MacBook browsing eating memory:?

Hi all,
I have a MacBook running 10.5.8 .
I usually have a fairly full memory, maybe with 1 or 2 GB free at any one time.

Recently I got an internet key and since then the memory has been diminishing rapidly after surfing for sometime, to the point where downloads are paused and I have to go into itunes or somewhere else and delete, or shutdown completely to get back something like my original memory before I started surfing.

Does surfing take up space so easily, or is there some virus or software problem likely?

First - you are confusing memory, which is RAM, and storage space, which is hard drive space.

It is normal for any application to use some disk space - the operating system uses part of the drive space as "swap" space - space for something not currently active, but which the system guesses is still needed. Swap space is especially important for any kind of editing program, because it often makes two copies (the before and after) of everything so you can undo changes.

OK - back to your question(s). You need to have plenty of free space available at all times, so your Mac can work efficiently. 1 or 2 GB free is Not Enough. Most people recommend 10-15% of drive space be free. Time to back up files from your internal drive and then delete to make more space.

OK. Thanks for the info.

Welcome to the forums.

You can open Activity Monitor via Applications>Utilities and have a look there what is eating up all your RAM.

2 things click on the tab up the top of the window that says Real Mem. If the top most line is showing very little MB used click it again and it will bring the top most Memory used to the top. Take a screen shot and post that.
But before you do click the tab down the bottom that says Disk Usage and this will show how much disk space you have left.

You can tell a lot from Activity Monitor

Cheers

What gsahli said. You are going to need to get more hard drive space, your issue is not memory.

TattooedMac said:

Welcome to the forums.

You can open Activity Monitor via Applications>Utilities and have a look there what is eating up all your RAM.

2 things click on the tab up the top of the window that says Real Mem. If the top most line is showing very little MB used click it again and it will bring the top most Memory used to the top. Take a screen shot and post that.
But before you do click the tab down the bottom that says Disk Usage and this will show how much disk space you have left.

You can tell a lot from Activity Monitor

Cheers

Click to expand...

Cheers for the info. Here's grab .

WOW WOW WOW

Seriously you need to delete some stuff off your machine before it becomes un usable. That is some serious lack of free space. You have less than 1% free space and as gsahli stated Most people recommend 10-15% of drive space be free. Try and maintain that and you should be good.
If you havnt a backup as of yet, now would be a good time to get a Ext HHD and start so you can delete stuff off your Mac.

Cheers

As you can see, you're using too much of your HD. As noted by gsahli, you should aim to have 10-15% free disk space at any given time. Right now, you're at about 0.7%. Do you have an external hard drive?

Yes I have 500GB ext HD.
My problem is I have too much music on itunes, currently hovering around 37GB.
I suppose I need to reduce significantly then... I like having instant access to everything, and I don't always have my ext HD connected.

You've got three options:

1. Delete things.
2. Move them to the external.
3. Get a larger HD for your MacBook.

Depending on your comfort level and needs, option 3 sounds like the best bet. Otherwise, assuming you want to keep all your content, option 2 is probably your best one.