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Controlling XP's pagefile.sys on Eee PC

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I just upgraded my Eee PC's memory to 2GB but half the machine's 4GB SSD is now eaten up by Windows XP SP2's pagefile.sys system file. It's 2GB in size, even though I've set XP to put the file on my 4GB SDHC card.

The SDHC is FAT 32 format. It's set to have a pagefile of 512-2048MB, with the C: drive's pagefile set to 2-50MB - setting done in System Properties/Advanced/Performance Settings/Advanced/Virtual Memory

C: is NTFS, by the way.

So, how can I get Windows to use *my* settings and scale the C: pagefile.sys to a much smaller size?

BTW, I've tried using XP's Local Policies Security Settings to get the OS to clear the pagefile at shutdown, but it stays at 2GB no matter what.

Help!

Latest Comments

1MB Page file?

I know Photoshop needs one, but does it ever use it?

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Is E: removable?

I believe XP will not allow you to place your swap file on a device which the OS recognises as being removable. After all, how could it possibly cope if the volume holding its active swap file was summarily removed?

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qwerty

Surely just highlight C:, choose no paging file, delete C:\pagefale.sys after a reboot.

Then highlight E:, set your 512MBmin 512MBmax page file, and you;re done.

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(Written by Reg staff)

Update

Done it. Turn off paging, reboot and you can delete pagefile.sys.

A corporate IT guy of my acquaintance - cheers, James - suggested re-enabling paging, choosing a custom pagefile size with identical minimum and maximum sizes. This is handy for me, because I need paging enabled in order to run Photoshop, which requires it.

Setting both to 512MB, I now have a 512MB pagefile.sys, which is a long way from gobbling up my C: drive.

But the question remains: how to I get Windows to have pagefile.sys on my E: SDHC card and not on the C: drive?

Ideas?

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(Written by Reg staff)

@Graeme

No, it's not the hibernation file - I have hibernation disabled.

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