desperate need for help!!! going crazy!!

[fkcast]

Ok well I did a clean and legit install of windows vista and now my ram is at 90%!! What does that mean...are my old files in there...can I extract them please help!!

[reaper_tbs]

we need more information...
to start with:
#1. when did you install it
#2. what did you have BEFORE it
#3. how much ram do you have?
#4. what was the exact message, and where did you see that message?

[fkcast]

Well I installed it around midnight and I had windows xp before. When I go to "my computer" it shows the (D:)ram "meter" as red and almost full. It wasn't exactly a message...what else do u need?

[reaper_tbs]

well how much free room is on your hard drive, and if you know, how big is your swap file? also.... does anything run slowly?
'do you have a performance monitoring program? if not just check task manager. it should show you the size of your swap file, your CPU usage, and your ram usage etc. check through the tabs though because i'm not sure how that is with vista... aaaand then post back

[fkcast]

well as for my (D:) i have 462 free mbs out of 8.44 gb 
and i have no idea what a swap file is..im not very computer smart 
as for cpu usage it say 2%...52%...100%...2%..its never idled sooo high at least not that frequently as for physical memory it says 45%...

[reaper_tbs]

how many hard drives do you have?
they can affect the physical memory, as a swap file is used for the same sort of things for the most part, and a swap file can be hundreds of megabytes, but if you don't have much room on your hard drive then it will degrade the performance a LOT, especially if you have vista. but if you have another hard drive aswell, it shouldn't matter.

[soybean]

Well I installed it around midnight and I had windows xp before. When I go to "my computer" it shows the (D:)ram "meter" as red and almost full. It wasn't exactly a message...what else do u need?

Windows Vista does not have My Computer; it has Computer.  And, the Computer panel shows hard drives and removable storage devices; it does not show a "ram 'meter'".  I really don't see how anybody can give a response to your question until you get your terminology straight so that we know exactly what you're talking about.

And, tell us the hardware specs on your computer.