What are hiberfil.sys and pagefil.sys

[Xaos]

I am running XP Media Center, and I have these two files, hiberfil.sys
and pagefil.sys and they each take up exactly 2gigs plus of space. I
want to delete them, but don't know what they are for? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Chaz

 

[Haggis]

I am running XP Media Center, and I have these two files, hiberfil.sys and pagefil.sys and they each take up exactly 2gigs plus of space. I want to delete them, but don't know what they are for? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Chaz


pagefile is needed (system performance would be greatly reduced)

hiberfil stores your computer info for "hibernation" purposes....you could turn that off if you don't use it

 

[Will Denny]

Hi Chaz

The hiberfil.sys file is used by Hibernation and the size will be equal to
that of the amount or RAM installed on a system. If you don't use
Hibernation, this can be turned off and that amount of disk space freed up:

Control Panel>Power Options - Hibernate tab.

For the pagefile.sys file, please have a look at the following article by
Alex Nichol regarding Virtual memory:

"Virtual Memory in Windows XP"
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

--

Will Denny
MVP - Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups


I am running XP Media Center, and I have these two files, hiberfil.sys and
pagefil.sys and they each take up exactly 2gigs plus of space. I want to
delete them, but don't know what they are for? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Chaz

 

[Ken Blake]

In

I am running XP Media Center, and I have these two files,
hiberfil.sys
and pagefil.sys and they each take up exactly 2gigs plus of
space. I
want to delete them, but don't know what they are for? Any
ideas?

Dont delete either one.

Hiberfil.sys is used for the hibernation feature. If you don't
use the hibernation feature, turn it off on the Hibernate tab in
Control Panel | Power Options. That will get rid of the file for
you.

Pagefile.sys is your pagefile, which is an important part of
Windows. But since you apparently have 2GB of RAM (the size of
the hiberfil.sys file) you can make it *much* smaller than it is.
Read MVP Alex Nichol's article at
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php for more information.

 

[Jone Doe]

In

Why would you want to delete files, not knowing what they are? That's an
invitation to problems. In this case, the files are used to keep track of
the system as it goes into hibernation. In other words, they are system
files, and best left alone.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I am running XP Media Center, and I have these two files, hiberfil.sys
and pagefil.sys and they each take up exactly 2gigs plus of space. I
want to delete them, but don't know what they are for? Any ideas?

Hiberfil.sys is where the content of RAM is stored when you shut down
and Hibernate. If you do not want to do so, go to Control Panel - Power
Options - Hibernate and uncheck 'Enable Hibernation'; Apply and the file
will go.

Pagefil.sys is the paging file for Virtual memory support. The system
managed settings make it vastly bigger than needed on a large RAM like
yours. See my page www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm and use the linked
tool in the How big a page file discussion to assess what actual use you
are making. My guess would be maybe 30MB; if so set the Initial size to
100MB while leaving the Max high for contingencies

 

[Alex Nichol]

Why would you want to delete files, not knowing what they are? That's an
invitation to problems.

As a general point; when you make a follow up post, please follow up the
correct one. You appear to be replying to Ken and giving *him* advice,
not the original enquirer