asy1mpo Posted September 4, 2001 Share Posted September 4, 2001 Hi Finally installed WInXP but instead from a CD that i made i had to install from hard disk (BTW anyone know how/what app i can use to copy all files properly - i trtied east CD Creator using disc at once and still get the errors saying cannot copy various files while installing). Anyway, what is the pagefile.sys file that appears - its over 1/2 gig!!!! WinXP has already taken around 2gig!! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
futile Posted September 4, 2001 Share Posted September 4, 2001 pagefile is your Virtual Memory.. size is useually controlled by Windows, but can be set manually in System (of control panel). - Optimized size is 1.5xRAM-SIZE. So if you got 256 RAM your pagefile would be best set at a static 384MB (which will save you space over the 1/2Gigs windows picks). - But its ment to be there, and exists in Win2k and ME also, and prolly the 9x OSes, but I don't recall. - hope that is some help to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lectos Posted September 4, 2001 Share Posted September 4, 2001 Just thought I would add that the swap file is called WIN386.SWP in Win9x and WinME. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mortensen Posted September 4, 2001 Share Posted September 4, 2001 I've got 256RAM and find mine is best set at a static 500mb. -mortensenj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me101 Veteran Posted September 5, 2001 Veteran Share Posted September 5, 2001 Usually the pagefile.sys should be as futile says, and I recommend that the pagefile.sys be at least 1.5 times your physical memory. I have 256mb and i set my pagefile to 384 on my fastest drive. If you want any more additional info, you can check this really good article out, 2174 ? The Windows 2000 Paging file which shows you the minimum settings, plus tips on moving the page file to different locations etc.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H. Veteran Posted September 5, 2001 Veteran Share Posted September 5, 2001 Hmm the funny think about all this is that everyone recommends 1.5x the amount of ram ratio to the pagefile. Hmm.. well what if you have 1GB of ram am I supposed to designate 1.5GB of my hardrive just for virtual ram which i wont ever use since windows never uses 1.5GB of ram at one time. So in my case i have 768MB of ram and i set my puter to no pagefile and it's running perfect for 2 days straight now and hasn't crashed. So the pagefile is only for people with lil ram, like 128MB to 256MB cuz anything after that you don't really need a pagefile.. get your hard disk space back! Get @ Me SHoTTa35 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lectos Posted September 5, 2001 Share Posted September 5, 2001 WinNT/2k/XP has to page (ie. have a page file) to be able to work. It's how memory management works in the NT kernels. The kernel will not work well without it. Certain drivers and programs must have paging space or they choke. It's how they were designed. Yes you can turn it off and it will work, but not as efficiently. The general rule is what everyone is saying, it's usually 1.5x your RAM, but that assumes you have less than 512 MB of RAM. Windows will tell you the recommended max size should be up to 2x the size of your RAM and the minimum should equal your ram. Again, that is assuming that you have less than 512 MB of RAM. When you get up to about 256 MB then a larger pagefile is unecessary under most circumstances. I have 768 MB of RAM and it's paging 64 MB right now for the kernel memory. It will peak at around 200 MB sometimes during games, source code compiling operations, and the like. I have my swap set static at 512 MB. That is sufficient for most applications. It will actually keep more of your physical memory free for other things during straining operations to keep your system up to speed. As long as you are not running a server or anything you should be ok with setting it to a reasonable size like 256 or 512. So everyone is technically right I am just laying it all out here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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