Issues with paging file

Question

Issue: Paging file not being created properly

Symptoms: Performance Options dialog box on boot and a pop-up box stating "Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer because of a problem that occurred with your paging file configuration when you started your computer. The total paging file size for all disk drives may be somewhat larger than the size you specified."

I have attempted to fix the issue using the command "sc config afs start= disabled" but the afs service does not exist. I also check for an existing pagefile.sys to attempt deletion but it does not exist either.

Edit: How do I fix it?

Answer 1

• Log in under a local Administrator account. (Do this after each restart in these instructions as well.)
• If it’s not already open, open the virtual memory settings by right-clicking on Computer, → Properties → Advanced System Settings → click the Advanced tab → Under Performance, click Settings, go to Advanced tab, finally under the Virtual Memory section click the Change button.
• Uncheck the Autmatically manage paging file size for all drives checkbox.
• Set a “Custom size” for the paging file on the C drive: 0 MB initial, 0 MB maximum.
• Click OK, close all dialog boxes, and restart your computer.
• After logging in again, delete the file C:\pagefile.sys
  • To do this, you may need to change your folder settings so you can see it first. Open a window of your C: drive and click Organize at the top, then Folder and Search Options
  • Click the View tab, and make sure Show hidden files, folders and drives is turned on, and that Hide protected system files is not checked.
  • Click OK and go back to your C: drive, find pagefile.sys and delete it.
• Now go back to the virtual memory settings (see step 2 above) and set the paging file for the C: drive to System managed size, and then make sure the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives checkbox is checked.
• Click OK, close all dialog boxes, and restart your computer.

Answer 2

pagefile.sys is a hidden system file in the root of whatever drive you assigned it to. I have several hdd so I moved mine to e: . If the E: drive disappears, for any reason, then windows displays the error message above. At one point, the hard drive was failing to spin up, so I didn't have an E: and got message.

If you set the swap file to another hard drive and set the original to no swapfile and then reboot. If you then "show hidden and system files" you can delete the pagefile.sys. If you want you can set the configuration back to the way it was.

However, you still need to examine why it happened in the first place. In the Start Menu search area type cmd. Right click and run as administrator. Then you need to chkdsk /r c: Yes, to do it on next restart. (substitute whatever drive the swap file is on) Reboot, make sure it starts, go to bed. (It takes hours to complete)

Answer 3

In addition to Orange Hill's suggestion of setting the paging file to 0, rebooting, and setting it back, I had to clear up space on the C: drive because it didn't have much left. I ended up with a nice, healthy paging file size after that and the error is gone.