Are Storage Space on my Hard Drive (C Drive), Virtual Memory and Random Access Memory (RAM) the same?

If I clear files from the C drive will this free up more RAM? No.

Can I increase RAM without buying a new computer? Yes, buy more RAM.

Are physical memory and virtual memory dependent upon each other or independent?

They depend on each other. When physical memory (RAM) runs low, virtual memory (or the Page File) is used. you should increase the size of your Page File*

Is there a point in which I can no longer upload programs to my hard drive and still run my computer efficiently? Yes. An HDD which is 'over full' will slow down the seek time for programs/applications.

Am I asking too much of this computer? Yes. With that amount of RAM and virtual memory you need to increase both.

Increase Virtual Memory...

Open Computer Management, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.

XP

In the console tree, right-click Computer Management (Local), and then select Properties.

On the Advanced tab, click Performance Options, and under Virtual memory, uncheck the check box of Automatically manage paging file size for all drives, click Change.

In the Drive list, click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change (usually C:).

Under Paging file size for selected drive, type a new paging file size (4095 for both) in the Initial Size and Maximum Size box, and then click Set.

Click Apply and OK.

© arou42

Let's start at the beginning. RAM is volatile. That means that your "stuff" is in RAM or memory while your computer is turned on. If the electricity goes off it's gone. So it is volatile.

Stuff on your hard disk is permanent or non-volatile. If the power goes off, it doesn't matter. When you reboot the data is still there.

Virtual memory isn't real memory. Your computer takes a slice of disk space and pretends that it is RAM. When your computer needs more memory than you actually have in your computer it "swaps" some of the stuff stored in RAM to the page file or virtual memory. It is still available to be called back later if it is needed.

So, cleaning up your C:\ drive is a good idea but won't give you more memory. The typical analogy is that the C:\ drive is like a filing cabinet. You can put stuff in it and save it but it has a certain size but when it's full there is just no room for anything else. Clean out the junk and you have more room.

Anyway, looking at the numbers, you don't have very much RAM - only 256MB. Get more. Check to see how much space is left on your disk. If it's full, clean it up.

Good luck anyway and I hope this helped to sort out this confusion.

RAM (random access memory) is temporary. It is gone when you turn off your machine. It holds things like your mouse driver, frequent commands that you use, etc. Hard drive space is permanent, it will always be there. Programs and/or files are written to the hard drive and stay until you remove then (even when we remove them, they are really still there). That's the quick simple definition.

Your report says Total Physical Memory: 256.00 MB;

it's not enough, your type of RAM is probably SDRAM, read your motherboard manual see how much RAM it can handle and buy some RAM, or ask in forums, maybe someone will give you 256 MB, if you are lucky ( I'm not in same same country I have ton of SDRAM)