If you have already read our Virtual Memory Optimization Guide, you might have already created and optimized your own semi-permanent paging file. But before you rub your palms in glee, reboot your system and check the paging file size. Don't be surprised if you find your paging file magically enlarged to over 1.5GB! Today, we will examine the problem in detail and show you the solution. We suspect many of you will be affected by this problem as well. So, double-check your paging file size and read on! Link : The Stubborn Paging File!
nice guide, thanks so much for doing so much helping fine tune our pc. Your site is really devoted to finetune the system. Great job.
I have read both of your articles on VM optimisation: Here are my experiences - When the first guide was released, I attempted to follow it. At the time, I noticed that the minimum recommended size was 1534MB (sound familiar). I was able to change the size allocated, and it stays at the size set. I firstly made a fixed partition, and set it at 1534MB - I figured that if WinXP wanted that much, it could have it. I also tried to make one 1000MB - 2000MB. What I found was that even though WinXP Recommended this amount, it would make the partition at the minimum amount and keep it at that (1000MB) Upon reading your second article about NAV products, I thought I would share what I am using (and it is still recommending 1534MB) I have a XP2800+ on a NF7-s, 2x80GB in a raid0 array, with 2x512MB ram. I am running WinXP SP2, and Trend Micro Internet Security - so NO Norton/Symantec products! Any thoughts? Another point - when I created a fixed partition, the defrag program you recommended in your first article would not move the page file to the outer tracks.
Are you installing any Anti Virus software on your machine? Trend Micro Internet Security isn't exactly an AV software so I doubt the will prevent Windows from changing the page file size. Hmmm. Did you also install Trend Micro's AntiVirus software along with Internet Security? If so, you might want to check if there's an option to prevent it's service from loading up on System start.
Yeah, Diskeeper generally won't move the paging file. In fact, it prefers to keep the boot files at the outermost tracks. There will be an update on this later.
I am using Trend micro Internet security, which includes an AV (looks and feels to me like pc-cillin.) I will do some tests with real-time scan disabled, and also with the software starting up after windows, and post back with the results.
I have done a little more testing - with the real time scan switched off, WinXP still recommends a 1534MB Page file, but does not go over the set amount - I had it set at 700MB. (see the pic) I then changed the Trend Micro folder's name, so it could not load up on windows startup (I couldnt find anywhere in the programs settings to set that). Win XP still recommended a 1534MB swap file. Interesting I say. If you guys have no other thoughts on this, I might do a full uninstall of Trend Micro and find out if that makes a difference. At this stage though, it looks like SP2 is what is recommending such a large page file. It is interesting though that even though it is recommending that, it still is sticking with what I set. BTW adrian - If you think you know me, you do - I work for OC Wizard, and we post news from your site fairly regularly. EDIT: I have posted about the two page file articles on our site, as well as a link to this thread - I am chasing more information, as I do find it very interesting what is being uncovered! Here: http://forums.ocwizard.com/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=2121 - I do hope that you dont mind.
same prob - moved to AVG Free I had the exact same prob with Symantec Corp 9, I didn't investigate but figured it was something along these lines. I 'fixed' it by switching to AVG antivirus Will
Hello JRW_Assassin! It is certainly interesting, isn't it? Actually, the recommended size is based on the memory size. There is a formula but I can't find it just now because I'm on a very slow 56K dial-up! So, it has nothing to do with Trend Micro or any other anti-virus software. The thing is to determine if you can set a smaller paging file size than what's recommended by Windows XP. If you can, then there is no conflict between the anti-virus software and Windows XP during the booting process.
Actually, I just did. I didnt realise that the recommended amount was based on ram, but what I found out was certainly heading that way! o well - thanks for all the help guys!
We showed how we did it in the guide. By setting SAV to start the File System Auto-Protect to start up after Windows boots.
That quote was for NAV, not SAV. NAV doesn't have those options. Taking the checkmark out of the "Start Autoprotect at startup" for NAV isn't the same thing because you'd have to manually turn on autoprotect each time after bootup. "remove ccApp.exe from the Windows run line". So how is that done? Seems like that is a registry change? "add program to Window Startup Folder". How is that done? Is there a link to that quote? I would think that quote would be followed by the instructions to do what the quote said.
Yes, the quote was for NAV. The quote was taken directly from the forum thread mentioned in the guide. If you check out the thread, you will see that no instructions were provided. Yes, removing ccApp.exe requires editing the registry. Adding it to Windows startup folder is simple though. Maybe we should add that part to the guide.
I have a similar problem, but with the system restore size. I have 2 hard disks. The first in 3 partitions all NTFS and the second in one fat32. I set system restore size to what I want in all my drives, but after reboot only the one in the fat32 drive hasn't been reset to the max value (12%). All three NTFS partitions are again at 12%. I don't even load NAV at startup (although I have it installed), and have disabled all the non-essential Symantec services. Microsoft doesn't have anything similar in the knowledge base (at least nothing that I could find). Does anyone have any ideas ?
The Stubborn paging File I was very interested in this article which enabled me to understand a similar problem I have been experiencing since installing SP2. I can add a small additional nugget of information. After installing SP2 I upgraded my from 2GB to 4GB which, because I have not enabled high Ram addressing, displays as 3583MB, I ran a suite of performance tests and found that when the PC -Gigabyte 8PENXPDDR 3.06Ghz- is working fully loaded the pagefile fluctuates around 1.7Gb but is more than 2Gb when Photoshop is handling large graphics with many layers. To be safe I set it as a permanent file on C:\as 2Gb/2Gb and set a system managed page file minimum 2Gb/unlimited on E:\ to handle the occasional Photoshop excesses. However this did not work out satisfactorily because I sometimes got messages that my page file was too small and Windows was increasing it. Moreover though Control panel showed that the Virtual memory for E:\ was set to system managed in fact there was no pagefile.sys in existance on that drive. Then a couple of days ago I got a BSOD with the message that the STOP was likley generated by a driver belonging to Norton Antivirus 2005. NAV 2005 does not have the facility you mention to enable autoprotect only when the main file loads but it can be told not to load when Windows starts, in which case it displays a splash screen that remains when Windows has finsihed loading. The splash warns you that autoprotect is not enabled: you cannot continue until you either enable autoprotect or close the warning screen. I look forward to more comments on this topic. Having thebenfit of your article joined to my experience I conclude tafter SP2 is installed and if one is running NAV 2005 and even if autoprotect is disabled then a pagefile MUST be set in C.
