can someone help me in guiding how i can delete old unused pagefile on my secondary drive?

[Vendor]

so sometime ago for some weird reasons my pagefile used to move to my media drive from boot drive after few weeks of install which doesn't happen anymore so i want to regain some space deleting it, there are some commands suggested by people on a superuser thread but i am not entirely sure how to go on about it as it's not explained properly for a rookie

this seems to be the right solution but i want to know if we need to mention the drive it's on and stuff

 

[lexluthermiester]

This is delivered but simple task.

You need to make sure that the drive/partition in question is not being used by the OS as a pagefile location (Right click "My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced Tab -> Performance -> Advanced Tab -> Virtual Memory -> Change). If it is, select the drive and change the setting to "No paging file" and click "Set". You will likely be prompted to restart your system, do so.

After restart, the pagefile should be gone from the drive in question. If it is not, chime in and I'll walk you through deleting it.

 

[Vendor]

This is delivered but simple task.

You need to make sure that the drive/partition in question is not being used by the OS as a pagefile location (Right click "My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced Tab -> Performance -> Advanced Tab -> Virtual Memory -> Change). If it is, select the drive and change the setting to "No paging file" and click "Set". You will likely be prompted to restart your system, do so.

After restart, the pagefile should be gone from the drive in question. If it is not, chime in and I'll walk you through deleting it.

but i don't want to touch it because i have always leave at default let windows manage automatically

 

[DrCR]

but i don't want to touch it because i have always leave at default let windows manage automatically

Then why are you asking us for ways to delete the file?

Sure I, @lexluthermiester, or others here could tell you how you could utterly nuke the file from orbit, but as posted above, you're going to want to first ensure the OS isn't making use of it..

 

[Vendor]

Then why are you asking us for ways to nuke the file?

i mean all other options are greyed out under it, but should be safe i guess then after restart i might have to redo it to original

 

[lexluthermiester]

but i don't want to touch it because i have always leave at default let windows manage automatically

i mean all other options are greyed out under it, but should be safe i guess then after restart i might have to redo it to original

If you want to get rid of it, changing the settings is required. It's the way Windows works. You will not hurt anything by doing so. Do you want to proceed?

 

[Vendor]

If you want to get rid of it, changing the settings is required. It's the way Windows works. You will not hurt anything by doing so. Do you want to proceed?

yes, i did but will do a restart later and see if i get some space back, i did it on my other two drives as well just in case if they also had it by any chance

 

[lexluthermiester]

yes, i did but will do a restart later and see if i get some space back, i did it on my other two drives as well just in case if they also had it by any chance

Ok. Check in and let us know if you need anymore help. Also, if you set the pagefile to a set size(by setting the "Custom Size" to say 4096 in both fields) on the C: drive you can limit the level of fragmentation of your hard drive. If the C: drive is an SSD this setting has the effect of reducing wear on the drive.

 

[Vendor]

Ok. Check in and let us know if you need anymore help. Also, if you set the pagefile to a set size(by setting the "Custom Size" to say 4096 in both fields) on the C: drive you can limit the level of fragmentation of your hard drive. If the C: drive is an SSD this setting has the effect of reducing wear on the drive.

yes, my boot drive is an ssd. though i have 16gb ram which i never fully utilize so i don't think pagefile would do me any harm

 

[lexluthermiester]

yes, my boot drive is an ssd. though i have 16gb ram which i never fully utilize so i don't think pagefile would do me any harm

It's still a good idea to set it to a fixed/static size. 4096(4GB) is a good round size that will give your system a buffer should it need such while not eating up much drive space. For example, My main system has 32GB of RAM and I have my pagefile set at 3072(3GB), which the system rarely touches..

 

[Vendor]

It's still a good idea to set it to a fixed/static size. 4096(4GB) is a good round size that will give your system a buffer should it need such while not eating up much drive space.

i am barely using quarter of my ssd space so i don't think i need to do it

 

[Vendor]

Ok. Check in and let us know if you need anymore help

well, it didn't work, still the same amount of space used, is it because it was already set to none and nothing applied? but it did ask me for a restart so changes can apply, maybe there's isn't one but then i wonder where's the remaining 16gb space

 

[qubit]

Just set Windows to only use C for the page file, set it to Auto and reboot.

Unhide system files and check the other drive. If it isn’t gone, then just delete it. Freebie utility windirstat makes it very easy to find the file if you’re stuck.

There’s nothing more to this.

 

[lexluthermiester]

well, it didn't work, still the same amount of space used, is it because it was already set to none and nothing applied? but it did ask me for a restart so changes can apply, maybe there's isn't one but then i wonder where's the remaining 16gb space

Then we'll need to delete it manually. I presume to can actually seen the file in question as you were able to identify it. What happens when you try to delete it?

 

[qubit]

@Vendor did you do the steps that I explained? If you had, it would have "worked". It's a piece of cake to get rid of it, especially with windirstat, which shows you the largest file on the volume. Just select it and hit delete, after first satisfying yourself that it really is the pagefile. Is there even a pagefile there to delete?

 

[Vendor]

did you do the steps that I explained? If you had, it would have "worked". It's a piece of cake to get rid of it, especially with windirstat, which shows you the largest file on the volume. Just select it and hit delete, after first satisfying yourself that it really is the pagefile. Is there even a pagefile there to delete?

Then we'll need to delete it manually. I presume to can actually seen the file in question as you were able to identify it. What happens when you try to delete it?

well, i am not comfortable with unhiding system files, i need to find some other convincing way, can you explain me proper steps for the method i provided in SS? it probably is there because all my 11 folders there are only 220gb while drive space utilization is 236gb which is 16gb more.

 

[lexluthermiester]

well, i am not comfortable with unhiding system files

Then we're at an impasse. That's something you need to do to proceed any further. You also need to enable take-ownership in your right-click context menu. If you're not ok with that you'll have to reside yourself to living with the loss of extra space on that drive.

 

[Vendor]

Then we're at an impasse. That's something you need to do to proceed any further. You also need to enable take-ownership in your right-click context menu. If you're not ok with that you'll have to reside yourself to living with the loss of extra space on that drive.

not much of a worry, i am only utilizing 25% of my total 1tb on that drive

 

[qubit]

well, i am not comfortable with unhiding system files, i need to find some other convincing way, can you explain me proper steps for the method i provided in SS? it probably is there because all my 11 folders there are only 220gb while drive space utilization is 236gb which is 16gb more.

Just run windirstat and delete it from there. To be honest, if you’re not gonna take simple advice for something basic, then you’re just wasting everybody’s time.

Unhiding files is a simple tick box operation, nothing to be scared of. Just Google for how to do it, you’ll find it in seconds.

I can just see me doing a detailed post with lots of screenshots and handholding you every step of the way, only for you to come up with some kind of excuse again. I’m not wasting my time like that. Just follow the advice I’ve already given you.