I need to compress or defrag my hard drive. I have deleted many files to try to gain some space on the c: drive. Someone said that I needed to also delete these files from a recycle bin or something but I am not aware of this recycle bin on 3.1. Point is I have deleted a lot and I still have no more RAM, or whatever it's called. PLEASE HELP ME. thanks

You won't get more RAM by deleting files. Only way to get more RAM is to add more modules of memory or replacing them. To defrag the hard drive you have to use the DOS. Win 3.1 doesn't have this "option".

hi lindsay you did not list the specs on your system or the specific problem . im guessing your out of hard disc space ?? there are several ways to gain more space, post another reply if you wish, ralph.

this is correct, you can't get anymore more ram by deleting files(in 99% of cases). Please don't use disc compression software as it has it's own problems. The most practical solution is to use file compression software like PKZIP. Just move the files that you don't access often in to a different directory, and use PKZIP to compress all the files in that directory. Or the best solution is to upgrade your computer.

Lindsay...The other guys are correct...IF your computer is running REAL SLOW...then defrag...go to a C:\ prompt and type "defrag" then follow the directions...this will re-arrange all your clusters and various files and make accessing your HD quicker & more efficient... If you are running out of disk space then WINZIP is probably the best choice...better would be a new/used larger HD...There is no recycle bin on Win 3.1...when you delete a file in Win 3.1 it is essentially "gone" rather than "marked" for removal later which is basically what Win 95 does with the recycle bin...

Here are my tips.... Disk Utilities: 1. Close the Program Manager (or icon) 2. Now that in disk operating system (DOS)just type the following and do the keyboard command that is in brackets: defrag /f (...return key on the keyboard) scandisk /all /autofix /nosummary (...return key on the key board and do the surface at least once-this will tell you if you have Hard Disk problem) help (... if you go here and look for drivespace it will give procedure to compress your hard disk-this replaces your words with one character ie. character=1; this will save hard disk space being used and of course it might be a bit slower)

One thing that no has told you if you compress your drive useing double space you will not be able to decompress it. You will sonner or latter have to do a format.But if you must compress just do 1/2 and have windows on the 1/2 that isn't compress.Windows 31 doesn't run well if you conpress it.It will in fact run slower.Because you have all the files compacted to gather and the files has less room to move.It's about like butting 20 people in a compack car.each one my be able to move but thay can't move the way that thay should.I'll look to see if that is a program for dos and windows 31 that will compress and decompress with out the lost of files .there is one for win 95 and 98 it's called freespace.