Can I get rid of my swap file?

[lcyber]

My swap file(don't know why I have one) has only 4% free usable space and needs defragmenting as defrag needs at least 15% usable free space.I need to delete files or move them.It is a FAT32 file so is it alright to drag and drop these files to my NTFS main drive?,this main drive has 91.5mb free space.
What is the purpose of the swap file? this was created when I had trouble with apparent corruption on my hard drive ,which suggested it should be replaced but transpired this wasn't neccessary.

Can you please tell me the way to go?

[Murf]

No you cannot get rid of it:

The page file is a special file used by windows for holding temporary data which is swapped in and out of physical memory in order to provide a larger virtual memory set.

By default, Windows places the page file on the boot partition where the operating system is installed. In its default state it should be approximately 1.5 times the system RAM.

You can create one page file on the boot partition by using the default settings.

Then Create another pagefile on a less frequently used partition on a separate physical disk or RAID volume.

Windows will use the pagefile on the less frequently used partition over the pagefile on the heavily used boot partition. Windows uses an internal algorithm to determine which page file to use for virtual memory management.

In the above scenario, the following goals of the page file would be served:

•The system will be properly configured to capture a Memory.dmp file should the computer experience a kernel mode STOP error.

•The page file on the less frequently used partition will be used the majority of the time because it is not on a busy partition.

[renegade600]

I would suggest running ccleaner to get rid of most temporary files on your system. It will find them in places you would not even think about looking.

However if you are defraging because of speed, it may not help since your drive is almost full since you need 15-20 percent of your drive free (depending on overall drive size) to work efficently. IMO, it may be time for another drive.

[lcyber]

Hi Murf sorry to say ,that went over my head,I don't want to get into things I'm not familiar with.I have stuff on my swap file ,like desktop that contains stuff that could go on my main drive,don't know how it ended up in the swap file,can this stuff be dragged onto my main drive? I have tried to drag it and succeeded but it still appears in my swap file.shouldn't it have left the swap file when I dragged it over?this way I have it twice.once in the swap file and once in the main drive.where I dragged it to and it still hasn't cleared the space,which was my aim.

[Murf]

I think we are talking about two different files. A swap file you cannot break it down as it is a system file (pagefile.sys). What is the name of the file you are referring too that you are taking stuff out of????

[smurfy]

Hi lcyber.
I think what you are seeing as a "swap file" isn't what we think of as a swap file (WinNT's pagefile.sys).
I think you may be referring to a seperate partition.

Right CLick "My Computer" and select "Manage"
In the screen that appears, select "Storage" and then "Disk management"
Can you tell us what appears there.
A screenshot would be really helpful (you can email it to me at smurfy (at) cybertechhelp (dot) com)

[lcyber]

Hi Murph
I have emailed the page to Smurfy,that is the one in Disk management,this will illustrate ,hopefully ,better than my explanation.

[Murf]

Ok,

Don't know if smurfy is around yet. If it is a seperate partition then yes you can move files from it to the other one, FAT 32 or NTFS does not matter. You just cannot move programs by dragging and dropping as they will not work once moved.

If this is what you are looking at then yes it is a seperate partition: I've attached a copy of mine.

[smurfy]

Unfortunately all that came through was the following:
Can you try again?

edit: oops - forgot attachment

[lcyber]

Hi Murf
It is similar to yours except Status describes it as healthy(Boot) E Drive that is and the D drive is local disk healthy(system)

[smurfy]

Hi. I got the image on 3rd attempt, sorry I lost track of the thread!

[smurfy]

Now then, that "SWAP FILE" is the disk label, same as "Local Disk" on your D: drive.

That said, it could contain your Windows Virtual Memory file (pagefile.sys).
Would be strange to see one 1.8Gb in size but it could be.
Can you tell us what files are visible on E: ?

[lcyber]

I have just run Seagate test and it shows D 100% passed but E was not shown as available for test only that it was "unformatted".

The files on E drive are numerous not sure if you want files or the folders as there must be very many actual files)
Folders:

Administrator contains another 20 folders

All User

All User Winnt contains 8 folders containing 61 folders

Then Programme files

Quarantine
Winnt
Documents and Settings contains:
Win Patrol
Sun
Starware 316
Microsoft Web folder
Microsoft
MacAfee
Macromedia
Limewire
InterTrust
Identities
Help
Google
Adobe
These contain files within them