Thanks... I defrag about every 14 days and that doesn't seem to be the problem as this has been happening for a few months. In that period I have totally cleaned up my system with a complete re-install of win2k. Now the virtual memory suggestion from 'Marque'... I never new that win2k could be set up like 98/95 to let the os deal with VM by itself. How can I do this??? I set this up in - right click - My computer/Advanced tab/Performance... There is no option in the dialogue for letting Windows do this by itself... Thanks again. Any further help appreciated, Colm...