I recently installed a second hard disk and put the pagefile on it, taking care to leave a small pagefile on the OS disk as a receptacle for minidumps. Well, I had a BSOD -- but no minidump. And the reason appears to be that, despite the settings in Virtual Memory, there is no pagefile on the OS partition. In Explorer I can see pagefile.sys on the second disk (F) but nothing on the OS partition (C). The latest development is that I tried setting "No paging file" for C in Virtual Memory, followed by a reboot and setting 4MB. Another reboot and this time the pagefile.sys was there. Unfortunately, on the next startup it disappeared again. Can somebody help me get it back? Thanks1 person needs an answerI do too

I recently installed a second hard disk and put the pagefile on it, taking care to leave a small pagefile on the OS disk as a receptacle for minidumps. Well, I had a BSOD -- but no minidump. And the reason appears to be that, despite the settings in Virtual Memory, there is no pagefile on the OS partition. In Explorer I can see pagefile.sys on the second disk (F) but nothing on the OS partition (C). The latest development is that I tried setting "No paging file" for C in Virtual Memory, followed by a reboot and setting 4MB. Another reboot and this time the pagefile.sys was there. Unfortunately, on the next startup it disappeared again. Can somebody help me get it back? Thanks=================================I don't know if the following links will solve the issuebut they may be worth a look:Virtual Memory in Windows XPhttp://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm(308417) HOW TO: Set Performance Optionsin Windows XPhttp://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308417Volunteer J - MS-MVP - Digital Media Experience - Notice_This is not tech support_I am a volunteer - Solutions that work for me may not work for you - ***Proceed at your own risk***

Thanks. Those are excellent links. Trouble is that even following their guidelines pagefile.sys does not take root on partition C -- or quickly gets wiped out.By the way, I'm running Media Center Edtion SP3.

Thanks. Those are excellent links. Trouble is that even following their guidelines pagefile.sys does not take root on partition C -- or quickly gets wiped out.By the way, I'm running Media Center Edtion SP3.==================================You're welcome.Sorry...I don't have the answer.Volunteer J - MS-MVP - Digital Media Experience - Notice_This is not tech support_I am a volunteer - Solutions that work for me may not work for you - ***Proceed at your own risk***

Are you clicking on Set and Apply when creating the pagefile on C? You also need to restart your computer before the pagefile will appear in Windows Explorer.Have you set your system to Show Hidden files? Hope this helps, Gerry Cornell

Thanks for chipping in, Gerry.Yes, I'm clicking on Set and OK, then rebooting.I'm set to show hidden files. That's how I can see the pagefile in F. In fact I even saw a pagefile.sys briefly in C after the procedure:1. Select no paging file.2. Set3. OK4. Reboot5. Select personalized size 4MB min, 4MB max.6. Set.7. OK8. Reboot.But by the next startup, the pagefile was gone again. And it hasn't come back on its own.

On 10/11/2010 5:30 PM, Johnnino wrote:Thanks for chipping in, Gerry.Yes, I'm clicking on Set and OK, then rebooting.I'm set to show hidden files. That's how I can see the pagefile in F. In fact I even saw a pagefile.sys briefly in C after the procedure:1. Select no paging file.2. Set3. OK4. Reboot5. Select personalized size 4MB min, 4MB max.6. Set.7. OK8. Reboot.But by the next startup, the pagefile was gone again. And it hasn't come back on its own.Make it 20MB and see if it sticks.John

It sticks! The setting has survived three re-boots -- so this is looking very much like the solution. I'd still like to give it a day or so to see if there isn't something in my system that can weaken the adhesive. Meanwhile, could you explain why this made the difference.John John, you have 20-20 vision. And I thank you. Johnnino

Whether on purpose or not it seems that the Windows XP Session Manager, (which is responsible for creating the paging file(s) when Windows is booting), doesn't understand paging file values of less than 20MB.Windows versions prior to Windows XP could not operate without a pagefile or with an insufficient pagefile. When these conditions were detected Windows would create a temporary pagefile of 20MB (temppf.sys) in the System32 folder and it would throw an error message after you logged on. Windows XP can operate without a pagefile and it does not create a temporary pagefile but it seems to have peculiar quirks with paging files of less than 20MB:1- If there is a pagefile of 20MB or larger on an other disk or partition the Session Manager ignores (or seems to ignore) paging file settings of less than 20MB.2- If there are no other paging files the Session Manager will create a pagefile of equal size to the installed RAM instead of creating one smaller than 20MB. You can try that experiment for yourself and see how large a pagefile the system will create when you set only one paging file of less than 20MB.You can read about how previous NT versions handled insufficient or missing paging file here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257758 My guess is that there is vestigial code at play here and the Windows XP Session Manager seems to have a thing with setting paging files of less than 20MB.John