What is pagefile.sys and can I move it?

That was awesome Leo. It worked perfect.
I have two drives: C is SSD Vertex 2 : 60 GB and second drive WD 1TGB with two partitions D: 800GB and G: 200GB. I have i7 2600K intel processor on Asus p8p67 and 8 GB memory on the machine I just build two days ago. SSD got filled so quick, just with programs, and i had left only 9.23 GB. After moving pagefiles I am back to 17GB free space. Thank you for your contribution.

Ok. I wanted to remove my pagefile from C: and stick it on D:. The result after having followed your instructions is that now I have TWO pagefiles. My D: now has a 14 GB, system managed pagefile and C: still has a 12 GB pagefile.sys file on it even thought the virtual memory dialogue shows C: as having "None". (I have 16 GB RAM). And of course I can't delete that leftover file on C: . Any ideas on how I get rid of it ?

If you can't delete your old pagefile.sys or any file for that matter you can use Unlocker http://unlocker.en.softonic.com/ . I've been able to delete or move any file that was locked.

Thanks!
After moving from C-drive to D-drive and rebooting, I still had to manually remove the old pagefile.sys on the C-drive.

I can't help myself... The question of the topic, "What is pagefile.sys and can I move it?" sounds a little like "Who is general failure and what is he doing on my harddisk?"

thank you very much it helped a lot :)

At first I thought this article would show me how to move the pagefile.sys to a different directory but it doesn't. So it begs for a question:

I have a dual boot PC. Can Windows 7 share the same pagefile.sys file with Windows Vista on the same drive? Thanks!

Hi Leo,

Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for this article! My SSD drive space has been steadily dwindling and I wasn't sure what I could do to remedy this. But I found your article & by following your detailed instructions, it helped me free up the space taken up by the pagefile.sys. Hooray!! :)

Kim

Leo,

Thanks for this and your other great articles. You really have a gift for writing with clarity and structuring your comments in a way that the information can easily be understood and followed.

I carefully followed your bulleted steps and was able to Set the drive (F:) on which I want the pagefile.sys to reside to System Managed Size. However, after selecting its current location (C:) and clicking No Paging File, when I then clicked the Set button, I got a System Properties pop-up saying:

"If you disable the paging file or set the initial size to less than 800 MB and a system error occurs, Windows might not record details that could help identify the problem. Do you want to continue?"

Not having seen mention of that pop-up in your instructions, I felt it prudent to ask about it before proceeding.

Thanks again,

My specs FYI:

•Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor 3.20 GHz
•Memory: 16.0 GB
•Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
•Drive C: Crucial 128GB SATA 6.0Gbps/2.5-inch Solid State Drive (CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1)
•Drive D: LG 12x SATA Blu-ray Writer Drive (WH12LS30K)
•Drive E: WD 500GB SATA 6.0Gbps/7200RPM/16MB/3.5-inch Internal HD (WD5000AAKX-001CA0)
•Drive F: Hitachi 1TB SATA 3.0Gbps/7200RPM/32MB/3.5-inch Internal HD (HDS721010CLA332)
•Drive G: Seagate 3TB SATA 6.0Gbps/7200RPM/64MB/3.5-inch Internal HD (ST3000DM001-9YN166)
•Drive J: WD 1TB USB 300Mbps/7200RPM/16MB External HD (WD 10EACS)
•Drive L: Seagate 300MB USB 100Mbps/7200RPM/8MB External HD (ST330083 1A)
•Video: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series

Make certain that F: is set to have a paging file, and this warning can be ignored.

20-Mar-2012

Thanks for the reply Leo.

After completing the steps and restarting my computer, I discovered in Windows Explorer that the amount of free space on my C drive had not changed. It still showed 18.5 GB free of 119 GB which is what it was before trying to remove the pagefile.sys file.

I went back into the Virtual Memory settings (C: > Properties > Advanced system settings > Advanced tab > Performance:Settings > Advanced tab > Virtual memory:Change > Virtual Memory settings) where I found that the "Paging file size for each drive" settings were as I had left them. In other words:

C: None
E: None
F: System managed
G: None

I cannot see the pagefile.sys file in Windows Explorer so I used TreeSize Free to examine the folders and files in the above drives. I found the following:

C:\[Files]\pagefile.sys — present (16.4 GB)
E:\ (none)
F:\[Files]\pagefile.sys — present (16.4 GB)
G:\ (none)

So that explains why no additional space has been freed up on Drive C but I don't understand how/why the file is still present on Drive C, since it displays "None" in the Virtual Memory settings.

Many thanks.