XP ignores Pagefile settings

[Guest]

I installed a second HD and am trying to move the page file

to its own volume on the 2nd drive.The 1st drive has 2 basic

partitions,C:and an OEM hidden partition(both NTFS).The 2nd

disk has 3 dynamic volumes, Eagefile, Fata, G: backup (All

NTFS). I have 512MB of RAM installed.

XP has been ignoring all the settings I have tried to set

for it.

With a lot of help from the performance and maintenance

newsgroup, this is what we have tied so far. (BTW I have

read Alex Nichols excellent article)

1)Set using the system properties GUI. Have tried

combinations of small pagefile on C:10-50MB, none, system

managed. On E:I have been able to create a pagefile of any

size I have chosen, Windows just doesn't use it.

2)Set by editing the registry key with the same combos

listed above. As an example;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session

Manager\Memory Management
ab Pagingfiles REG_MULTI_SZ C:\pagefile.sys 0 0

E:\pagefile.sys 1536 1536

windows ignores these settings and creates a pagefile on

Cf 764MB. This is the setting that appears on the 'total

paging file size of all drives' under Virtual memory

3) Using safe mode repeated 1) & 2)
In safe mode the settings I specified in the registry and in

the GUI appear in the 'tot paging...' correctly. Safe mode

also allows me to delete the pagefile on CIt does use the

one on E When I log on normally (under my user acct or

admin) I can never delete the file on C: because it is

always in use.

This of course makes sense because XP is ignoring any

settings I select and always creating\reusing the pagefile

it placed on C764MB) And no, the settings in safe mode do

not transfer over when I reboot.Yes I am always prompted to

restart when I change settings ( I do click the set button)

4) I also went so far as to download hijackthis to try to

delete the C:\pagefile.sys using that utility. Nothing has

worked so far.

I do not belong to a workgroup or domain, use dial-up to

connect to internet. I have not seen anything in event

viewer besides some networking services not being available

when I was in safe mode and the registry being used by

hijackthis when I used it to delete C:\pagefile.sys on

reboot.

I am about ready to give up and say 'XP Wins' unless someone
has anything else to try.
Anybody with any ideas?

Much appreciated,
-Scott

 

[Guest]

ive noticed a pattern: the more MS updates windows the less editing the
advaced features work correctly.

this is the proccess i used when i did it.

add page file of size twice of what ram is for max and min on the pagefile
drive. then set the page file on the other drive to 0.

ive noticed that with a user defined page file if windows doesnt think its
big enough it will sill auto make it bigger. so make sure your page file
settings are high enough that windoes doesnt need to

 

[Guest]

Thanks for responding Matt. The more I have looked into this, the more I see
that MS doesn't really have an explanation for this behavior. The "MVP's" are
unusually quite. I put a post on the help and support page last week and no
one responded. Geez I haven't even gotten the "
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php " link response from those guys yet.

I did find a few references to downloading some IAA accelerator from Intel
that might fix this problem. There is a KB article that mentions this (At
least they are acknoledging that XP ignores user settings) but I am reluctant
to download something to 'fix' my motherboard or chipset (and the possible
havoc that could reek) for something as trivial as my pagefile.
BTW I already tried setting E: to 1536 and C: none, 0 in the Gui, registry,
and in safe mode. (512MB RAM)

Anyway, I think it is time to say " Windows wins again" and be done with it.
Thanks for your response

-Scott

 

[Mikhail Zhilin]

Scott,

Just in case I would open a file SYSTEM.INI (it is in Windows folder --
probably you'll see it as simple System, with no .ini extension) in
Notepad, and see if any of the item like:

PagingFile
PagingDrive

(and similar) is present.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I am about ready to give up and say 'XP Wins' unless someone
has anything else to try.
Anybody with any ideas?

I *think* the fundamental point may be that you say you have made these
partitions on the second drive dynamic ones. I would not do that myself
on such a stand alone machine; but it is very possible that the VM
management does not like the idea.

Thanks for the compliment on the article

 

[Alex Nichol]

add page file of size twice of what ram is for max and min on the pagefile
drive. then set the page file on the other drive to 0.

Don't. It is a bad rule of thumb at best, and trying to have zero on C
is liable to result in effects just as he sees.

 

[Guest]

I *think* the fundamental point may be that you say you have made these
partitions on the second drive dynamic ones. I would not do that myself
on such a stand alone machine; but it is very possible that the VM
management does not like the idea.

Thanks for the compliment on the article

Thanks to both Mr. Zhilin and Mr. Nichol for responding to my post. I was
wondering if dynamic volumes would effect the VM management. Because doesn't
windows see the dynamic volumes as one big extendable partition? Anyway, I am
going to reformat the 2nd HD and follow Mr Nichols advice in his VM article.
I will let you guys know how this turns out tomorrow.[Can't do it today ]

Mikhail, if your curious, this is what my system.ini looks like:
; for 16-bit app support
[drivers]
wave=mmdrv.dll
timer=timer.drv
[mci]
[driver32]
[386enh]
woafont=dosapp.FON
EGA80WOA.FON=EGA80WOA.FON
EGA40WOA.FON=EGA40WOA.FON
CGA80WOA.FON=CGA80WOA.FON
CGA40WOA.FON=CGA40WOA.FON

Thanks again for everyones help.
-Scott

 

[Mikhail Zhilin]

Well, System.ini is Ok -- so my assumption is false.
--
Mikhail Zhilin
http://www.aha.ru/~mwz
Sorry, no technical support by e-mail.
Please reply to the newsgroups only.
======
On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 12:35:05 -0800, "srn1120"

 

[Alex Nichol]

Well, System.ini is Ok -- so my assumption is false.

XP pays no attention to it anyway

 

[Guest]

I *think* the fundamental point may be that you say you have made these
partitions on the second drive dynamic ones. I would not do that myself
on such a stand alone machine; but it is very possible that the VM
management does not like the idea.

Thanks for the compliment on the article

I am very pleased to report that your suspicion about using dynamic volumes
proved correct! Thank you so much for your help Mr. Nichol.(and Mikhail,Matt)

I reformatted the 2nd drive as a basic disk with primary partitions. the
volume I am using for the pagefile I formatted with FAT32, the others with
NTFS. I did leave some unallocated space (10GB) in case I want an extended
partition in the future (4th on drive)

Anyway, XP removed the PF on C:. The setting seems to be sticking, because I
have cold booted the system several times since then and everything is as it
should be.

Happy Holidays,
Thanks again,
-Scott

 

[Alex Nichol]

I am very pleased to report that your suspicion about using dynamic volumes
proved correct! Thank you so much for your help Mr. Nichol.(and Mikhail,Matt)

I reformatted the 2nd drive as a basic disk with primary partitions. the
volume I am using for the pagefile I formatted with FAT32, the others with
NTFS. I did leave some unallocated space (10GB) in case I want an extended
partition in the future (4th on drive)

Anyway, XP removed the PF on C:. The setting seems to be sticking, because I
have cold booted the system several times since then and everything is as it
should be.

Glad to hear the guess proved correct. I'm not quite sure what gets
people into making dynamic volumes on straight systems like yours (or
mine). They are really for server situations where you want to spread a
single volume over several physical drives.

If you have your main PF on a second drive, you will find that the
notional one on C never comes into existence: the important thing is to
leave the possibility - it gets needed sometimes in emergencies, and I
think in some system updates

 

[Guest]

I hope the information below solves your issues.


I have great I have figured out the issue and have solved the problem.

I may have reported to you that, in an attempt to resolve the issue, I had
updated my LIVEUPDATE application for Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition.
I was running Version 2.0.39.0 and upgraded to the most recent version,
Version 3.0.0.150. Unfortunately, that did not solve the issue. Then, I
decided to reread the information regarding the Symantec Antivirus
Decomposition Buffer Overflow Patch. I had not upgraded my Symantec client
because I was running Version 9.0.2.1000 and it was not vulnerable to the
buffer overflow. So, I thought I was safe, for now, to continue running this
version. But, I decided to do additional research about the pagefile.sys
issue, within Symantec's website, and up popped up Document ID:
2004042913251448, entitled, "Paging File Size Changes After Installing
Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9.0 On Windows XP." And, within that
article was our answer to our perplexing question. Here is what the article
said:

=====================================================

Situation:

You installed Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9.0 on a Windows® XP
computer that has a fixed-size paging file. The size that the paging file is
set to is larger than the minimum size Windows recommends. After installing
Symantec AntiVirus, you find that the size is set to the minimum size that
Windows recommends.

Solution:

This problem is fixed in Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9.0.4. For
information on obtaining the latest build of Symantec AntiVirus Corporate
Edition, read How to obtain an update or an upgrade for your Symantec
corporate product.


If you cannot upgrade to Symantec AntiVirus 9.0.4, you can work around the
problem by excluding the Pagefile.sys file from the Auto-Protect scan or
changing the Auto-Protect Startup option to Symantec AntiVirus start.

To exclude the Pagefile.sys file from Auto-Protect scanning

Right-click the client or server, and then click All Tasks > Symantec
AntiVirus > Client Realtime Protection Options.
Check Exclude selected files and folders
Click Exclusions.
Click Folders, and type

C:\pagefile.sys

Click OK in each of the dialog boxes until you see the Symantec System
Center.
Restart the computer.

To change the Auto-Protect Startup option to Symantec AntiVirus start
Start Symantec AntiVirus.
Click Configure > File System Auto-Protect.
Click Advanced.
In the Startup options section, click Symantec AntiVirus start.
Restart the computer. This will set the paging file size back to the fixed
value that was previously set.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: This scenario provides slightly less protection because Auto-Protect
loads later during the startup process. Use your best judgement to determine
if this setting is appropriate for your environment.

=====================================================

I looked into excluding the pagefile.sys file; however, the file was not
visible within the exclusion directory tree and I did not want to have
Symantec load later in the boot up process, though I did configure the client
to do this, to test this workaround and I can confirm that it worked for me,
allowing my custom pagefile.sys file to expand to my custom settings. So,
after I had confirmation, I uninstalled the older Symantec client and
installed the latest Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition and the latest
maintenance release and patch, Version 10.0.2.2020, as of 2/15/2006. After
installation, I am happy to report that my customized pagefile.sys file is
still registering at the expected size, that of my customization.

I hope this information helps you and may help others who may be
experiencing or may experience this perplexing and frustrating issue. While,
I cannot explain why when I had disabled the real-time protection, under the
older client, why this did not always solve the issue, I am simply ecstatic
that the issue does, now, appear to be remedied.

Good luck with your specific issues and here's hoping that this information
helps you, too.

--Dylan

 

[pg]

Hi Guys,

My problem is slightly different. I have moved my paging file to another
disk (F drive on a Standard disks) but the system keeps re-creating the
paging file on C drive every second re-boot.
So, I go into my Virtual settings, the paging file is shown as being on F
drive only. C drive is listed as having no paging file.
I go to C drive, there is a paging file, about 1.9GB. I can delete this
paging file & do so. Next time I boot, I get a low disk space messge, go to C
Drive and Magic !! the paging file is back on C Drive and it can not be
deleted, as it is apparently in use.
On subsequent re-boots, I can delete the paging file, but every re-boot
after that, it is re-created again.

Any ideas??

 

[Mathew Rizzal]

Try setting a Minimal Page File Size of 128MB so that when (or if) the
system crashes XP can write debug/crash info to the drive. Windows NT (from
3.5 up) always wants a page file on the System Volume.

I'm suspecting that the pagefile on Drive F is around 1.9 GB? So (if this is
true) NT (i.e. XP etc) will create one the same size on the System Volume.

About 6months ago, I added a third hard disk and changed my PF settings
according to the new disk geometry. When I rebooted every second or third
time (not sure which it was now), I had the same issues. I made this change
and it seems to have fixed it.

Now, this does not mean that the problems were identical, but this did solve
my issue.

 

[pg]

Cheers Mathew,
I actually have made that mod this-afternoon, but haven't re-booted yet, so
I'll let you know if it does help.
Paging file on F is set from 2048-4000MB.