Hi,
My question is pretty much in the subject. All I need to know is if hard drive space can be used as memory as I heard this may be possible. Thank you
bblatz

It's called paging and it's practically there in all versions of Windows.
Paging should be minimized for best performance since a (mechanical) HD is nowhere as fast as RAM.

And the way to minimise paging is to install as much RAM as you can afford.
In Vista, you can speed up the paging sub-system by fitting a suitably fast USB memory stick. Vista will use this as a kind of buffer between RAM and the paging file. This technology is called 'ReadyBoost'.
However, by far the biggest return is achieved by spending the money on more RAM - thus reducing the need to page.
ReadyBoost is most relevant on systems which have limits on how much RAM they will support.
2G of RAM is a really good amount for Vista, and most lab tests show little advantage in using ReadyBoost. If you are restricted to 1G of RAM (so paging happens more frequently) then ReadyBoost becomes more relevant.
Steve