Swap file / PartitionMagic 8.0 question!

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Bill

Yesterday I installed Norton's PartitionMagic 8.0 on my PC, then I
created a D: drive partition on my hard disk. I then reassigned my
swap file to this drive and since I have 1 GB of RAM, I made the swap
file a fixed length of 2 GB.

This all went without a hitch and seems to be working fine. Then this
morning I discovered that I have 4 new files in my C:\Windows
directory. These files are named 0, 2, S, and Y, and each is 1.6 GB
long!! I have more than enough space to store these files so there is
no problem there. But these files have doubled the time it takes to
backup my hard drive. I've told my backup program to ignore the
files, and backup has returned to a reasonable length of time.

My questions are: 1) What are these files? and 2) Do they need to be
backed up or can I continue to skip them during backup?

Thanks, Bill
 
On 11-16-2004 7:29 AM On a whim, Bill pounded out on the keyboard
Yesterday I installed Norton's PartitionMagic 8.0 on my PC, then I
created a D: drive partition on my hard disk. I then reassigned my
swap file to this drive and since I have 1 GB of RAM, I made the swap
file a fixed length of 2 GB.

This all went without a hitch and seems to be working fine. Then this
morning I discovered that I have 4 new files in my C:\Windows
directory. These files are named 0, 2, S, and Y, and each is 1.6 GB
long!! I have more than enough space to store these files so there is
no problem there. But these files have doubled the time it takes to
backup my hard drive. I've told my backup program to ignore the
files, and backup has returned to a reasonable length of time.

My questions are: 1) What are these files? and 2) Do they need to be
backed up or can I continue to skip them during backup?

Thanks, Bill
Click to expand...

When were they created? After you made the changes? I would try to
rename the files and wait a few days to see if they are re-created. If
not and no program cries about it, delete them.

--
Terry

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On 11-16-2004 7:29 AM On a whim, Bill pounded out on the keyboard


When were they created? After you made the changes? I would try to
rename the files and wait a few days to see if they are re-created. If
not and no program cries about it, delete them.
Click to expand...

They were created at the same time I set up PartitionMagic and the new
swap file. I did not even know about the files until I started my
backup and saw that my file estimates had doubled. The dates/times
are updated each time I boot the system. I did try to rename one but
the system would not let me - the files were in use by another
program. I checked the Properties of these files, but there was no
information telling me anything useful about the files.
 
On 11-16-2004 9:04 AM On a whim, Bill pounded out on the keyboard
They were created at the same time I set up PartitionMagic and the new
swap file. I did not even know about the files until I started my
backup and saw that my file estimates had doubled. The dates/times
are updated each time I boot the system. I did try to rename one but
the system would not let me - the files were in use by another
program. I checked the Properties of these files, but there was no
information telling me anything useful about the files.
Click to expand...

I haven't run across any files like that, especially that are "in use".
Have you tried moving your swap file back temporarily to see if the
files go away? 1.6 gig is a very large file and to have 4 of them is
very strange.

Have you checked for spyware/malware?


--
Terry

***Reply Note***
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Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.
 
Bill said:
Yesterday I installed Norton's PartitionMagic 8.0 on my PC, then I
created a D: drive partition on my hard disk. I then reassigned my
swap file to this drive and since I have 1 GB of RAM, I made the swap
file a fixed length of 2 GB.

This all went without a hitch and seems to be working fine. Then this
morning I discovered that I have 4 new files in my C:\Windows
directory. These files are named 0, 2, S, and Y, and each is 1.6 GB
long!! I have more than enough space to store these files so there is
no problem there. But these files have doubled the time it takes to
backup my hard drive. I've told my backup program to ignore the
files, and backup has returned to a reasonable length of time.

My questions are: 1) What are these files? and 2) Do they need to be
backed up or can I continue to skip them during backup?

Thanks, Bill
Click to expand...

For the pagefile, setting a fixed size of 2GB might be a waste. It
would be better to set an initial minimum size consistent with the
maximum amount virtual memory you normally use, and set a maximum size
of 2GB. I have 1GB of ram and based on my usage set a minimum of 500 MB
and a max of 2 GB. Download and run Bill James Pagefile monitoring
program WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip from here to monitor page file usage:
http://billsway.com/notes_public/winxp_tweaks

Also it's best to put a small page file on the C drive - say a minimum
of 2MB and maximum of 50 or 100. Otherwise XP might not like it. I
would recommend you review Alex Nichol's article on virtual memory here:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
 
On 11-16-2004 9:04 AM On a whim, Bill pounded out on the keyboard


I haven't run across any files like that, especially that are "in use".
Have you tried moving your swap file back temporarily to see if the
files go away? 1.6 gig is a very large file and to have 4 of them is
very strange.

Have you checked for spyware/malware?
Click to expand...

I took your advice to move the swap file back to the C: drive, but
then I discovered that there was no longer any swap file assigned to
any drive!! I reassigned a fixed-length swap file to my D: drive,
rebooted, and now I was able to delete those 4 big files. So now I'm
wondering why my swap file disappeared?!

BTW - I have 2 PC's and had created D: partitions for swap files on
both drives. The other PC also had somehow lost its swap file! After
setting up things correctly on both systems, I rebooted both a few
times but my swap files remained on the D: drives and no new huge
files were created in my C:\Windows folder. This is a strange one!

Thanks for your help Terry!

- Bill
 
On 11-16-2004 10:50 AM On a whim, Bill pounded out on the keyboard
I took your advice to move the swap file back to the C: drive, but
then I discovered that there was no longer any swap file assigned to
any drive!! I reassigned a fixed-length swap file to my D: drive,
rebooted, and now I was able to delete those 4 big files. So now I'm
wondering why my swap file disappeared?!

BTW - I have 2 PC's and had created D: partitions for swap files on
both drives. The other PC also had somehow lost its swap file! After
setting up things correctly on both systems, I rebooted both a few
times but my swap files remained on the D: drives and no new huge
files were created in my C:\Windows folder. This is a strange one!

Thanks for your help Terry!

- Bill
Click to expand...

You're welcome! BTW, it was mentioned by Rock to have some sort of page
file on C:, regardless. I agree with that. There should have been a
message when you removed the page file from C: that Windows would be
unable to provide some info without a minimum page file on C:.

Do you have other duties for the D: partition other than a page file? If
you only have one hard drive, it defeats the performance purpose of
putting the page file on another partition since it is a single disk. If
it was on another hard drive, that would be different.

I have 5 OS's and 3 hard drives. My OS's are always booted to a C: drive
and reside on disk 1. My data is on disk 2 and my programs are on disk
3. I have redundant backups of all partitions on the 3 drives. Last
year I lost 3 hard drives at different times and it would have been a
disaster without the extra drives and backups.

Good luck,

--
Terry

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.
 
Terry said:
On 11-16-2004 10:50 AM On a whim, Bill pounded out on the keyboard


You're welcome! BTW, it was mentioned by Rock to have some sort of page
file on C:, regardless. I agree with that. There should have been a
message when you removed the page file from C: that Windows would be
unable to provide some info without a minimum page file on C:.

Do you have other duties for the D: partition other than a page file? If
you only have one hard drive, it defeats the performance purpose of
putting the page file on another partition since it is a single disk. If
it was on another hard drive, that would be different.

I have 5 OS's and 3 hard drives. My OS's are always booted to a C: drive
and reside on disk 1. My data is on disk 2 and my programs are on disk
3. I have redundant backups of all partitions on the 3 drives. Last
year I lost 3 hard drives at different times and it would have been a
disaster without the extra drives and backups.

Good luck,
Click to expand...
Special note,

I had a similar problem in migrate to SP2, where the
pagefile was taking all available space on the OS drive (C)
and refused to be adjusted until I turned off or disabled
the page files, and defragged in safe mode, then reinstated
the separate pagefiles.
 
Bill said:
Yesterday I installed Norton's PartitionMagic 8.0 on my PC, then I
created a D: drive partition on my hard disk. I then reassigned my
swap file to this drive and since I have 1 GB of RAM, I made the swap
file a fixed length of 2 GB.
Click to expand...

If you put a page file on a second drive you must leave a notional one
on C as well, say initial size 2 max size 50, or you are liable to get
such weird effects. While there will be hardly any actual use of the
file on a machine your size, it is not generally best to have it in a
second partition of a single hard drive anyway. And you are tying up
2GB of that partition to no purpose at all. You need the possibility of
the file increasing in size, but set Initial at 100 and it will in all
probability never get bigger (unless you are using Fast user switching,
or something that requires vast amounts of memory space, like big
graphics). Try a small initial size and see if the file *does* grow.
And read my page www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm for why
 
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