What would happen if the hd w/ windows swap file malfunctions

[OverVolt]

i'm currently running my XP Pro system with my main hd of 40gig and an older hd thats 15gig. the 15gig drive is about 2-3 yeras old now and i use it for small apps/extra storage and the windows swap file. i've had trouble with this drive in the past. so i'm worried that my 15gig hd is going to crash or not work right how would windows respond to it? i know what the windows swap file does, and i have 256mb of ram which is plenty to run w/o the swap but i'm worried windows might not boot or not be able to uninstall programs from the registry from the lost/crashed hd.

 

[johnlog]

You can change the location of your swap file at any time in XP Pro.

Open the System Property menu by pressing the Windows key and at the same time press the Pause/Break key.

Next click on the Advanced tab.

In the Advanced tab menu select Performance and in that area click on the SETTINGS button.

In the Settings menu select the Advanced tab. In the Advanced menu is where you can see the virtual memory settings. Click on the CHANGE button and tell XP Pro which drive you want the virtual memory located on. You can also reset the swap file (virtual memory) size in that menu.

Hope this works for you.

 

[DeschutesCore]

The swap file can be deleted without Windows suffering, but if it's contents corupt I'm not really sure what would happen. I doubt Windows goes as far as CRC'ing the data stored there.

DC

 

[johnlog]

Deskchu....

>The swap file can be deleted without Windows suffering, but if it's contents corupt I'm not really sure what would happen. I doubt Windows goes as far as CRC'ing the data stored there. <<<

I have been running Windows for a long time and have yet to see my swap file (virtual memory) become corrupted. I guess it can be corrupted but that is rare. Best bet is to place your swap file on a partition sized for the swap file. Don't install any other programs on that partition. That is the safe way.

 

[Creedyou]

the swap file is just temp storage...i don't think it matters if it gets corrupted. and i belive you can delete it and on the next restart Windows will just make a new one.

 

[PrincessGuard]

Windows uses the pagefile regardless of how much RAM you have.

If the pagefile gets physically corrupted during use, a program may crash, your system may crash, or nothing may happen, depending on the extent and location of the corruption. As long as Windows runs a CHKDSK at the next boot to mark the bad HD clusters, then there should be no problem.

Also, according to MS, Windows will determine the best pagefile to use so there is no reason to only have one.