Managing Pagefile.sys

[Guest]

Hello,
I have 2 physical disks (4.3 GB & 40GB). OS (WinXp with SP2) is installed on
4.3 GB disk. I have changed the pagefile settings to No Page file on C: drive
(4.3 GB) and 718 MB min ~ 1024 MB max (I have 512 MB RAM machine) on 40 GB
partition.

Even after doing this I see a pagefile on C: drive (754 MB) and also on F:
drive (1073 MB). The pagefile on C: drive has the latest timestamp where as
the other pagefile has the timestamp of the day I changed the settings.

I am running out of space on my boot drive. How do I manage the pagefile
using both the physical drives?

Another problem I am facing is that when I boot my computer 40 GB HDD is not
detected on first boot. After I restart the machine the disk is detected.

Kindly help me out.

Regards,
Niks

 

[Ron Sommer]

Boot to the Bios.
Is the 40 GB drive detected?
Can you put the 40 GB drive on the secondary IDE channel?
Is the drive detected now?

You are going to have to get the drive detected on first boot before you can
work on the pagefile problem.

 

[Ron Martell]

Hello,
I have 2 physical disks (4.3 GB & 40GB). OS (WinXp with SP2) is installed on
4.3 GB disk. I have changed the pagefile settings to No Page file on C: drive
(4.3 GB) and 718 MB min ~ 1024 MB max (I have 512 MB RAM machine) on 40 GB
partition.

Even after doing this I see a pagefile on C: drive (754 MB) and also on F:
drive (1073 MB). The pagefile on C: drive has the latest timestamp where as
the other pagefile has the timestamp of the day I changed the settings.

I am running out of space on my boot drive. How do I manage the pagefile
using both the physical drives?

Another problem I am facing is that when I boot my computer 40 GB HDD is not
detected on first boot. After I restart the machine the disk is detected.

Kindly help me out.

For a variety of reasons, Windows XP is always happiest with a page
file on the boot drive. One reason is that it uses this file, and
only this file, to receive the content of system failure memory dumps.

Start by creating a large page file on both drive C: and on the second
physical drive. Reboot the computer with this in effect and verify
thast the settings are still in place. Now reduce the size of the
pagefile on C: to something like 10 mb minimum, 50 mb maximum while
leaving the pagefile on the second physical drive unchanged.

Again reboot the computer and see if the new settings have remained in
place.

See MVP Alex Nichol's article on page files and virtual memory at
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm


Good luck



Good luck.
Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have 2 physical disks (4.3 GB & 40GB). OS (WinXp with SP2) is installed on
4.3 GB disk. I have changed the pagefile settings to No Page file on C: drive
(4.3 GB) and 718 MB min ~ 1024 MB max (I have 512 MB RAM machine) on 40 GB
partition.

Even after doing this I see a pagefile on C: drive (754 MB) and also on F:
drive (1073 MB). The pagefile on C: drive has the latest timestamp where as
the other pagefile has the timestamp of the day I changed the settings.

If you do that you should leave a notional page file on C: - I suggest
Initial 2, max 50. That is liable to be needed in emergencies, and
without it the system is inclined either to sulk or to take things into
its own hands and make an enormous one. Until an emergency happens you
will probably find the actual file never appears, but you do need the
possibility

 

[Guest]

Hello,

Surprisingly on my office computer I have configured the pagefile to be on
D: drive and I don't see a pagefile on C: drive at all. My office computer
has a single HDD though.

I will try out the suggestion given by you and Alex by keeping the pagefile
setting to minimum on C: drive.

Thank you for providing the help.

Regards,
Niks

 

[Guest]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the suggesstion. I swapped the 40 GB disk from Primary IDE
channel as slave to Secondary IDE channal as Master and it worked. Both disks
are getting detected on the first boot. Also the pagefile.sys on F: drive (40
GB) got resized to 752 MB from 1043 MB. I still see the pagefile on C: drive
though.

Regards,
Niks

 

[Ron Sommer]

Yours must have been a case where different hard drives don't play (work)
together on the same IDE channel.

I can't help on the pagefile.sys question.