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When I boot up, it says that I have limited virtual memory and win2k has created a temporary paging file. I guess by default it gives 20mb each drive. I tried to set the initial and maximum settings for paging at 0mb and then resetting it (trying to overwrite pagefile.sys). That still doesn't work. Help please!

Does the swap file reside on your C drive?


You've had the pagefile set to 0 min and 0 max? Set it to a min of ram+50 and a max of whatever you feel is necessary. Try that, may be worth a shot.

Hi,

Win2K - like NT4 before it - will <i>always</i> try and page some components, including kernel memory. If you set your swap to 0MB min/max it will go and make a temporary pagefile for you.

My recommendation would be to put your pagefile on separate drive to your system (if possible), and set the min/max sizes to ~2x physical RAM. As an example, I was building my new PC for work today. It has 256MB RAM, so I set the pagefile min and max values to be the same: 500MB - this way it won't dynamically grow the pagefile when the PC gets busy.

You may have been thinking of the Unix/Linux paging system - you can do without a pagefile if you have enough physical RAM. I believe you can make NT behave in a similar way, but it involves major registry surgery

Bruce

If you really want to tune your RAM + swap file, and aren't afraid of overkill and/or wasting some time, and have either Excel, or some other spreadsheet software installed on your system, do this:
1st, set the min/max setting for the page file to something obnoxiously huge, say 1Gig/1Gig.
2nd, A) Go to Start -> Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Performance. (If you do not have Administrative Tools set to show in the Start menu, you can go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Performance.)
2nd, B) Right-click on the "Counter Logs" icon, under "Performance Logs and Alerts" on the left window pane, then select "New Log File" from the drop down menu. This will open a simple dialog window...give your log a name.
2nd, C) Now click on the "Add" button on the new dialog window. Click on the "Use local computer counters" radio button. Then select "Page File" from the lower drop down menu, then select "%usage peak" & "_Total" from the option windows immediately below it. Click the "Add" button to add it to your log file.
2nd, D) Now select "Memory" from the drop down menu, then select ALL the choices from "Pool Nonpaged Bytes" through "System Driver Total Bytes"; then de-select ANY of these that include "Allocs" in the title (there should be 2). Click the "Add" button again.
Now Click the "Close" button.
2nd, E) Click on the "Log Files" tab. Look for the "Log files type" drop down menu, about 2/3 down the window. Select "Text File - TSV."
2nd, F) Click on the "Schedule" tab. Now click on the "Manually (using shortcut menu)" radio button. Click the "OK" button.
2nd, G) you new log file should show in the right window pane. Right-click on it, then select "Start" from the drop-down menu.
3rd, BEAT ON YOUR SYSTEM! Leave any/all backround programs that you usaull use running (virus scan, IM, firewall, etc.) Run prime95, SETI@Home, Genome@Home, Folding@Home, Q3A bot matches, simultaneously, in the background. Now, do some large (100 MB+) file transfers (CD to HD, or HD to HD).
4th, A) Open the data file you created in 2B (it should be in C:Perflogswhateverfilenameyouchose.tsv) in Excel, or the spreadsheet of your choice.
4th, B) Scan the table for the maximum value in each of the "Memory" catagories, and add these values together.
4th, C) Look for the highest value in the "%Usage Peak", and multiply this times the size of your swap file. i.e. 65% X 1000MB = 650MB.
4th, D) Add the values from 4B & 4C together. Then, subtract the amount of physical RAM from this value. Add 32MB. This is the size of the largest swap file you could possibly need.
5th, set the minimum & maximum values of your swap file to the maximum value you derived in 4B.

Eww, I made my head hurt just typing all that out. Undertake at your caution, but it will provide the best "ideal" swap file size for YOU. All the other numbers bandied about are merely approximations, but this is far more exact, because you determined it yourself on your own machine.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: lenzenm on 2001-12-28 20:03 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: lenzenm on 2001-12-29 13:37 ]</font>

Dude, you just made my head hurt.

Mine's a lot simpler.

I just set min 128 max 128 and let Win2k/XP realize there's a GB of ram to spend. Takes a while, though.

If I follow Forge around and post after he does, will I be gerbil 1st class, too?

Only if you post as much as I do.