My computer is running Windows XP Professional and recently it's been running really slowly and reporting 'Low Memory on Drive C:'
About a week ago I launched 'Add and Remove Programs' in my Control Panel and got rid of some biggish programs that I had been using for a particular job last November. That freed up a bit of space and the amount of free memory on my C: drive went up from a few k to around 30 Mb.
Yesterday the 'Low Memory on Drive C:' warning reappeared, so I deleted another rarely used program.
Today, the message reappeared and when I checked the amount of free drive space, it reported - zero. Nothing!
Browsing C: drive I came across a system file called 'hiberfil', which was in the root drive and was around 1.5 Gb in size.
Apparently, this file contains a mirror image of everything on your drive, just so that the computer will work satisfactorily in hibernate mode. Every time you instal a program, create a new document, download an image or whatever, a copy goes into hiberfil.sys. This is a peculiarity of Windows XP.
I never, ever, use hibernate mode.
Windows will not allow you to delete this system file, so for anyone who is running XP and doesn't use hibernate, here is how to get rid of it.
Go to Start > Control Panel and double-click 'Power Options'.
Open the 'Hibernate tab' and de-select the 'Enable Hibernation' option. Click 'Ok'.
Re-start your computer and the file, 'Hiberfil.sys' will be deleted automatically, freeing up lots of space on your C: drive.
If you ever need to re-enable it, Google for 'enable hibernation' and one of the first links that will appear is Microsoft's guide to enabling hibernation on Windows XP.
About a week ago I launched 'Add and Remove Programs' in my Control Panel and got rid of some biggish programs that I had been using for a particular job last November. That freed up a bit of space and the amount of free memory on my C: drive went up from a few k to around 30 Mb.
Yesterday the 'Low Memory on Drive C:' warning reappeared, so I deleted another rarely used program.
Today, the message reappeared and when I checked the amount of free drive space, it reported - zero. Nothing!
Browsing C: drive I came across a system file called 'hiberfil', which was in the root drive and was around 1.5 Gb in size.
Apparently, this file contains a mirror image of everything on your drive, just so that the computer will work satisfactorily in hibernate mode. Every time you instal a program, create a new document, download an image or whatever, a copy goes into hiberfil.sys. This is a peculiarity of Windows XP.
I never, ever, use hibernate mode.
Windows will not allow you to delete this system file, so for anyone who is running XP and doesn't use hibernate, here is how to get rid of it.
Go to Start > Control Panel and double-click 'Power Options'.
Open the 'Hibernate tab' and de-select the 'Enable Hibernation' option. Click 'Ok'.
Re-start your computer and the file, 'Hiberfil.sys' will be deleted automatically, freeing up lots of space on your C: drive.
If you ever need to re-enable it, Google for 'enable hibernation' and one of the first links that will appear is Microsoft's guide to enabling hibernation on Windows XP.
