NT C drive space and Pagesys file

[crmayer]

I have a little bit of a problem, the people that set the NT 4.0 server up here partitioned the harddrive into a C: (1.99GB) and D: (15.1GB). The D: drive is fine (8GB free), but the C: drive is getting to only have about 20MB left on it. I was told that I can move the paging file (pagefile.sys) to the D: drive and delete the one on the C: drive to free up that space. Is this possible? Will it hurt anything?
I have already searched for log files and remove programs that I could on the C: drive, and I am not sure what else I can remove to free up some space.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[comtec17]

If you have any service pack installation directories in blue like $NTSERVERblahblah, you could remove these.

 

[crmayer]

Do you not recommend that I move the pagefile?
I have checked and I do not see anything that I can delete for the C: drive.

 

[chronos1]

Hi crmayer if you need to move the paging file -

right click My Computer, Properties, and select the Performance Tab. Near the bottom you'll see Virtual memory, click on Change - here you should select the D drive - enter your initial and maximum paging file size (initial is normally 3 x amount of ram you have + 12) - click SET. You can then highlight the C drive and clear out the initial and max figures - which affectively sets it to zero.

However, i must stress you still have a serious space issue on your C drive - and moving the page file will not cure this in the long term. I would recommend clearing out everything you have in terms of temp files, temporary internet files etc. And / Or use something like partition magic (i think they've got server magic) which will allow you to increase the size of the C drive by taking space off your D drive.

Good luck



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[Kjonnnn]

Is your C partition FAT or NTFS?

If its FAT, convert it to NTFS. Depending on whats on there, could get a lot a room.

 

[crmayer]

Is there a way to change a partition in windows without clearing what is currently on the HD?
I have done this with AIX Unix, but I thought you had to remove the partitions and re-create them in windows? Is that not ture?

 

[wolluf]

Are you talking about converting fat to ntfs? There's a command prompt utility to do this:-

Convert C: /FS:NTFS

will convert C: drive from fat16 to NTFS (it will cause machine to reboot & do the conversion before starting NT).

It will leave all files/folders as is.

Note: I last did this on a 2GB partition NT installation c. 5 or 6 years ago - freed up about 350MB!

If you want to manipulate the partitions - Partition Magic doesn't install on NT server (need much more expensive volume manager). But, you can run PM's rescue disks & restructure from there (doesn't know its NT server then - tip from John Barnett) - or Acronis Partition Expert is inexpensive & does work with NT server.

 

[search66]

I recommend not putting a page file on the same drive as the OS.

Move it to d and make the file size the same... ie.; 750-750

 

[crmayer]

Thanks, I think I will move the page file to the D drive.

I did double check the Server drives and the C drive is FAT and the D (storage) drive is NTFS. So another possibillity is to change the C to NTFS? Is there any risk in doing that? I am not real familar with the NT, and if something were to happen, I would be up a creek.

 

[search66]

NTFS is *very* stable, and much better than FAT32.

You'll save space, improve speed and have better security (if needed).

I wouldn't worry too much... Unless you are running old applications.

 

[DG659]

if were mine id uninstall All programm thats on the server c:
and if really needed reinstall on D:

but lets face it you shouldnt have any programs on a server.
its not as if you use it as a workstation.

 

[outonalimb]

To resize partitions on-the-fly, get hold of a copy of Partition Magic Pro. Check out

http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagicpro/

for more detailed information.

You'll be able to resize the 1.99GB by using up some of the remaining 15.1GB of space.

That's what i've been using to get me out of some sticky situations. However, ALWAYS backup before making any changes such as this.

Regards,

 

[crmayer]

OK, I have attempted to move the pagefile and I am running into problems. I went into MyComputer Properties, Performace, change and highlighted the D drive set it to 512 min 562 max and clicked the set button. Then OK'ed out and rebooted. When I go back in, it shows C and D with both 521-562. So I went out to delete the pagefile on the C drive. This is what I get:

Error Deleteing File
Cannot delete pagefile: Access denied
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

Any ideas as to why I can not delete the pagefile from the C drive? I did go look and there is a pagefile created on the D drive, so now I have two pagefiles.

 

[wolluf]

You can't delete a pagefile from within windows - you need to set its min/max size both to 0 (zero) - ie, for the C: drive in your case (you may receive warnings about leaving at least a minimal pagefile on C: - which you can do if you wish - between 2 and 50MB usually suggested). I'd also suggest setting min & max to same figure for D: drive (it prevents the file becoming fragmented by forcing a fixed file. Otherwise it can grow and shrink between the 2 figure specied, and extra bits are usually created as separate fragements) - and minimal on C: if you have one.

 

[Ifshmn69]

If you having space issues, moving the page file will help short term.

Make sure there aren't any programs or users saving files to the C: drive.

Also reccommend converting to NTFS.

If you can, upgrading to 2000 server would be the best option.

 

[aldeburan]

Hi, I know im not using NT but my problem is exactly the same as crmayer and XP Pro is based on the same technology.

I'm running win98 on my C drive, which is 1GB in size, and XP (NTFS) on my D which is 29GB.

What happens to me is that pagefile.sys goes onto the C drive (it never used to be there just appeared yesterday) but because the file is 707Mb it uses up all the space.

I've tried going into win98, which is FAT (need DOS for assembler) and changing the virtual manager but when i go back into it, it has restored itself back to the original settings.

When i go into XP and check the virtual manager it doesn't recognise the pagefile at all and shows i have full free space on the drive (i.e. the space i used to have before the pagefile appeared).

If i try and locate the pagefile on the C drive while in XP i cant which should be the case considering one is run on FAT and one on NTFS. But this then leads to another question, how can an NTFS operating system place a file on a FAT/DOS one and then not be able to find it? I gather it was XP's virtual manager that did place the file there as i haven't booted into 98 for months.

Any ideas how i can solve this issue?

Cheers

 

[wolluf]

aldeburan - you should post this as a new thread in forum779.

'When i go into XP and check the virtual manager' - what does this mean? I'm a bit confused as to how XP 'suddenly' wrote a 707MB pagefile (am wondering if its been there on C: all the time - set to Windows managed - and you've just done something on XP which need a vastly increased pagefile - which is why its now a problem. You need to go into system properties, advanced, performance settings, advanced, virtual memory change and set the value for C: drive to either zero or a fixed small size (eg, 50MB) and put the main pagefile on the D: drive (setting fixed size - min/max the same - stops it fragmenting).