pagefile.sys & hiberfil.sys

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  1. raphytaffy
    Posts : 41
    Windows 7 Ultimate
       New #1

    pagefile.sys & hiberfil.sys


    Hi all, not sure if this is the correct spot for this question but I'll shoot anyway. I've just installed Windows 7 Ultimate using a 50GB partition on my Mac hard drive. I thought this was more than enough room for the OS, but as it turns out I only had 15GB of free space after the installation. I thought this couldn't possibly be right, so I checked various file sizes to see where all my hard drive space went. It turns out these two files were the culprit:

    pagefile.sys (15.99GB)
    hiberfil.sys (11.99GB)

    Doing a bit of research led me to articles saying that hiberfil.sys is used for hibernation purposes and pagefile.sys is the virtual memory file that Windows uses. I normally don't even hibernate my computer, I just shut it off, so is there a way to make this file size smaller? A few articles have warned against deleting it. Not sure exactly what a virtual memory file is, but how can I make pagefile.sys smaller as well? The articles say that deleting it or turning the virtual memory option off could cause instability so I'm probably just looking to compress the size.

    Here are the specs to my Mac Pro just in case it's needed to help you to help me optimize my system:

    Processor: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
    Processor Speed: 3.2GHz
    Number of Processors: 2
    Total Number of Cores: 8
    Memory: 16GB

    Thanks in advance for any help!
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  3. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       New #2

    The page file you need and should not touch. But if you don't use hibernation (sleep mode is better anyhow), you can get rid of the file. Open Command prompt which you find in All Programs > Accessories (run as admin) and type : powercfg -h off then hit Enter. Now you should have recovered your 11.99 GiGs.

    Hibernate - Enable or Disable
    Last edited by Brink; 14 Oct 2009 at 22:02. Reason: added lnk
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  4. raphytaffy
    Posts : 41
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    Excellent tip! Worked flawlessly.

    So does pagefile.sys really need to be 16GB? I'm guessing since it has to do with virtual memory, that makes the file size equivalent to how much memory I have on my system? Is it really necessary for it to be this big and if not, is there any way that I can change its size?
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  6. Brink
    Posts : 72,043
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #4

    Hello Raphytaffy, and welcome to Seven Forums.

    While it's best to leave the page file set to "System Managed", you can get away with reducing it to about 4GB since you have 16GB of RAM installed. The tutorial below will help show you how to if you should decide to. It's the same in Windows 7 as Vista.

    Virtual Memory Paging File - Change - Vista Forums

    Hope this helps,
    Shawn
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  7. raphytaffy
    Posts : 41
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    Hi Shawn, thanks for the link! So reading up on the virtual memory paging file, am I correct in understanding that this would only be used if I have used up all 16GB of RAM? If so then I should have no worries lowering it to 4GB since I don't see any real life instances where I would actually use that much memory, right?
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  8. Brink
    Posts : 72,043
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #6

    Windows 7 and some programs will still use the page file no matter how much RAM you have installed though. There are also programs that require a page file for them to run properly as well.

    Even if Windows 7 or a program doesn't use much of the page file, whatever it is set at will be allocated (reserved) space on the hard drive (C: drive by default) that the page file it on. In your case 16GB of space on your hard drive is being reserved for the page file and is no longer available as free space whether it is being used or not. Reducing it down to 4GB will free up 12GB of available space on your hard drive if needed. :)
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  10. raphytaffy
    Posts : 41
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Thread Starter
       New #7

    Hmm I see.. just out of curiousity, how do you know which programs use or require the page file? And also what determines how much of the virtual memory dedicated to the page file is used? I understand that this space is reserved, I'm just trying to see if lowering it to 4GB will cause slower performance in the applications that utilize the page file. Not really understanding the distribution of virtual memory between the RAM and the page file.
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  11. Brink
    Posts : 72,043
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #8

    You can read more indepth details about the Virtual Memory Page File at the link below.

    Virtual memory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    The thing is just about all programs will make use of the page file, but you do not really know which ones require the page file until you disable it and the program no longer functions properly or gives you a "No/Low Memory" type error.

    In your case I do not believe you will see a performance drop if you reduce the page file to 4GB instead of 16GB. If you do, you can always just increase it back.
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  12. raphytaffy
    Posts : 41
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Thread Starter
       New #9

    Thanks so much! I was able to edit the pagefile.sys size with no problems following the instructions with the link you gave me. Set it to 4GB.
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  13. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       New #10

    raphytaffy said:
    Thanks so much! I was able to edit the pagefile.sys size with no problems following the instructions with the link you gave me. Set it to 4GB.

    I personally would not have done that. I think it is a mistake. Usually a manual intervention degrades the system performance.
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