all temp files have been cleaned, defrag has been done. i've rebooted multiple times (on purpose even). I have 38.1 GB capacity, 19.6 GB free. i dont remember adding extra ram. i like to keep my task manager open in the tray to keep an eye on it, and it usually maxs out when i start any program, but since my freeze on the jan2 i havent paid too much attention to it... more attention is applied to finishing scans b4 "the inevitable freeze". not sure if i should try to change my file paging size, i have always left it at 2000 MB which is default. i have actually freed memory up since the *big freeze*. b4 that it ran almost 3/4 full without this happening, which is why im thinking bad harddrive. but, at this point, i am here to tell ya, the more i learn, the dumber i get.