One huge file called pagefile.sys!
December 20th, 2005
I have a computer with Windows XP (home) on it and I have a massive file called pagefile.sys on my C drive. What is it? Why is it massive? Can I delete it?
This file is what's commonly known as a paging file or swap file. It acts as additional on-disk RAM for the system. The idea is that the least used data stored in RAM can be written to the hard drive to free up RAM for other uses.
It's massive because Windows has to handle a lot of data and you shouldn't delete it because it is a vital system file that's needed by Windows.
You can, however, alter the amount of space that it takes although curtailing it too much can have an adverse effect on system performance. Click on Start > Control Panel > System. Click on the Advanced tab and then on the Settings button under Performance. Under Virtual memory you should see how much disk space is used by pagefile.sys:
More clicking! Click on the Advanced tab and then the Change button under Virtual memory.
You now have a few options. Unless you know what you are doing then leave things set to System managed size. However, if you want (and know what you are doing) you can either set a custom size for the paging file or set to no paging (not recommended). If you are going to change the size of the paging file, use the recommended value as a guide.
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