Pagefile One For The Ms Lovers Create a Pagefile when a temp is in use

Hi, I need help from someone who knows WinXP (SP2) and has an understanding of how the Pagefile is created and administered by the System.I have just re-built my PC with Windows XP Pro (After changing the System disk configuration), and installed SP2 and all the available updates. I then loaded Office 2003, and Norton 2004, ZA Pro, Nero, Winzip 9 (eval), WinRAR, Acrobat R, Realone, Quicktime, Winamp, VB6SP5 and all was well (all correctly licensed except for winzip).I then installed Visual Studio.net (also correctly licensed), on the next re-boot I got an error message telling me that I didn't have a Pagefile, and that Windows had (kindly) created a temporary one for me.I duly when to set it manually, I have 512MB, so I set Start at 512MB max at 1024MB and was prompted fro a re-boot. On re-boot I get the same error message.I have tried setting no Pagefile and re-booting then setting one, and setting it to System Managed to no avail.I have tried editing the registry keys:HKEY_Local_Machine\System\currentcontrolset\control\session manager\Memory Managment\pagefilesand setting the value to: C:\pagefile.sys 766 1024I have tried deleting the key (and changing the value from 1 to 0): HKEY_Local_Machine\System\currentcontrolset\control\session manager\Memory Management\TempPagefilenothing works I still get the same error at start-up.I have read some other "helps" on the internet and several site suggest setting no Pagefile then rebooting and deleting the pagefile.sys then setting a page file and rebooting, this did not work, principally because there is no Pagefile.sys to delete!!. Other sites suggest booting into safe mode and then deleting the pagefile.sys, and re-booting. XP should then re-create a Pagefile using the registry key mentioned above. In my case it doesn't work (presumably since there was no Pagefile.sys to be deleted).I need help, I do not want to re-build this system again.System:Asus A7V600-xATI Radeon 9700Duron 1800\266512MB\333\2700Mylex EX2000 RAID2x Seagate 73GB SCSI U160 HDD running in RAID 0 (Attached to separate Channels on the MylexAdaptec 19160 SCSI Card1x Seagate 73GB SCSI U160 HDD (attached to 19160)Adaptec 29160 SCSI CardSeagate Viper 200 Ultrium Tape Drive (attached to 29160)Liton SOHC-5232K DVD\CDRW2x FDD

Not to be the angel of doom, but it looks like your going to be reformatting. I have run into similar problems, mostly trying to set the page file to zero.On a not too similar note, the reason I had problems was because the pagefile somehow got courpted and on the next reboot Norton went crazy and would not load up.

pagefile.sys is a hidden system file, you'll need to unhide it.With 512MB of RAM, you might be just able to get away with having no pagefile, so I'm not sure why Windows creates a temporary one, unless it is indeed corrupted.What I would suggest is that you remove the pagefile settings, restart the computer and boot into safe mode (Press F1 after BIOS POST screen and select Safe Mode, need admin account). From there, remove the pagefile.sys, which if on C: usually resides in the Windows directory or quite possibly C:\ but make sure you unhide hidden files and unhide system files.In safe mode manually delete the file, then setup a new pagefile, I suggest anything from 384-896, 512MB of RAM is quite a bit, and it's faster to have programs loaded in memory rather than storing on Hard Drive. The larger you can get your RAM too the better and the lesser you can set your pagefile size, on my system with 2GB of RAM I would use no pagefile, though programs complain about not having a pagefile I set a minimum 2MB, it's usually because the program is looking for the pagefile and not really verifying whether there's enough RAM to handle it.Cheers,MC

hI,

Tansqrx, I think you may be right.

looks like your going to be reformatting

MC, I have already been through the motions, and I can't find a Pagefile.sys anywhere on the system. I have tried un-hidding Files, and seraching with the include hidden files and folders flag set.

The larger you can get your RAM too the better and the lesser you can set your pagefile size, on my system with 2GB of RAM I would use no pagefile, though programs complain about not having a pagefile I set a minimum 2MB, it's usually because the program is looking for the pagefile and not really verifying whether there's enough RAM to handle it

this is my real consern, I can't get Half Life 2 to paly since this occured. I would have liked to get the system going, but It looks more and more like a re-build.
Nothing seems to force the OS to create that pagefile.

Regards Cass

A permissions issue?Pagefile One For The Ms Lovers

One reason why Windows cannot create or access a pagefile is because of improperly set security permissions. Check that the SYSTEM account has Full Control for the root of the system drive. In XP Home this must be done in safe mode. In XP Pro Simple File Sharing must be turned off to do this. It can be restored later. Do not alter any other permissions.Do not disable or reduce the size of the pagefile in attempt to improve performance. This is counterproductive and will impair performance. With rare exceptions thses settings are best left on default.Larry Miller, Microsoft MCSA

-reply by Larry Miller