2nd paging file not being used?

[Flick Olmsford]

A user had a 20GB hard drive that was being max'd out. I added a 120 GB hdd
and transferred a few folders to the new drive (now E:) Ther is still loads
of space on the new hard disk.

I tried creating a 2nd paging file on the new hdd (E:) in addition to the
one on C: According to Microsoft, the system should use the paging file on
the less frequently used drive - E: in this case.

When I use MSINFO32, it lists the paging file as c:\pagefile.sys. Not
referencing E:

Would MSINFO32 show the currently used page file or would it always show
c:\pagefile.

I should add that the c: pagefile has a custom set size range for the
pagefile but the one on E: has a system managed size (if that make a
difference)

[Gordon]

"Flick Olmsford" > wrote in message
...
>A user had a 20GB hard drive that was being max'd out. I added a 120 GB
>hdd
> and transferred a few folders to the new drive (now E:) Ther is still
> loads
> of space on the new hard disk.
>
> I tried creating a 2nd paging file on the new hdd (E:) in addition to the
> one on C: According to Microsoft, the system should use the paging file
> on
> the less frequently used drive - E: in this case.
>
> When I use MSINFO32, it lists the paging file as c:\pagefile.sys. Not
> referencing E:
>
> Would MSINFO32 show the currently used page file or would it always show
> c:\pagefile.
>
> I should add that the c: pagefile has a custom set size range for the
> pagefile but the one on E: has a system managed size (if that make a
> difference)
>
>


If E drive IS very rarely used, then just remove the pagefile from C - you
don't HAVE to have the pagefile on C......

[Flick Olmsford]

I'll do that. MS said to have a second pagefile so that a memory dump is
created in a stop error. That doesn't happen here too often

Thanks


"Gordon" wrote:

> "Flick Olmsford" > wrote in message
> ...
> >A user had a 20GB hard drive that was being max'd out. I added a 120 GB
> >hdd
> > and transferred a few folders to the new drive (now E:) Ther is still
> > loads
> > of space on the new hard disk.
> >
> > I tried creating a 2nd paging file on the new hdd (E:) in addition to the
> > one on C: According to Microsoft, the system should use the paging file
> > on
> > the less frequently used drive - E: in this case.
> >
> > When I use MSINFO32, it lists the paging file as c:\pagefile.sys. Not
> > referencing E:
> >
> > Would MSINFO32 show the currently used page file or would it always show
> > c:\pagefile.
> >
> > I should add that the c: pagefile has a custom set size range for the
> > pagefile but the one on E: has a system managed size (if that make a
> > difference)
> >
> >
>
>
> If E drive IS very rarely used, then just remove the pagefile from C - you
> don't HAVE to have the pagefile on C......
>
>
>

[Rock]

"Flick Olmsford" wrote
>A user had a 20GB hard drive that was being max'd out. I added a 120 GB
>hdd
> and transferred a few folders to the new drive (now E:) Ther is still
> loads
> of space on the new hard disk.
>
> I tried creating a 2nd paging file on the new hdd (E:) in addition to the
> one on C: According to Microsoft, the system should use the paging file
> on
> the less frequently used drive - E: in this case.
>
> When I use MSINFO32, it lists the paging file as c:\pagefile.sys. Not
> referencing E:
>
> Would MSINFO32 show the currently used page file or would it always show
> c:\pagefile.
>
> I should add that the c: pagefile has a custom set size range for the
> pagefile but the one on E: has a system managed size (if that make a
> difference)

Limit the size of the page file on the C: drive to a minimum of 2MB and a
Max of 50MB or so. The other page file should be the larger one. For that
one set a minimum size equal to or greater than what is normally used by the
page file, and a maximum size large enough to accommodate increases
something needs it.

See this article by the late Alex Nichol, MVP on Virtual Memory and Setting
the page file.
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

One of the items in that article are links to a utility to monitor actual
page file usage, which is different than what is allocated to the page file.
Use this utility to see how much the page file is actually being used, and
set the page file size on the second drive based on that usage.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

[Rock]

"Gordon" > wrote
> "Flick Olmsford" > wrote
>>A user had a 20GB hard drive that was being max'd out. I added a 120 GB
>>hdd
>> and transferred a few folders to the new drive (now E:) Ther is still
>> loads
>> of space on the new hard disk.
>>
>> I tried creating a 2nd paging file on the new hdd (E:) in addition to the
>> one on C: According to Microsoft, the system should use the paging file
>> on
>> the less frequently used drive - E: in this case.
>>
>> When I use MSINFO32, it lists the paging file as c:\pagefile.sys. Not
>> referencing E:
>>
>> Would MSINFO32 show the currently used page file or would it always show
>> c:\pagefile.
>>
>> I should add that the c: pagefile has a custom set size range for the
>> pagefile but the one on E: has a system managed size (if that make a
>> difference)

> If E drive IS very rarely used, then just remove the pagefile from C - you
> don't HAVE to have the pagefile on C......

Sometimes XP will complain about this and actually create a very large one
on C:. Better yet is to set a range on the C: drive page file of 2-50MB.
See Alex Nichol's article I referenced in my reply to the OP.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

[mikeyhsd]

if you try to set NO page file on the system drive, windows will complain and tell you the minimum sized permitted.
set it to that size and make the "E" drive one system managed,







"Flick Olmsford" > wrote in message ...
I'll do that. MS said to have a second pagefile so that a memory dump is
created in a stop error. That doesn't happen here too often

Thanks


"Gordon" wrote:

> "Flick Olmsford" > wrote in message
> ...
> >A user had a 20GB hard drive that was being max'd out. I added a 120 GB
> >hdd
> > and transferred a few folders to the new drive (now E:) Ther is still
> > loads
> > of space on the new hard disk.
> >
> > I tried creating a 2nd paging file on the new hdd (E:) in addition to the
> > one on C: According to Microsoft, the system should use the paging file
> > on
> > the less frequently used drive - E: in this case.
> >
> > When I use MSINFO32, it lists the paging file as c:\pagefile.sys. Not
> > referencing E:
> >
> > Would MSINFO32 show the currently used page file or would it always show
> > c:\pagefile.
> >
> > I should add that the c: pagefile has a custom set size range for the
> > pagefile but the one on E: has a system managed size (if that make a
> > difference)
> >
> >
>
>
> If E drive IS very rarely used, then just remove the pagefile from C - you
> don't HAVE to have the pagefile on C......
>
>
>

[Lil' Dave]

"Flick Olmsford" > wrote in message
...
>A user had a 20GB hard drive that was being max'd out. I added a 120 GB
>hdd
> and transferred a few folders to the new drive (now E:) Ther is still
> loads
> of space on the new hard disk.
>
> I tried creating a 2nd paging file on the new hdd (E:) in addition to the
> one on C: According to Microsoft, the system should use the paging file
> on
> the less frequently used drive - E: in this case.
>
> When I use MSINFO32, it lists the paging file as c:\pagefile.sys. Not
> referencing E:
>
> Would MSINFO32 show the currently used page file or would it always show
> c:\pagefile.
>
> I should add that the c: pagefile has a custom set size range for the
> pagefile but the one on E: has a system managed size (if that make a
> difference)
>

Eliminate everything on the 120GB hd including the partitions that reside
there. (move the data back to the C: partition temporarily first). Make
one partition on the 120GB drive around 4 - 8 GB, primary of course, I use
FAT 32 for this. Make a second partition the remainder of the hard drive
space, filesystem your choice. Reboot. Move the system pagefile to the
first partition you just create previously. Disable system restore on that
partition, first. Reboot. Now move the files/folders you moved to C: to
the second partition on the 120GB hd.

When you're all done, reboot. Then, defragment C: partition.

The smarter thing to do would be to move all to the 120GB hard drive.

The most effective way of using a swapfile move is on an exclusive hard
drive first partition on a bus not used by XP OS. Removable media busses
(firewire/USB) are out. Internal scsi hard drive seems best, but expensive.
Dave