pagefile.sys on each hard drive

[Peter Rossiter]

I boot my XP system from my C: drive.

I instal all my programs on the C: drive. My documents and downloads
are stored on my D: drive.

Each drive has a PAGEFILE.SYS. The C: drive has one of about 100 MB
(one hundred MB) and the D: drive has one of about 1,000 MB (one
thousand MB).

That pagefile on the D: drive seems rather big because I have set a
value of 100 MB as the "total paging file size for all drives" in
System Properties -> Performance Options -> Advanced -> Virtual
Memory.

Has something now gone wrong?

I can't think D: drive's pagefile helps much with performance as most
of the files on D: are data. Can I safely delete the pagefile on the
D: drive?

 

[Plato]

That pagefile on the D: drive seems rather big because I have set a
value of 100 MB as the "total paging file size for all drives" in

rather silly really. You are on your way to extreme data loss.

 

[Peter Rossiter]

rather silly really. You are on your way to extreme data loss.

I have got 768 MB memory, so I have set the total pagefile to be
between 100 MB and 1,000 MB.

There is an explanation of this on Alex Nichol's website -
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php.

Do you know if I can remove the pagefile on the D: drive? Do you
know why it is there in the first place?

 

[Alex Nichol]

I instal all my programs on the C: drive. My documents and downloads
are stored on my D: drive.

Each drive has a PAGEFILE.SYS. The C: drive has one of about 100 MB
(one hundred MB) and the D: drive has one of about 1,000 MB (one
thousand MB).

That pagefile on the D: drive seems rather big because I have set a
value of 100 MB as the "total paging file size for all drives" in
System Properties -> Performance Options -> Advanced -> Virtual
Memory.

There is no need to have a page file on each drive at all. In NT it was
seen as a 'good thing' to have items swapped to a file that was
'nearby', but the cost of organising that is now seen as not worth
while. If D is a separate physical drive there is a theoretical case
for having the file there on the grounds that the disk is likely to be
less active otherwise, but the actual traffic likely with a modern size
RAM is low, and the point rather academic.

Check the settings you have - what is the *initial* size set to? If
that has somehow got to be 1000 then you will have that size file. A
setting of initial 100 Max 1000 (or even more) might work better. But
always keep a notional amount on C: for use in emergencies - without it
the system is inclined to sulk. See the 'what size page file' section
at www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

 

[Sandy]

There is no need to have a page file on each drive at all. In
NT it was seen as a 'good thing' to have items swapped to a
file that was 'nearby', but the cost of organising that is now
seen as not worth while. If D is a separate physical drive
there is a theoretical case for having the file there on the
grounds that the disk is likely to be less active otherwise, but
the actual traffic likely with a modern size RAM is low, and the
point rather academic.

Check the settings you have - what is the *initial* size set to?
If that has somehow got to be 1000 then you will have that size
file. A setting of initial 100 Max 1000 (or even more) might
work better. But always keep a notional amount on C: for use in
emergencies - without it the system is inclined to sulk. See
the 'what size page file' section at
www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

If a pagefile.sys is deleted from XP then is it possible that the
system will corrupt data? Or is there some sort of failsafe?

 

[Spinner]

If a pagefile.sys is deleted from XP then is it possible that the
system will corrupt data? Or is there some sort of failsafe?

You cannot delete pagefile.sys if it is being used, so no. There would bo no
curroption or data loss.

 

[Peter Rossiter]

You cannot delete pagefile.sys if it is being used, so no. There
would bo no curroption or data loss.

In XP I renamed D's pagefile.sys to something else and then deleted
it after rebooting

 

[Spinner]

In XP I renamed D's pagefile.sys to something else and then deleted
it after rebooting

Then it was not being used.
As I said, "You cannot delete pagefile.sys if it is being used".

 

[Peter Rossiter]

Then it was not being used.
As I said, "You cannot delete pagefile.sys if it is being used".

Is the pagefile nornmally in use whenever XP is booted up?

 

[t.cruise]

Yes

 

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004 12:35:57 -1000, "t.cruise"

Yes

But what happens is, if you turn off pagefile on a HD volume, the old
pagefile can be left behind there. Under those circumstances you'd
have a pagefile that exists but which can be deleted - because it's
not in use. It's a pity XP isn't house-trained in this respect.

-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Running Windows-based av to kill active malware is like striking
a match to see if what you are standing in is water or petrol.

 

[Alex Nichol]

But what happens is, if you turn off pagefile on a HD volume, the old
pagefile can be left behind there. Under those circumstances you'd
have a pagefile that exists but which can be deleted - because it's
not in use. It's a pity XP isn't house-trained in this respect.

To add a bit. Normally when you shut XP down, the pagefile is left as
it stands. When you next boot a new file is in effect made, over it,
starting at whatever the initial size is. It is possible (for the
paranoid) to set 'clear page file at shutdown' but that AFAIK zeros the
content (and takes time) rather than deleting the file.

You would I think be able to delete the file if you boot to the Menu and
take Safe Mode - Command Prompt, but I have not actually tried.
Generally the only reason to delete a page file is where you are
desperate to minimise the size of the data in a partition to do an Image
backup (eg to get it to fit onto one tape or DVD). And I would handle
that situation by moving the file to a different partition for the
duration, keeping just a notional 2 to 50 size on C, so the system does
not sulk. Maybe even setting initial down to 50MB and rebooting would
do

When in action, if the system needs to expand the file, the new larger
size remains around, and is only shrunk back (as far as I can tell) *if*
you close a program and the space released in the file happens to be at
the end, so it can be truncated without having to shift anything around