pagefile.sys

[snow]

Ok, I've had 2k loaded on this PC for about 3 days and now I"m getting pagefile errors. I go to configure the file and it seems as though it's set right, but it's not recognizing all of it-- just 20 megs. Could anyone look at the screenshots of the errors at:

http://www.geocities.com/snow_man130/random/help.html

and let me know what you think? thanx

Nate

[reboot]

Change the total paging file size to 382 MB as is recommended.
You've got C at min 384, but total for all drives at only 20mb. Not nice to make windows get confuzzled like that

[snow]

so the idea is to get it under and up to 382, because otherwise it's confused about 384-768? I have no idea, this was the original setting and I hadn't played with it till now.

Ok, if someone else sees this and has comments, I'm going to put the initial size at 0 and the max at 382 and see if that helps it recognize the space. Any other comments would be welcomed. If I don't have the right idea-- please tell me. thanx

Nate

[Iman74]

I learned a very interesting fact that may just help you with this problem. I learned when using pagefiles, they tend to be one of the many things that decrease PC performance which they become fragmented. It has been instructed to me when creating a pagefile (regardless of it's size), to keep the minium and the maxium size the same. So if you want a pagefile that is 128mb. You make the minium 128 and the maxium 128mb. I have been doing this, no errors, not sure if I see an increase in performance. Try it. Also, another thing I know about pagefiles that may help you; when using 2000, NT, or/and XP; log into the PC and delete the page file. When you reboot it will re-create the pagefile automaticaly. Also, make sure you have the pagefile on the partition with the largest amount of space available (assuming you have more than one partition). Also, I have seen pagefile errors being caused by bad dimms.

Hope this helps.

[reboot]

You can specify any size you like for min and max (within reason), but unless you have a number in the "total paging size for all drives" that is about the same as your max, it get's all messed up.

[Iman74]

Reboot is that in reference to what i said or to someone else's comment?

[reboot]

ummmm, to snow....but to add to your comment, I would make it 384 min and max and leave it.

[snow]

the pagefile causing fragmentation things makes sense and specifying a specific one does too. I'm going to make the min and the max equal. If this doesn't work, how do I deleted the swap file. Do I set everything to zero or do I have to delete a specific file or registry entry. Oh, and on the dimm thing-- this is a crucial stick, do you know off-hand what their return policy is? thanx.

nate

[snow]

alright, I've tried just about everything now...

they're both set to equal at the present moment. still getting the error...

whoa, I just remembered I had asked about deleting the file-- and this is the family pc, so it's only one partition at the moment. (I do plan to add a smaller one later in fat32 for backup)

[newme]

i dont know if this will help just stick it here in case http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;q257758

[reboot]

To delete the swap file, you need to boot to DOS. I'm not even sure you can remove it in safe mode (probably not). No harm done though, windows will recreate a new one as soon as you boot.
Have you set: Virtual memory, Performance options, Total paging size for all drives to 384mb or is it still at 20?

[snow]

SEE BOTTOM POST

the end of that article talks about a 20 meg page file. Is that the temporary pagefile that it's reading and it's giving me that error because of it? How can I deleted the temp and get it to recognize the new one?

[snow]

SEE BOTTOM POST

yeah, what's the name of the file to delete and what's the path-- I might try a little seek-and-destroy in DOS.

I've had just about every possible configuration-- most of which had the min over 384 and all of which were, as a whole, way over 384. I've tried all your suggestions and a few ideas of my own.

so I'm ready to just delete this sucker and let windows reconfigure it. thanx.

Nate

[snow]

alright, after some other preliminary stuff (see the above two posts), I finally:

1) I deleted the pagefile-- which was large enough to begin w/, reloaded, didn't work

2) set the min's and max's to 0 in the performance area under system (it still read the total min's and max's as 2 and 20 as before), reloaded didn't work

windows didn't recreate, so I wrote one one time, but didnt' work, so I deleted it

3) deleted the TempPageFile key from the registry, or whatever it is, reloaded, I think at that point it recreated the file (it may have been earlier, I dont' know-- but I know it wasn't the first, and I think it wasn't the 2nd time)

4) ok, I have a pagefile that's new, it's the right size 4xx,xxx kb, and it still doesn't read it under performance

Note: in retrospect I had been looking at the performance in the task manager and the kernal alone was paging more than 20 megs-- not much, but still

Resolution: I have a pagefile. Windows may or may not recognize it. The System menu definately doesn't recognize it. If anyone doesn't have any new suggestions here in the next day or so, I think I'm gonna delete it again and see if trying to repair win2k w/ cd would fix it.

I don't know if that'll screw up some of my other settings though-- I'm not that used to 2k, if you hadn't noticed

thoughts, ideas, comments, insults-- all welcome

thanx.

Nate

[Tuf]

It's never going to work as long as the max for all drives is 20mb. It won't matter what you set it at because it can't use more than 20mb. You will have to change this on the performance options tab.

The easiest way to delete a pagefile is to turn it off on all drives then delete it. If it won't let you reboot, then delete it. Then go back and set it the size you want. It doesn't hurt to have it in your C Partition. It is better if you can have it on another physical drive. But another partition on the same drive won't speed it up in fact it could slow it down.

But really after it's all said and done it's not a bad idea to let windows manage it. If you know for sure you won't need over a certain amount it's fine to set a maximum. But if you handle large scans or render photos, video, or even CAD files your swap file can get pretty big. My computer has a gig of RAM and I've seen the swap get up to 1150mb before.

[reboot]

Stop messing with max and min settings, put them at 384 and leave it!
Under "Total paging size for all drives", set THAT to 384 meg as well, not the 20 that you have it at now!!!!
Is there an echo in here?
You're running around in circles with this, and need to read what we're typing more carefully.
We didn't tell you to delete it, we didn't tell you to edit the registry, we DID tell you how to fix it about 12 posts ago.

[snow]

I've read everything and tried it.

Btw, I happen to have had the swap set at 384 since you suggested it. It hasn't changed.

please look at that jpeg again on the page at the beginning-- I don't know what things are normally like, but I can only set a min and a max-- that's it. I can't set the total for the machine or anything else. The swap is set to 384, but the total for the machine is still set that low 2-20. I have no way to configure it. I dont' know if I have corrupted files or something is configured incorrectly.

I know I may sound like an idiot, and I probably am, but you don't have to treat me like i"m stupid. I'm doing my best to resolve this, if you can't help me I'll just reformat

[Blakhart]

My rules for swapfiles are thus:
A. 1 pagefile per physical disk, and a fast disk that did nothing but swap calls would be best, on a separate ide channel
B. no more than 1 fragment in any pagefile, this is the most important file as far as fragmentation is concerned
C. set a minimum that is greater than any expected use and it will not become fragmented, unless the os lays down the swapfile on the drive fragmented during os install. In that case defrag the swap or reduce the swap size till the fragment is deleted and you have one contiguous file
D. if you have set maximum and an app calls for more or the os needs more you are headed for crashville
E. if you do video/photo editing you need a huge swapfile, in some cases greater than 768. This is not a bad thing if you have the drive space. So perhaps no set max is a good idea

Note:
I have a separate partition as c: and swap lives there at 700 megs, as I do no edit apps. You should not run multiple swaps on multiple partitions on the same drive, it will be self defeating, see A above...


One pagefile, unfragmented, with speediness, and swaps, for all...

[Blakhart]

When you adjusted the swap figures you hit the "set" button to place it on the drive, right?

[reboot]

OK, something is screwey then.
Take a look at mine, its on XP, but very similar:
http://members.cnx.net/reboot/temp/swapfile.jpg
Try going into regedit, and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Look at the "Paging Files" entry.
It should look like this: C:\pagefile.sys 768 768
You may also have multiple "ControlSet" entries. Change them all.
They'll be labeled ControlSet001 and so on.

[Tuf]

Something is screwy...I've been talking to him on MSN Messenger.

His reg keys are correct but it still shows 20mb as the allocated space. It is also missing the option for system manged size. Can you boot from the CD do a repair in 2000 like in XP?

[Tuf]

I think I have found something:
Link

It's for NT but I'll bet this is the deal.

[reboot]

Could be...
I would simply change the entries in the registry, reboot and see what happens.

[Tuf]

He tried that after your suggestion, It sounded like it should work to me. But it doesn't I guess it must be still mapped to the temp one. On the M$ knowledge base it says if it creates one it will 20mb. It should delete it on it's own though. But apparently it hasn't or it's recreating it.

[snow]

darn, the simplicity in retrospect...

I ended up popping in the 2k cd to run a repair after I talked to you. Let's just say that my dvd drive doesn't like burned cd's-- I barely got it on there the first time. So when I went to repair it really screwed things up. somehow my ntldr got lost-- so I've just started over. I went thru a bunch of stuff trying to load 2k from my external, but gave up and just swapped the crappy dvd for a cd temporarily-- it's amazing how fast these files load on a cd drive that actually reads cd-r's.

thank you to all who helped me out w/ this, especially Tuf. I would have emailed you, but alas, the text file that I had quickly saved your email address has now been formatted.

Nate

[Tuf]

Glad it all worked out and you had a backup copy of your 2000 disc.