. It will help you find which folders and files are using the most disk space,
https://windirstat.info/

 

[Celery]

Ach! I missed that.

 

[strollin]

Just thought of something else for you to try which is to run Disk Cleanup, assuming you are running Windows.

Open File Explorer and right click on your C: drive then select Properties. On the Properties dialog click on the button labeled "Disk Cleanup". It will analyze your disk and offer to delete files it believes are unnecessary so can be deleted. It will show you a dialog with the files it wants to delete listed, you can check/uncheck the files in the list if there's ones you think she be kept. On that dialog, there is another button labeled "Clean up system files". Click on that one and it will determine if there are system files that can be deleted as well. These files are usually ones left over after installing Windows updates and such. You will see the list of files again and be able to check/uncheck them as you wish. Once you are ready, click "OK" and the system will delete the files you allow it to.

 

[BK_123]

Just to add to what Strollin said, It might be worth getting CCleaner and cleaning out all the junk the browsers are leaving behind etc CCleaner - PC Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download. Also what I tend to do is store all my pictures, music and videos on an external HDD rather than on the computer itself then some of my documents and stuff for school go one a cloud storage service like OneDrive and then a copy on a USB and separate external HDD.