[Seltox]

I'm running an 80gb harddrive right now and it is in two partitions. The first (C:) is 4.88gb and contains Windows XP Professional SP2. The strange thing is that 4.55gb of this partition are used, but on my laptop, which is set up in the same way, only 3.19gb is used.

I located a file that was much larger on my desktop than my laptop. A system file called "pagefile". It is almost 1.6gb on my PC, but about 400mb on my laptop. Any ideas on why this is, and why so much space is being used?

I've checked disk cleanup, and there's nothing in temp files or anything. I've changed my default install location to my D:, and moved My documents to my D:. It should only be Windows on my C:.

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Hi Seltox

The 'pagefile' (pagefile.sys) is an area of the hard disk that's used by Windows as 'virtual memory' when all the available RAM (the 'real' memory) is full of data , leaving no RAM free for whatever Windows (and Windows applications) needs to do at any particular time. The size of pagefile.sys is set by Windows (unless you over-ride it) according to how much RAM that PC has -- That data might have to be shifted or 'swapped' temporarily into virtual memory, hence a larger pagefile.sys file is required to at least match the amount of physical RAM. In reality, if Windows is allowed to manage the size of this file, it may decide that a smaller size is sufficient unless it finds that size is regularly not enough, in which case it can increase it automatically. But in principal, more RAM means a larger paging file.

As for the differences in the amount of installed data on the two system drives, that can be affected by how many applications are installed (and how 'big' those applications are. You see, when you install an application a large number of support files are added to the Windows folders, even if you choose a different drive or partition for installing that application. Several files just have to go into the Windows folders on the system drive, that's unavoidable no matter where the parent program is installed. In any case, the differences in pagefile size between the two computers accounts for most of it.

Edited by pip22, 27 February 2008 - 04:50 AM.

[pip22]

Hi Seltox

The 'pagefile' (pagefile.sys) is an area of the hard disk that's used by Windows as 'virtual memory' when all the available RAM (the 'real' memory) is full of data , leaving no RAM free for whatever Windows (and Windows applications) needs to do at any particular time. The size of pagefile.sys is set by Windows (unless you over-ride it) according to how much RAM that PC has -- That data might have to be shifted or 'swapped' temporarily into virtual memory, hence a larger pagefile.sys file is required to at least match the amount of physical RAM. In reality, if Windows is allowed to manage the size of this file, it may decide that a smaller size is sufficient unless it finds that size is regularly not enough, in which case it can increase it automatically. But in principal, more RAM means a larger paging file.

As for the differences in the amount of installed data on the two system drives, that can be affected by how many applications are installed (and how 'big' those applications are. You see, when you install an application a large number of support files are added to the Windows folders, even if you choose a different drive or partition for installing that application. Several files just have to go into the Windows folders on the system drive, that's unavoidable no matter where the parent program is installed. In any case, the differences in pagefile size between the two computers accounts for most of it.

Edited by pip22, 27 February 2008 - 04:50 AM.

[Seltox]

ah, okay. Thanks for the explanation. Much appreciated.

I also noticed that when I was installing Battlefield 2142, I got a message saying my C: was nearly full. When I checked there was only like 150mb free space. Is this because the install was storing temp files on my C:? Can I change this location in my registry or something?

[MichWasHere]

Hi seltox,

You might actually want to consider getting a larger drive period. 4.8gb is a horribly small amount of space. Even moving your temp folders I doubt you can keep using this for much longer. Some programs require that they be on your c:/ drive...

You can move the temp folders using the environment variables. Create a temp folder on another drive then right click 'my computer'>properties>advanced tab>environment variables.

Change the settings to point to your new temp folder you created.

[Seltox]

This is only a temporary drive. I used to have a 200gb IDE, and my new mobo only has a single IDE port, and I hate that fat cables - so I borrowed an 80gb SATA from a friend and put my 200gb in my bands recording computer.

Thanks.