Problem with paging file in Windows 2000

[Square]

Every time I start up Windows 2000 I get a message telling me my paging file is either damaged or non-existant, and tells me how to fix it. I follow the instructions, however next time I boot up the same message appears. I also get a message telling me the system is running low on virtual memory.

Any ideas how to fix this problem would be greatly appreciated.

[Ginger Tosser]

If you have another partition it might be worth setting up the page file on that. There might be corruption on the disk where the pagefile is so may a defrag may cure it after moving (can't recall if defrag touches live Pagefile).

[Square]

Will a defrag erase any data (I've had to reformat twice recently due to different reasons, and I really don't want to have to reinstall anything for a while!)?

Oh, and how do I do that exactly?

[wod]

defrag wont delete anything all it does it just sort all the files so that they are all together and removes space left from things that have been deleted

doing it every month will speed up your computer

[Ginger Tosser]

Oh, and how do I do that exactly?

Right click on the drive | Properties | tools | Defrag

Thats on XP, i'm guessing 2k will look simular.

/edit just checked on my 2k Virtual Machine and it is the same menu options.

[kernow]

You really dont need to defrag once a month.

have you manually set a pagefile size? or is it left at 'windows managed'

that might have something to do with it, set it back to windows managed if so.

[Square]

Basically, when I started up a couple of weeks ago, it gave me that error message, and I've been trying to reset the paging file every time I start up. I have followed Microsofts advice and set the values to zero, restarted and set the values to the recommended sizes. But I still get the message when I boot up the next time.

[vertigo]

Is it just me or are people obsessed with defragging? Defragging just makes the files on your drive contiguous instead of being spread out, which will bring down loading and disk access times but has nothing to do with this particular error. It has a similar effect to doing a stress test on your HD, so it's not recommended to do it too regularly anyway unless you don't like keeping HDs for more than a year or so.

If you're going to have a manually set page file, you should set it (according to numerous sources I've read over the years) to a value 2.5 times the amount of physical RAM you have and situate it on the same drive as the OS otherwise all the temp file read/write has to go through the mobo/bus, etc. You shouldn't set a manual page file value to zero, it's kind of obvious that you'll be running low on virtual memory if you do that.
Also, does your HD have a significant amount of free space, or are you one of those weird people who deem it necessary to divide their 80GB HD up into 12 different drives?

Knowing Windows, of course, it could be an entirely different thing than the error is telling you. Try running a full scan in Registry Mechanic and fix everything it throws at you as that seems to fix much more than your obvious registry errors.

[kernow]

I'll just add I havent defragged in over 3 years due to not using windows any more.

god I love self managing filesystems

[djjimbob]

I'd suggest a full scan disk.

Right click Local Disk in explorer
Properties
Tools
Error-check

Do a full scan.

[Square]

Cheers for the replies so far guys I'll try a full scan when I get home tonight.

Vertigo: I only have one partition, and it has about 60gig free at the moment. The only reason i set the values to 0 is because that is what Microsofts Knowledge Base advises me to do! o_O

[kernow]

what size is your partition?

try a scandisk like the guy before said,

try disabling the virtual memory, deleting the file "pagefile.sys", and reenabling the virtual memory again, windows managed.

I never like using massive huge partitions either, IE one per drive, like a 200GB one , it only leads to trouble putting all your eggs in one basket.

[Square]

The partition is 111GB total. How easy is it to disable virtual memory?

[FelixofMars]

To be honest on the new larger harddrives I haven't needed to defrag all that much.

[kernow]

very easy to turn off virtual memory , its in system properties -performance