How to delete the Paging file in windows 2000 ?

[vrcatherine]

My paging file is growing like anything on my C:drive.

Is there a way i can delete this paging file, so
that i can free up some space on my C:\ drive.


--Thanks
Cathy

 

[jrjuiliano]

Right click on "my computer"
"Properties"
"Advanced"
"Performance Options"
"Change" under "Virtual Memory" settings.

The easiest is to set the page file to about twice the amount of RAM you have. Default settings are generally left to let it go dynamically between 384 MB and 768 MB. It's better to set a static value (like between 768 and 768). That way your page file size doesn't grow and shrink so much.

Even better is if you can get the page file on a separate disk, but you will run into problems if you plan on collecting dump data from crashes, if you take away all the page file space from the system drive (C:\).

Hope that helps.

J.R.

 

[bcastner]

If you remove the paging file your system likely will work very poorly, if at all.

Some tips about constraining the size of the paging file, free utilities to monitor it, and to deframent the paging file can be found in this article:

http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

It is written in the context of XP, but applies equally in all particulars to Win2k.

 

[bcastner]

And adding more RAM is one effective way of reducing the system reliance on the paging file.

 

[micker377]

Here is an article on disabling the Page File.

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Guides/winxptweak/index.html

 

[HardKnox]

The normal rule of thumb for setting the minimum pagefile for your PC is 2x(total RAM in system)+20%. A good way to keep your page file limited and your system not so fragmented is to setup your harddisk drive up with 3 main partitions.

Partition 1 : 5 to 20GB for your Windows OS
Partition 2 : (What is left) - 2 to 5GB for your system page file/memory swap file.
Partition 3 : 2 to 5GB or the 2x(total RAM in system)+20% for your system pagefile/memory swap file.

If you have a harddisk drive around 10GB or smaller it is sort of pointless to use this method with operating systems like Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It does work very well with Windows 98 though.

Keeping your system pagefile/memory swap file separate from your Windows partition can help preventing fast and extreme fragmentation and can speed up the time it takes to defrag your system

 

[vrcatherine]

These are my settings in my system.
I am sure they have to be modified, guide me
what to do :

DISK SPACE
===========

C:\ 1.99GB ( free space 200mb)
D:\ 7.31GB ( free space 1.1GB)



Paging size
============
C:\ 500-550mb (initial)
D:\ 550-800mb (maximum)

Allocated 1050mb

Total system ram is 256MB.


Is there a way i can have my paging only on D:\ drive
as its having some space ?


--Cathy

 

[imquazar]

What operating system are we using here?

Keep in mind that if you are using Win98, you'll see a performance decrease when you get above 128mb ram.

Something else to consider is - Virus activity exploiting your pagefile to fill the hard drive.. have we done a scan lately?

-IQ

 

[jrjuiliano]

As for putting it all on drive D, please look at my post above, and make sure to change the numbers listed for the C:\ drive to 0 and 0 (zero). Put the values in D:\ (ie, 1024 and 1024 for 1 GB of page file, min and max).

Reboot, and all will reset.

Please note what I mentioned earlier about crash dump files. So you may want to leave about 100MB there for that specific purpose. Or not; it's up to you.

J.R.

 

[vrcatherine]

Hi imquazar ,

I am running windows 2000 server and this is my
domain server, domain controller, DHCP server ..etc

Virus activity ??????
Even that might also be a possible hickup.

I will run the scan as well.

--Thanks

Cathy

 

[vrcatherine]

Hi jrjuiliano , (J.R.)


As per your suggestions i can set the page file
for C:\ drive as 0 (min) and 0 (max)

and for D:\ drive 1024 (min) and 1024 (max)

What is this Crash dump ?
I havent used it till now, anything important ?

Or do u want me to set the C:\ drive to 0(min) , 100(max) ?

--Thanks
CATHY

 

[jrjuiliano]

Hi Cathy,

Any time your server crashes it may create a dump file. Pretty much useless to you to read, but it may give MS something to work with if you intend to call them for support. So no it's not a necessity; it all comes to personal preference.

If you DO want to get the file that's generated after a crash, you will need at least 64MB for the file on your root drive (usually C:\). That's way I suggested perhaps 100 MB of extra swap space for the C:\ drive. But again, personal preference puts it up to you!

Setting the min and max to the same number keeps the page file from growing and shrinking all the time. It's supposed to help keep file fragmentation down.

Hope that helped.



J.R.

 

[HardKnox]

Sheesh running Win2K Server on such small drives ;P getting a larger drive would be a good start, 256MB o' RAM is a good minimum for Win2K Server.

Do a defrag on your main System drive/partition(the one with windows installed, this might free up some space when compacting the files.
Also see if you can empty your Temp folders:
(System Root):\Documents and Settings\(User Account)\Local Settings\Temp
and
(System Root):\WINDOWS\Temp
or
(System Root):\WINNT\Temp

 

[vrcatherine]

Thanks