I have a pagefile.sys in my c

[Rob Bresnik Mobile PC DR.]

I have a pagefile.sys in my c: directory with XP pro...the file is 600 MB
plus. It is a hidden file. it wasn't there last week. how do i delete
this ? should i delete this?

same with the hiberfil.sys...about 500 MB...i need the space!

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Rob,

pagefile.sys is your virtual memory
hiberfil.sys is the hibernate file

Both are normal system files, and should not be deleted (you won't be able
to delete pagefile.sys as long as the system is running, you'd have to
disable virtual memory and reboot first).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[André Gulliksen]

I have a pagefile.sys in my c: directory with XP pro...the file is
600 MB plus. It is a hidden file. it wasn't there last week. how
do i delete this ? should i delete this?

An option is to reduce the size of the pagefile.sys on your C: drive, and
put an additional pagefile on another drive where you have more space.
Again, enter your Control Panel, locate System, click the Advance tab, press
the Settings button, click another Advanced tab and press the Change button
under the Virtual memory section. Now find a drive with plenty of free space
and create a pagefile with an initial size of, say, 512 MB and a maximum
size of a couple of gigs. When this new file is in place you can shrink or
remove the pagefile on C:.

same with the hiberfil.sys...about 500 MB...i need the space!

To disable hiberfil.sys: Enter your Control Panel, locate Power Options,
click the Hibernate tab and deselect 'Enable hibernation'. You may need to
reboot, but I don't think you have to. This will also disable the
hibernation option, but if you do not use this there should be no problem.

 

[Rob Bresnik Mobile PC DR.]

An option is to reduce the size of the pagefile.sys on your C: drive, and
put an additional pagefile on another drive where you have more space.
Again, enter your Control Panel, locate System, click the Advance tab,
press the Settings button, click another Advanced tab and press the Change
button under the Virtual memory section. Now find a drive with plenty of
free space and create a pagefile with an initial size of, say, 512 MB and
a maximum size of a couple of gigs. When this new file is in place you can
shrink or remove the pagefile on C:.


To disable hiberfil.sys: Enter your Control Panel, locate Power Options,
click the Hibernate tab and deselect 'Enable hibernation'. You may need to
reboot, but I don't think you have to. This will also disable the
hibernation option, but if you do not use this there should be no problem.

OK...that worked. I turned off the paging file...rebooted and nothing seems
to be wrong. why do you need a paging file?

 

[André Gulliksen]

OK...that worked. I turned off the paging file...rebooted and
nothing seems to be wrong. why do you need a paging file?

You did disable hibernation as well, right?

Basically, you need the pagefile whenever you run out of physical RAM. Idle
processes are then 'paged' out to a pagefile, freeing up RAM, and being
refetched whenever they are needed. With no pagefile you may run into memory
and/or pagefile errors when running many or large programs. But from your
original post my guess is you have about 512 MB RAM, which should be
sufficient for most things.

Also, certain (poorly designed) programs seems to rely on the existance of a
pagefile, no matter how much RAM you have. Such programs may crash or show
erratic behaviour when being run with no pagefile available.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have a pagefile.sys in my c: directory with XP pro...the file is 600 MB
plus. It is a hidden file. it wasn't there last week. how do i delete
this ? should i delete this?

If you move the page file to use to a different partition, then leave a
notional one in C:. Say initial size 2 max 50. Such a file will not
come into existence, except in emergency for a dump. but without any
file defined the system is inclined to sulk, and may make the big file
you are seeing.

Do *not* attempt to run without any page file, though you could probably
manage with a smaller initial size; say init 100 max 600

same with the hiberfil.sys...about 500 MB...i need the space!

Control Panel - Power Options, Hibernate and uncheck Enable hibernate.
The file will go - it is where the current content of RAM gets put when
you shutdown and hibernate

 

[Steve N.]

Hi Rob,

pagefile.sys is your virtual memory
hiberfil.sys is the hibernate file

Both are normal system files, and should not be deleted (you won't be able
to delete pagefile.sys as long as the system is running, you'd have to
disable virtual memory and reboot first).

Half-right answer. You don't need the hibernate file if you don't use
hibernate.

Steve

 

[Alex Nichol]

OK...that worked. I turned off the paging file...rebooted and nothing seems
to be wrong. why do you need a paging file?

For one thing so that VM address pages that programs ask to have
allocated to them - and never use - can be assigned to page file. If
there is no file, they have to be assigned to RAM and lock it out. And
this can easily amount to hundreds of MB. In XP there is nothing gets
written to the file until the pages come into real use, so there is no
downside