stubborn paging file

  • Thread starter Thread starter blushark
  • Start date Start date
B

blushark

i have 2 physical hard drives divided into total of 4 logical partitions.
few days ago i changed paging file settings by moving it from one partition
to another (setting "no page file" on former partition and setting "system
managed size" on latter).
however, today i noticed pagefile still exists on former pagefile partition
and is eating up 2+GB of space. the whole point of moving it to another
drive was to free up some space.

now, what i'd like to know is: is it safe to just delete it?

i know it's not in use because i noticed my defragmenter moving that file -
so it can't be in use, it would be locked and colored accordingly. virtual
memory tab in system properties claims there is no page file on that drive
(it's set to "no paging file").

everything seems to be pointing that simple deletion wouldn't do harm, but
i'd like to hear your oppinions/experiences.

thanks! :)


P.S. i'm using Win XP PRO SP2.
 
If Windows is not using it you should be able to delete it.
If it is in use Windows will not allow you to delete the file.

JS
 
blushark said:
i have 2 physical hard drives divided into total of 4 logical
partitions. few days ago i changed paging file settings by moving it
from one partition to another (setting "no page file" on former
partition and setting "system managed size" on latter).
however, today i noticed pagefile still exists on former pagefile
partition and is eating up 2+GB of space. the whole point of moving
it to another drive was to free up some space.

now, what i'd like to know is: is it safe to just delete it?

i know it's not in use because i noticed my defragmenter moving that
file - so it can't be in use, it would be locked and colored
accordingly. virtual memory tab in system properties claims there is
no page file on that drive (it's set to "no paging file").

everything seems to be pointing that simple deletion wouldn't do
harm, but i'd like to hear your oppinions/experiences.

thanks! :)


P.S. i'm using Win XP PRO SP2.
Click to expand...

Windows will not allow you to run without at least a small pagefile on drive
C (boot drive). Create a small one on C, maybe 500 Meg, and set the rest of
the other drive.
If you try to kill it, windows will create its own pg onf C. Designed
that way.
 
blushark said:
i have 2 physical hard drives divided into total of 4 logical partitions.
few days ago i changed paging file settings by moving it from one
partition
to another (setting "no page file" on former partition and setting "system
managed size" on latter).
however, today i noticed pagefile still exists on former pagefile
partition
and is eating up 2+GB of space. the whole point of moving it to another
drive was to free up some space.

now, what i'd like to know is: is it safe to just delete it?

i know it's not in use because i noticed my defragmenter moving that
file -
so it can't be in use, it would be locked and colored accordingly. virtual
memory tab in system properties claims there is no page file on that drive
(it's set to "no paging file").

everything seems to be pointing that simple deletion wouldn't do harm, but
i'd like to hear your oppinions/experiences.
Click to expand...

What you are seeing is not uncommon when the page file is moved to another
partition and turned off on the drive where XP is installed. To avoid this
create a small one on that drive, with an initial size of 2MB and a maximum
of 50 (larger if you need to create crash dumps). See this article about
Virtual Memory in XP and setting the page file by the late Alex Nichol, MVP.

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
 
What you are seeing is not uncommon when the page file is moved to another
partition and turned off on the drive where XP is installed. To avoid this
create a small one on that drive, with an initial size of 2MB and a maximum
of 50 (larger if you need to create crash dumps). See this article about
Virtual Memory in XP and setting the page file by the late Alex Nichol, MVP.
Click to expand...

thanks for the link, it answered most of my questions.

however, an interesting point, i moved pagefile from it's initial position
on hard drive H: to a drive where XP is installed (C:) and another
partition (R:), just in case i run out of space on C.
 
blushark said:
thanks for the link, it answered most of my questions.

however, an interesting point, i moved pagefile from it's initial position
on hard drive H: to a drive where XP is installed (C:) and another
partition (R:), just in case i run out of space on C.
Click to expand...

You're welcome. I'm not sure where those partitions are located, so I can't
comment. If there is only one drive put the page file on the C: drive where
XP is installed. If more than one drive put the largest page file on the
fastest drive in the first partition, create a partition just for the page
file, and leave a small page file on the C: drive.

I don't know why you would be worried about running out of space on the C:
drive. You should make partitions large enough so that never happens. You
should never let any partition get low on free space.
 
Back
Top