pagefile.sys?

[tomster2300]

My hard drive is only 40 gigs and it claims it's filling up when it shouldnt be. There must be large files scattered throughout my drive which aren't programs - thus they're not showing up on add / remove (the total on add / remove is nowhere near 40 gigs).

Reason I posted here is this: I ran across a file called pagefile.sys and it's 786 mb -- this is kinda big to me. The problem -- I have no idea what it is. It says it was created January 16th 2005. This could very well be the last time I reformated my drive, I'm not too sure, I do it often. Does anybody know what this is? It's located right on the main C: drive screen - right after I click the icon to enter the hard drive, so I'm thinking that it's more than likely legit.

Thanks.

[EzyStvy]

Virtual Memory in Windows XP
(great article)

Introduction

"This page attempts to be a stand-alone description for general users of the way Virtual Memory operates in Windows XP. Other pages on this site are written mainly for Windows 98/ME (see Windows 98 & Win ME Memory Management) and, while a lot is in common, there are significant differences in Windows XP."


http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm



RAM, Virtual Memory, Pagefile and all that stuff
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;555223

[tomster2300]

So I guess I cant get rid of it then, huh?

[EzyStvy]

Nope. It's an important part of the Operating System.

[Negeva]

If your running XP then u might want to either clear out all but the last System Restore file or reduce its size.

Set System Restore Size;
control panel > system > system restore Highlight the drive in question and then click settings and move slider bar to about 5-7%.

Clear System Restore;

start > all programs > accessories > system tools > disk clean up > more options

click option for system restore. might even be benefical to clean the drive while your there - that is clear out temp files etc.

You could also backup data files that u don't use very often to CD/DVD. Never know could help clear up alot of space.