Paging File problem (pagefile.sys)

  • Thread starter Thread starter wrl-2
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wrl-2

Hi all.

Quick setup run-through:
System has 1.5GB RAM, C drive 40GB, D Drive 80GB. Both formatted and wiped
prior to installing XP Pro. on C drive (clean & new installation incl. SP2),
D drive used to store/create Page File (pagefile.sys).

System was running fine for a few days after installing XP Pro incl. SP2,
until, after a reboot, I got a popup window after logon informing me
something of the following:

Limited Virtual Memory
Your system has no paging file, or the paging file is too small.

To fix this problem, go to System in Control Panel, click the Advanced
tab, and under Performance, click Settings. On the Advanced tab, click
Change. Click 'Custom size,' and then type an initial or maximum paging
file size.

This is when I noticed that there was also a 1.5GB pagefile.sys on C Drive.
So, I set the system to 'no' pagefile at all, deleted pagefile.sys from C
and D Drive and recreated a pagefile.sys on D Drive (initial size 2500, max.
size 4000). Windows did this initially but after a reboot, was not
accepting/using the pagefile.sys on D Drive and recreated automatically a
pagefile.sys on C Drive.

Why can't I use pagefile.sys on D Drive?


--
wrl-2
email: (e-mail address removed)

you can reply to me direct by replacing 'ts' with '26' and '.wrl'. with
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wrl-2 said:
Hi all.

Quick setup run-through:
System has 1.5GB RAM, C drive 40GB, D Drive 80GB. Both formatted and wiped
prior to installing XP Pro. on C drive (clean & new installation incl. SP2),
D drive used to store/create Page File (pagefile.sys).

System was running fine for a few days after installing XP Pro incl. SP2,
until, after a reboot, I got a popup window after logon informing me
something of the following:

Limited Virtual Memory
Your system has no paging file, or the paging file is too small.

To fix this problem, go to System in Control Panel, click the Advanced
tab, and under Performance, click Settings. On the Advanced tab, click
Change. Click 'Custom size,' and then type an initial or maximum paging
file size.

This is when I noticed that there was also a 1.5GB pagefile.sys on C Drive.
So, I set the system to 'no' pagefile at all, deleted pagefile.sys from C
and D Drive and recreated a pagefile.sys on D Drive (initial size 2500, max.
size 4000). Windows did this initially but after a reboot, was not
accepting/using the pagefile.sys on D Drive and recreated automatically a
pagefile.sys on C Drive.

Why can't I use pagefile.sys on D Drive?


--
wrl-2
email: (e-mail address removed)

you can reply to me direct by replacing 'ts' with '26' and '.wrl'. with
'.com'
Click to expand...

I can think of several reasons:
- The System account does not have sufficient access
rights to d:\pagefile.sys
- There is a pre-existing file of this name with the /r
attribute set
- There is a folder d:\pagefile.sys
 
The article you quote says "should", not "must":
=================
If you do put the file elsewhere, you should leave a small amount on C: -
an initial size of 2MB with a Maximum of 50 is suitable - so it can be used
in emergency. Without this, the system is inclined to ignore the settings
and either have no page file at all (and complain) or make a very large one
indeed on C:
=================
The machine I currently work on has its paging
file on drive D: and none at all on drive C:, and
it runs very happily. C: is the system drive.


Harry Ohrn said:
You must have at least a small pagefile setting on C even when relocating
the pagefile to another drive. See this article for clarification
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell\User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


wrl-2 said:
Hi all.

Quick setup run-through:
System has 1.5GB RAM, C drive 40GB, D Drive 80GB. Both formatted and
wiped prior to installing XP Pro. on C drive (clean & new installation
incl. SP2), D drive used to store/create Page File (pagefile.sys).

System was running fine for a few days after installing XP Pro incl. SP2,
until, after a reboot, I got a popup window after logon informing me
something of the following:

Limited Virtual Memory
Your system has no paging file, or the paging file is too small.

To fix this problem, go to System in Control Panel, click the Advanced
tab, and under Performance, click Settings. On the Advanced tab, click
Change. Click 'Custom size,' and then type an initial or maximum
paging file size.

This is when I noticed that there was also a 1.5GB pagefile.sys on C
Drive. So, I set the system to 'no' pagefile at all, deleted pagefile.sys
from C and D Drive and recreated a pagefile.sys on D Drive (initial size
2500, max. size 4000). Windows did this initially but after a reboot, was
not accepting/using the pagefile.sys on D Drive and recreated
automatically a pagefile.sys on C Drive.

Why can't I use pagefile.sys on D Drive?


--
wrl-2
email: (e-mail address removed)

you can reply to me direct by replacing 'ts' with '26' and '.wrl'. with
'.com'
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
You must have at least a small pagefile setting on C even when relocating
the pagefile to another drive. See this article for clarification
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
Click to expand...

You don't need a pagefile on C: (or rather the system Partition) however
if you don't have a pagefile on your system partition it won't write a
dump file in the case of an error.

If the D; drive is on a seperate disk to the system partition (not just a
seperate partition on the same disk but a seperate disk) then it is better
to put the pagefile there

You will probably find that the SYSTEM account doesn't have full
permissions over the root of the D: drive.
 
Many thanks and much appriciation to all who replied and gave their opinions
and answers.

I used a program from Maxtor called MaxBlast to erase the partition on my
second physical drive, I believe this erases the first 1024 sectors
resulting in all data on the drive being unreadable, then used PowerQuest
Partition Magic v8.01 to create a single 80GB partition, formatting the
drive to 4k cluster size, NTFS version 3.1 for XP. Rebooted and so far so
good. A single 3.5GB pagefile.sys now exists on D Drive with the system now
reporting that D:\pagefile.sys is the current pagefile. Might create a
emergency 100MB pagefile.sys on the system C: but so far things are running
smoothly.

Once again, thanks to all who replied.

--
wrl-2
email: (e-mail address removed)

you can reply to me direct by replacing 'ts' with '26' and '.wrl'. with
'.com'
 
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