Can not enough HDD space cause a bluescreen?

Question

My friend said he had only 40MB left but uninstalled a 400mb program before he turned his computer off. Now he gets a bluescreen when he turns it on and he only has 256mb of RAM.

Answer 1

The BSOD (blue screen of death) is not caused by hard drive space issues, but by windows crashing.  You don't mention what you un-installed (or how), but here's what to do.  Assuming you have Windows XP, when you turn it on hit the F8 key many times.  You will see a list where you have 'safe mode' at the top.  Use your arrow keys and select safe mode.  Hit Enter key.  When you see the list of users, selcet the Administrator user.  There should be no password.  If there is, then use your own account.  Once you're logged in, do these things:

1. System restore.  Start -- Programs -- Accessories -- System Tools -- System Restore.  Select a date (has to be in bold type) before the problem started.  Re-boot your computer to see if things are back to normal.  Continue with this list either from safe mode or normal Windows.

2. Do a disk cleanup.  Start -- double click My Computer -- right click C: drive -- Properties.  Click Disk Cleanup and select and delete all it finds.

3. Check disk.  Do the same as in No. 2, but after Properties, hit the Tools tab. Now hit Check Now and put checks in the 2 boxes you will see.  You will have to do a restart for this to be done - just follow the on screen directions.

4. Defragment your drive.  Do the same as in No. 2, but after Properties, and the Tools tab, hit defragment now and let it go.  This takes a long time so just leave it alone.

After you've done all of these things, restore, clean up, scanning and defrag, you should be in good shape with no more blue screens.

Since you only have 256MB of RAM, all of these things will take time, but be patient.  If you still have problems after all of this, you may have memory or hard drive problems.  Repost and let us know if you need more help.

Good Luck.