Windows 7: Huge pagefile.sys file

Hello everyone. I have a doubt in an odd situation.


I divided my Hard Disc onto three partitions. One of them I haven't used yet, so, hipotetically (I guess), it should be blank (with no files), right?

Well, I've just noticed that this "empty" partition has 5GB occupied already.

When I unchecked "Hide protected operating system files" feature, I found out this pagefile.sys file which has about 5.12GB.

What's that file for? Can I just get rid of it or, at least, reduce its size?




Thanks.

I have that same file on my main HDD :-)

But since it is that big... I don't think we should delete it :-p

That 5 gb file is the virtuam memory....if you have more than 3 or 4 gb of ram it is ok to disable virtual memory. To to that: right click on "my computher" then click prop. Go to "Advanced System Settings", go to "Advanced" tab and click "Settings" under Performance, then go to advanced tab and click "Change" hit "No paging file" and then hit "Set".

Warning: After doing this some games or appz won't work anymore, extremely rarely but it might just happen. Fuel doesn't work without a pagefile.

Aright Thanks for the information Tzeapa,
But i'll leave it there, I have space enough...

Although I have 8GB of ram... I play Fuel (atm) so i'll leave it on ^^

Paging - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would never guess that it's the virtual memory file.

If I remember correctly, Windows XP wouldn't display the paging file occuping my partition - it would just show a lower data capacity to the same. That's probably why I found it odd.

Anyhow, thanks for the replies.

The pagefile exists in the partition of the Windows XP:

What is happening is Win 7 is using the drive with the greater amount of free space for virtual memory. Before you go turning off this feature completely it would be a good idea to test out what would happen if you do; may be all you need to do is to down size it from what it is set at first (example: if at 5.2 mbs then try 1.2 mbs (these are only examples, and nothing more)). I am running 16 Gbit of DDR2 6400, and really don't pay attention to the Virtual Drive settings It is not going to increase you performance all that much.

For the love of...

Just disable the thing, entirely. Sheesh, it's a throw-back to the stoneage.

Actually virtual memory is slowing down the computer because the os instead of using RAM uses pagefile.sys wich is located on HDD. Disabling it will give your computer a boost of performance...

Virtual Memory is for computers with small amounts of ram !

And I can't understand why games like Fuel won't start with no virtual memory