Solved How do I get XP to recognize all of my flash drive page file?

[conceptualclarity]

With my previous hard drive I put my page file (swap file) on a flash drive and it definitely made an improvement in performance. My computer shop installed the current hard drive. A few days ago I got messages about low virtual memory. I checked and found they had set it to no page file.

I consulted some articles and then put a 3742 MB page file on my Lexar flash drive, B, on Saturday night. I also kept a 350 MB page file on the C drive, apparently a mistake. Today I started experiencing all sorts of weird problems : error messages from applications and applications disappearing without cause. I checked and saw that XP was only recognizing 350 MB as "Total paging file size for all drives."

I rebooted and changed the C drive setting to "No paging file." The weird problems have not continued. But XP is not recognizing 3742 MB of paging file. It is only showing 2046 MB as "Total paging file size for all drives." How do I change that?

Also one of my sources leads me to believe I can have a full size page file on the C drive as well as my flash drive B. Any reason not to do that?





Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Pentium 4
Northwood 0.13um Technology
RAM
2.00 GB DDR @ 166MHz (2.5-3-3-7)
Motherboard
Dell Computer Corp. 0G1548 (Microprocessor)
Graphics
Default Monitor (1280x1024@60Hz)
Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller (Dell)
Storage
74.5 GB Seagate ST380011A (ATA)
Free 40.53 GB
3.67 GB Lexar USB Flash Drive USB Device (USB)
119.22 GB PNY USB 2.0 FD USB Device (USB)
Optical Drives
SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S
Audio
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device
Anti-Virus
Roboscan free

 

[marg]

Two of my friends still use XP It was the best that Micropoo ever put out IMO. You need a good computer Tech to fix the problems your having IMO. I would ditch Roboscan & at least get Avast JMO. don't forget to enable PUPS..!

 

[conceptualclarity]

You need a good computer Tech to fix the problems your having IMO.

I have a lot of faith in the techies of Malware Tips.

I would ditch Roboscan & at least get Avast JMO.

Avast is good, but Roboscan is as well, and it's noticeably lighter. I need that till I transition to a new system.

I have added a screenshot of my situation.

 

[marg]

I was infected when I used Roboscan & I installed Avast & it caught it & removed It. If you like playing with fire that is your right to do so IMO. Also if you can afford it I would stay away from Micropoo products & go with a MAC. I cannot afford a MAC so I am stuck with Micropoo.

 

[conceptualclarity]

Also if you can afford it I would stay away from Micropoo products & go with a MAC. I cannot afford a MAC so I am stuck with Micropoo.

I would love to dump Windows, but I'm too much in love with third-party software, which is mostly for Windows.

I would suggest Linux to you. I'm no expert on it, but it seems to me that it is very popular with highly knowledgeable users. And it is certainly safer since the cybercriminals target it a lot less.

 

[Cowpipe]

Head to the control panel and under "System", click the advanced tab and then go down to 'performance' and click "Settings". Go to the advanced tab there and under Virtual Memory click "Change". Now select the drive that you want to change the settings for and under "paging file size for selected drive", click custom size.

Also @marg I would second the opinion of using Linux. It might sound scary but Ubuntu is very easy to use, hardly ever crashes (if a program crashes, you can actually close it, rather than losing control like on Windows), it's much faster and more secure by default too. Download yourself a live cd: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop and burn it to a DVD. Then if you start up your computer with the DVD in the drive, your computer should load up Ubuntu and allow you to try it without installing it first.

Best of all you can have Linux and Windows side by side, so you can choose which one you want to use when you start your computer, you'll hear people refer to that as "dual boot"

 

[conceptualclarity]

Head to the control panel and under "System", click the advanced tab and then go down to 'performance' and click "Settings". Go to the advanced tab there and under Virtual Memory click "Change". Now select the drive that you want to change the settings for and under "paging file size for selected drive", click custom size.

Hi, Cowpipe. That's what I've been doing. I don't know why it shows "Currently allocated" as 2046 MB instead of what I set it for, 3742 MB, as it shows in the screenshot. I wish I could fix that.

By the way, it is such a nuisance that the Properties windows don't stay open and that one has to go click on them anew over and over again. I hope that is corrected in Windows 7 that I'll be moving to?

 

[Cowpipe]

Hi, Cowpipe. That's what I've been doing. I don't know why it shows "Currently allocated" as 2046 MB instead of what I set it for, 3742 MB, as it shows in the screenshot. I wish I could fix that.

By the way, it is such a nuisance that the Properties windows don't stay open and that one has to go click on them anew over and over again. I hope that is corrected in Windows 7 that I'll be moving to?

Hmm, that is odd, have you got "System Managed Size" checked? That will keep resetting the page file size back to original if it's enabled (Under System > Performance). Can you also look in the registry to see what the value says. Go to Start > Run and type "regedit" and press enter. Expand the folders on the left in the following order: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > Session Manager > Memory Management and on the right you'll see something saying PagingFiles, double click it and you should see a list open. Modify the numbers at the end, the first number is the page file size, the second number is maximum page file size. Restart your computer and check the values under the control panel again to see if it's changed, if you run into problems it's also possible to create multiple page files, but that's a different matter

I'm pleased to say the properties windows do indeed stay open in Windows 7

 

[conceptualclarity]

Hmm, that is odd, have you got "System Managed Size" checked? That will keep resetting the page file size back to original if it's enabled (Under System > Performance).

No, that's not it. You can't have "System Managed Size" and "Custom size" checked simultaneously.

Can you also look in the registry to see what the value says. Go to Start > Run and type "regedit" and press enter. Expand the folders on the left in the following order: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > Session Manager > Memory Management and on the right you'll see something saying PagingFiles, double click it and you should see a list open. Modify the numbers at the end, the first number is the page file size, the second number is maximum page file size. Restart your computer and check the values under the control panel again to see if it's changed, if you run into problems it's also possible to create multiple page files, but that's a different matter

Thank you very much for those instructions. I went there. It says "B:\pagefile.sys 3742 3742". (See screenshot.) Does that mean that XP really is accepting my configuration of a page file for the flash drive and that the only problem is that the Virtual Memory window under Properties (see earlier screenshot) is misreporting what is allocated?

I'm pleased to say the properties windows do indeed stay open in Windows 7

Thanks for that good news.

So any reason not to go ahead and make another page file on my hard drive C? My system is hungry for memory.

 

[Cowpipe]

Thank you very much for those instructions. I went there. It says "B:\pagefile.sys 3742 3742". (See screenshot.) Does that mean that XP really is accepting my configuration of a page file for the flash drive and that the only problem is that the Virtual Memory window under Properties (see earlier screenshot) is misreporting what is allocated?

Ok, can you change the maximum page file size to 4095 (maximum allowed)? You shouldn't have the size and max set at the same size as this can cause problems I should point out that the "currently allocated" size displayed in the control panel is just what is allocated at the time, so your computer is currently not using the full 3742 mb page file.

As for setting up multiple page files, it can improve performance by having more than one but not to any great degree, it might save you from a crash if you're close to hitting the memory limit but I personally don't see any great performance boost. But if you do want to try it, you could always set (in the registry) the values at the end of the first line to 2300 and 4000 and then duplicate that line (copy and paste it so you have the same entry again in the list

 

[RevolutionSphere]

I was infected when I used Roboscan & I installed Avast & it caught it & removed It. If you like playing with fire that is your right to do so IMO. Also if you can afford it I would stay away from Micropoo products & go with a MAC. I cannot afford a MAC so I am stuck with Micropoo.

I would agree on using Avast but Mac no way