Can't set pagefile WinXP Home SP2

[John Cooper]

After a power failure induced disk error (unable_to _mount_boot_volume)
that was fixed with chkdsk from the RC, and a corrupted portion of
registry that was repaired using last known good configuration, this
machine would boot but hang at the loading personal settings phase. A
CTRL-ALT-DEL would continue the start-up, and the desktop would come up.
A message that said the settings for virtual memory were too low and
had been adjusted would be displayed. Upon checking my custom settings
I would find them just as I left them (768 - 1536).

I cannot seem to fix this error.
I have chosen no virtual memory and rebooted to set custom settings
again and rebooted to the same problem.
I have used the RC to try to copy over pagefile.sys so I can delete it,
and have been met with Access Denied for the copy operation.
Of course, pagefile.sys is not found using dir or attrib.
I have even changed the name of the file used for pagefile in the
registry, only to have it work for 1 boot only and the hang and message
re-appears on the next boot.
I have copied the partition to a new drive using Ghost and booted from
the new drive to find the same problem.
The machine is virus and ad / spyware free.

I am very close to smoking the drive and starting from scratch. That is
unless anyone has any ideas?

Oh please have ideas!!!! I don't want to re-load this thing.

Chip

I should also mention that the machine is running as if there is no
virtual memory.

 

[Guest]

To locate the page file you 1st need to set folder options to view hidden
folders,and view other hidden option.Also,to set the page file in system
properties,you should set to "let system manage" then click set 2X,close
out,restart computer.If xp still wont let you set,on start up tap the F8 key,
select safe mode,enter as administrator,set the page file.

 

[John Cooper]

Thanks Andrew, But...

I run with those settings normally and in this case the pagefile does
not show.
When running in the Repair Console I am administrator and the file does
not show and cannot be deleted or copied over.
No setting under virtual memory that is meant to set the pagefile's size
(custom or let system manage) seems to work.
Running with XP set to no virtual memory does make the hang and message
go away. But then I am working without a pagefile. Not the situation I
want.
Running in safe mode does not make changing the virtual memory settings
more effective in my case.

 

[John Cooper]

John Cooper wrote:

A bit of clarification on the error message XP is giving me. It says
that Windows had trouble with the pagefile at startup and has created a
temporary pagefile of a size that may be larger than I had set. The
temporary pagefile size gets set to 256m.
From the way XP is performing, I believe that no pagefile is in use. I
am wondering if that is why I cannot find it. Maybe it's not getting
created? But I cannot verify either way.
If it's not getting created though, then why would I get Access Denied
when I try to copy over it from the Repair Console?
Is it reasonable to run XP on a machine that has a max RAM of 1GB
without virtual memory?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Also,to set the page file
in system properties,you should set to "let system manage" then click
set 2X,close out,restart computer.

If you set the page file to "System managed," you don't also get to set its
size to 2X or anything else. It's one or the other.

When you say 2X, I assume you mean to set it to two times the RAM size.
That's bad advice. No multiple f RAM size is ever appropriate, since the
more RAM you have, the *less* page file you need.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Is it reasonable to run XP on a machine that has a max RAM of 1GB
without virtual memory?

No, it is never a good idea to disable the page file entirely, no matter how
much memory you have.

1. If you don't have a page file, you can't use all the RAM you have. That's
because Windows preallocates virtual memory in anticipation of a possible
need for it, even though that allocated virtual memory may never be used.
Without a page file, that allocation has to be made in real memory, thus
tying up that memory and preventing it from being used for any purpose.

2. There is never a benefit in not having a page file. If it isn't needed,
it won't be used. Don't confuse allocated memory with used memory.

 

[John Cooper]

Didn't think so either but I'm quickly running out of time to wage this
battle and was getting desperate for a resolution. Thanks.

 

[John Cooper]

I ghosted the boot NTFS partition of this machine and upon exploring the
ghost file discovered that pagefile.sys does indeed exist and hasn't
been modified in 5 days despite my MANY reboots and setting changes.
My conclusion is that XP has totally lost the ability to manage this
file due to some file system error.
I need to delete this file by using a third party disk editor or disk
tool set or I need to backup the partition, delete the file from the
backup (or just not include it in a backup somehow), then restore the
backup over a freshly formatted partition. Any suggestions???

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Didn't think so either but I'm quickly running out of time to wage
this battle and was getting desperate for a resolution. Thanks.

You're welcome.

I think I missed the beginning of this thread and I'm not sure what your
problem is, but there's nothing wrong with disabling the page file
temporarily, rebooting and turning it back on, if you think there's a chance
it might help.

 

[John Cooper]

Well, I finally got it fixed. Had to download a utility called
"ntfs4dos". The download allowed me to create a boot disk with the
ntfs4dos utility on it. From that utility I deleted pagefile.sys. A
simple reboot and I could change the virtual memory settings to system
managed. A final reboot and the system is happy with a working
pagefile.sys.
Somehow XP lost the ability to work with the established pagefile.sys
and nothing, not the system itself, the recovery console or me as an
administrator working manually, could find it or delete it or copy over it.
It took a utility that works without Windows facilities for disk access
and control to delete the file.

Thanks again to those who replied in an effort to help.

--Chip