Is the swapfile REALLY turned off?

[Li'l ol' me]

I disabled the swapfile on XP Pro some six months ago when I got 512mb.
Since then I have had just one out of memory error, and that was on a badly
programmed game. I've now gone up to 768 for an added comfort zone. Please
don't berate me about this- I've heard it all before.

The problem is, I'm convinced my swap file is still out there somehow! I'm
forever getting sporadic hard disk activity, even when I shut down all
backgrounds tasks. If it's one thing that bugs me it's the HD thrashing
about for no reason! I can make it stop by moving the mouse about for a few
seconds as it only starts when I don't touch/move anything for 30 seconds or
so.

And the disgnostic programs Sisoft Sandra and Aida32 both show something I
don't quite understand.

Aida shows my phyiscal memory as I'd expect, but also has a 'swap space'
report that apparently shows my 'swap space' is 724mb, of which 528mb is
free. This 528 does not even closely correspond to the amount of free
phyiscal memory reported

Sandra shows this 'swap space' as 'maximum page file' and reports the same,
but says my 'current page file' is 4053mb.

Am I not getting something?

 

[R. McCarty]

I went through this same "Wild Goose Chase" a couple of months ago.
Apparently, when Windows XP is initially installed it creates the original
Pagefile using the ~1.5 times physical memory. Even if you change it to
a different value, that original value stays embedded in Windows statistics.
Windows own System Information will always display memory tallies as
though the "Original" values are still in place.
Both SiSoft Sandra and other Benchmark/Diagnostic utilizes must access
that same embedded value, as they display similar usage.
A senior Microsoft engineer told me that Windows creates "Phantom"
pagefile space which would account for the numbers, but I was never able
to locate and verify it's existence.( In hindsight, I believe he was
referring
to the ~1.5 x creation at the time Windows XP is installed.)
In your case the disk activity is more likely "Indexing" which runs in
system
idle time or the Prefetch layout process.
Alex Nichol has a good explanation of "Virtual Memory". I would suggest
that you do not disable it, as it has some negative impact on performance.
Windows XP was designed to run in as small a memory footprint as possible.
Even with lots of memory, it still executes memory conservatively and
depends on a Pagefile for correct operation.