Win2k - I have 2 paging files

[Muse]

I'm running a multiboot system with Win98SE, WinNT 4 and Win2k. I'm trying to set things up so they all use the same paging file:

C:\pagefile.sys 850 MB

In both Win2k and NT I set max and min sizes for the paging file to 850 MB and put it on the C: drive. I also changed the settings for the Win2k partition paging file to 0 and 0. However, I see a paging file in the Win2k partition's root directory, 535,552 KB. Why are there two paging files?

 

[Muse]

bump

 

[Bglad]

OK, I'm not positive of this but...
Win2k will let you put paging files on any/all partitions simultaneously. Make sure you have it set for only one. If I remember correctly, you have to choose each partition/drive individually and check it. If you set the C: drive for the paging file, it will not show or delete the page file from the D: drive, it will setup 2 files on each. You have to then goto the D: and manually turn it off.

Now I thought 2k would delete the page file from a drive when you set it to 0 in setup but I'm not positive of this. I know Win 9x did not do this. 9x would leave the file on the C: drive even after you set it to use its swap file on another drive. However, once you have it set correctly, you can manually delete the one you are not using. If there is something in your settings creating double paging files, it will recreate another one when you reboot. If you are set correctly, it should not be there after a reboot.

By the way, you wanna bitch about Ghost some more?

 

[Muse]

<< OK, I'm not positive of this but...
Win2k will let you put paging files on any/all partitions simultaneously. Make sure you have it set for only one. If I remember correctly, you have to choose each partition/drive individually and check it. If you set the C: drive for the paging file, it will not show or delete the page file from the D: drive, it will setup 2 files on each. You have to then goto the D: and manually turn it off.

Now I thought 2k would delete the page file from a drive when you set it to 0 in setup but I'm not positive of this. I know Win 9x did not do this. 9x would leave the file on the C: drive even after you set it to use its swap file on another drive. However, once you have it set correctly, you can manually delete the one you are not using. If there is something in your settings creating double paging files, it will recreate another one when you reboot. If you are set correctly, it should not be there after a reboot.

By the way, you wanna bitch about Ghost some more? >>

LOL. I'm ready to bitch about Ghost, for sure! Actually, it's working well for me at this point. Ghost 2001 can't read or write to NTFS partitions, but it can restore NTFS partitions from Ghost image files, so it's no biggie for me. I did spock out the way Win2k handles paging files, or seems to. I was a little surprised that when I created a paging file on C: it still kept the one in the Win2k partition. I scrolled down to that partition and changed the settings to 0 max and 0 min. It wouldn't let me do anything else. It's still set to 0 and 0 but the file is 1/2 a GB, like I say. I suppose I could try deleting it and see what happens. In Control Panel it actually shows nothing for the Win2k partition, so I don't think I'll have a problem if I delete it. It will probably not come back. Only way to find out is to delete it and reboot. At this point I'm not too worried about screwing things up since I just installed all 3 OSs and am at the beginning pretty much in setting things up. I can restore my last backup and only be set back a few hours, no biggie. So far, things aren't going too bad, but all kinds of weird issues keep coming up. That's computers, I guess.

 

[Saltin]

I know how to do this. It took me a while to figure it out.

You have to configure 98 to use NT's pagefile. It cant be done the other way.

It is also required that the pagefile be located on a FAT16 partition. FAT32 may work, but don't count on it. Obviously, it cannot be NTFS.

Under NT, configure a paging file. NT lets you set paging files across multiple drives, make sure that the pagefile is on a FAT16 volume. Set the initial and maximum size of the paging file to the same amount (this is important), and write down the chosen size, converting it to kilobytes.

Boot into Win9x, and edit the system.ini file in the Win9x installation directory by adding the following lines to the [386Enh] section:
PagingFile=<x>:\pagefile.sys
PagingDrive=<x>:
MinPagingFileSize=<n>
MaxPagingFileSize=<n>

in which x is the drive letter of the partition that contains the shared paging file, and n is the size of the paging file in kilobytes.

Reboot the system into Win9x, and find and delete any instance of the win386.swp file (i.e., Win9x's old paging file) to free the disk space this file is using.

That's it. Good luck.

 

[HitmanXP]

Well from reading magizines (i.e) Maximum PC and goin threw other forums i have found out that people run into problems if you try to combine the page file of 2 OS's ...especially a NT based and a 98 based OS. The two are totally different kernel bases. I would stick with 2 seperated pagefiles for stability reasons.
Dont attempt to combine 2 Pagefiles cause u might run into problems.

 

[Doh!]

Well from reading magizines (i.e) Maximum PC and goin threw other forums i have found out that people run into problems if you try to combine the page file of 2 OS's ...especially a NT based and a 98 based OS. The two are totally different kernel bases. I would stick with 2 seperated pagefiles for stability reasons.

What kind of problems? I've ran win98 & win2k on several machines with only ONE pagefile for a couple of years without any problems. What Saltin suggested is correct. Maximum PC may say otherwise but even a quick search at ZDnet will show the proper way of using one page file between win9x and nt.

 

[Muse]

Using one paging file for Win98SE, WinNT 4.0 and Win2000 has apparently been working for me. Been doing it a day or two. Made the same settings in WinNT and Win2000 (C: max 850 min 850) and put these lines in the [386Enh] section of Win98's system.ini file:

PagingDrive=C:
PagingFile=C:\pagefile.sys
MinPagingFileSize=870400 ; Multiply MG * 1024 to get KBs (850 * 1024)
MaxPagingFileSize=870400 ; Multiply MG * 1024 to get KBs (850 * 1024)
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 ; Supposedly limits use of virtual memory when RAM is available

Actually, I had the first line commented out by accident, but it didn't seem to interfere with Win98's using C:\pagefile.sys as it's paging file. I just uncommented it, anyway. I see no swap file in my Win98 partition either in the root directory or the Win98 directory. No paging files in the NT or Win2k partitions.

What worries me right now is that I can't do any searches in Win2000. I've tried everything I can think of short of trying to repair with the Win2000 installation CD. I get a blank screen instead of the _usual_ search window. Any suggestions? Woah! On top of that I can't go into Add/Remove programs. I installed IE 6 yesterday and my theory is that it screwed up the OS. I get an error when I try to open Add/Remove programs:

An unexpected error occurred.

Object doesn't support this property or method
res://appwiz.cpl/default.hta
Line: 21


OK

That doesn't look good to me. I'm thinking now to restore my previous backup. If that doesn't clear things up, the backup before that. If that doesn't do it, it looks like a clean install of Win2000. Jeez.

 

[HitmanXP]

Well i guess for some people it works but some it doesnt i personally am not gonna combine one pagefile when u dual boot 2k and Xp just becuase i dont need 2k pagefile info in XP pagefile info ...but i guess if u did a clear pagefile on shutdown u wouldnt really run into problems...im just statin what a mag and Post's elsewhere have said but if it works then more power to ya im just giving u a warning if things start goin sour

 

[Muse]

<< Well i guess for some people it works but some it doesnt i personally am not gonna combine one pagefile when u dual boot 2k and Xp just becuase i dont need 2k pagefile info in XP pagefile info ...but i guess if u did a clear pagefile on shutdown u wouldnt really run into problems...im just statin what a mag and Post's elsewhere have said but if it works then more power to ya im just giving u a warning if things start goin sour >>

Well, I don't really know the issues and it did make me nervous, but a post suggested it and the guy seemed to know what he was doing and he said he does it, so I decided to do it too. Seems simple enough. I have lots of HD space, so that's not a big deal. I heard it's good to have your paging files on the first section of a little used HD, too. Well things did go sour but I don't thing the paging file had anything to do with it. I have 512 MB RAM so I don't think much paging is going to happen, anyway. I think I had a problem where NT wrote gibberish to Win2k's registry. It's just a theory right now, but something trashed my Win2k registry and it's only been a couple of days and I haven't been installing anything but basic drivers. I had to reinstall Win2k. Will watch out for problems...

 

[NogginBoink]

Very interesting.

I've never seens W2K (or any NT OS) put a paging file in the %systemroot% folder.

Poke around HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Session Manager\Memory Management. "Paging Files" value is a MULTI_SZ that lists the pagefiles that the OS is using. If it's not listed there, I don't care what the filename is, the OS is not using it as a page file.

 

[Muse]

<< Very interesting.

I've never seens W2K (or any NT OS) put a paging file in the %systemroot% folder.

Poke around HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Session Manager\Memory Management. "Paging Files" value is a MULTI_SZ that lists the pagefiles that the OS is using. If it's not listed there, I don't care what the filename is, the OS is not using it as a page file. >>

You mean:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

Name: Pagingfiles

Type: REG_MULTI_SZ

Data: C:\pagefile.sys 850 850

That's what it says.

 

[Doh!]

Ok...this is what MS had to say about this:

Official statement?

 

[Muse]

<< Ok...this is what MS had to say about this:

Official statement? >>

Yeah. The instructions I had from an Anandtech forums user just said to make the changes in the Win98 System.ini file, specifying the file and size with parameters. I wondered if you could do it like that article says, entering a max and min in the GUI, and it doesn't surprise me that they say it works. It appears to be working for me since there's no .swp file in Win98 for me.

 

[Saltin]

<< The instructions I had from an Anandtech forums user just said to make the changes in the Win98 System.ini file, specifying the file and size with parameters. I wondered if you could do it like that article says, entering a max and min in the GUI, and it doesn't surprise me that they say it works >>



Course it works. Where do you think the changes you make in the GUI are written to?

 

[SUOrangeman]

I have WinME, Win2K, and WinXP all sharing the same c:\pagefile.sys with absolutely no problems (since I built the system on Labor Day). You can have 2K and XP clear out the pagefile at shutdown, so you really shouldn't have to worry about one OS contaminating the others use of the page file.

-SUO

 

[Muse]

<< I have WinME, Win2K, and WinXP all sharing the same c:\pagefile.sys with absolutely no problems (since I built the system on Labor Day). You can have 2K and XP clear out the pagefile at shutdown, so you really shouldn't have to worry about one OS contaminating the others use of the page file.

-SUO >>

How to you make Win2k and XP clear out the pagefile? Is that really an issue - contamination? Never heard that before. I'd think that from session to session, Windows would toss whatever's in the pagefile. It's just a surrogate RAM, right? Of course, RAM is cleared when you shut down. But then what you think happens and what really happens can be really different...

 

[Doh!]

You can use the following registry setting.


Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Name: ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1

 

[SUOrangeman]

There is a switch in the Local Security Policy (or something similar) that gives you the option of clearing the pagefile at shutdown. I'd doubt that contamination would ever be a problem, but I guess you never know.

-SUO