Should I move pagefile on Server 2003 with Mirrored Raid 1 drives?

Please see:
http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/bootdrivesize.asp

It should answer your question quite thoroughly.

Actually, there is a reason not to... but I don't generally consider it a very significant reason...

I assume you're referring to mini-dumps?  If so, I agree, its so insignificant that it isn't a reason in my opinion :D

So, if I have 4GB of ram, what should I make the page file on the D drive. It looks like LeeW wants me to make about 2MB pagefile on the C drive, though.

jeffschick - do you want to focus ONLY on the page file?  Did you read the link I posted in 4 minutes?  It's pretty long... You need space on the C: drive - read the link - it DOES answer your question.

Set it to 4GB, since that is the maximum - Leew is correct in that if you have a 2MB pagefile on your C:\ drive, you'll capture mini-dumps, but in all honesty (and I think he agrees) its not really needed, since you'd most likely NEVER use it.

I glanced through it - but here is my problem, most of the things are not on the C drive already, or are not on this server...
    * Pagefile ON C
    * Exchange Databases NOT ON SERVER
    * SQL Databases NOT ON SERVER
    * Other Data Files ON D
    * Log Files NOT AN ISSUE
    * Webs and Other IIS Services ON C, but cannot move
    * Shadow Copy Data ON D
    * Shared Folders ON D
    * Virtual Machines NOT ONO SERVER
    * WSUS Updates NOT ON SERVER
    * DLLCache & ServicePackFiles DONT KNOW IF ON SERVER
    * Move Certificate Server Data NOT ON SERVER

# What Else To Do?

    * Remove Old NTBackup Catalogs NEVER USE NT BACKUP, NOT AN ISSUE
    * Remove Old NTUnininstall Folders HOW? LOOKS LIKE ONLY ABOUT 150MB THOUGH
    * Memory Dumps WHERE?
    * Bad Applications NOT AN ISSUE
    * Check User Profiles SOMEWHAT AN ISSUE, BUT NOT FIXABLE
    * Check Temp Folders NOT AN ISSUE
    * Change Print Spool Folder NOT AN ISSUE
    * Hibernation NOT AN ISSUE
    * Move Active Directory NOT ON SEVER

Your question pertains to the pagefile, basically you're reading too much information from Leew's page - just reference the pagefile move information, which is what I told you as well.

SO, I am kind of limited on what to do i think...what are my options?

However, just wondering - if I were to focus ONLY on the C drive, would this help me to free up space in the 1-2 GB range? Or would it only free very little???

What is the size of your pagefile currently?  Whatever its current size is, that is how much space you'll free up by moving it.  Your pagefile is a hidden file at the root of the C:\ drive.

the pagefile right now is 2046-4092  according to the page file screen.

Jeff, is there a reason you're not reading the link I've posted?

So this is what I just did:
Page file on:
C: 200-200
D: 6135-6135 (This is what it said windows recommended)
And hit Restart. Is this Okay?

Yep, that'll work for you :)

Leew,
I read through it, and am just trying to take things one step at a time to try and figure out what I do/donot need to do just so I can free up some space so I will stop having low disk space errors. I am trying the easier things first...

Does this help?

Windows Pagefile
The Windows Pagefile is the file that contains your virtual memory. On a server, this file should be equal to 1.5-3x the amount of RAM in the system, However, the maximum size of the pagefile is a hair under 4 GB, so even if you have 4 GB of RAM or more, the pagefile on the C: drive will not be over 3.99 GB or so. You can have separate pagefiles on different logical and/or physical drives (it's best to have one on a separate set of disk spindles for the best possible performance). Windows by default puts the pagefile in the root of the C: drive with an initial size of 1.5x RAM. If the average server has 2 GB of RAM installed, then the pagefile is using 3 GB of RAM - on a 12 GB boot drive, that's 25% of your total space.

Fortunately, the pagefile CAN, and in my opinion SHOULD be moved to another logical drive (again, if available, another physical disk or RAID volume). Instructions on how to move and better still, optimize your pagefile settings can be found in Daniel Petri's article, How can I optimize the Windows 2000/XP/2003 virtual memory (Pagefile)?

Is there any problem with moving the pagefile off the boot drive? In general, no. Technically, yes. When a stop error occurs (BSOD - Blue Screen of Death), Windows dumps the contents of RAM to the hard disk so that, in theory, you can debug what happened and correct the problem. In reality, the high-level skills required to do such a thing are not common place and since I started working professionally in IT in 1994, I have not once used these dumped files or been asked to supply one for troubleshooting (by Microsoft of anyone else). Indeed, if you have a reproducable problem, you can always reconfigure appropriately so that you can create this file and debug things. So in short - move your pagefile, leaving a 2 MB file on the C: drive to allow "minidumps" - which I have used to get a clue as to what went wrong and are typically only 64K in size.

Just restarted and I now have 2GB free space on C!
Off to defrag! thanks for all of your help ecsrd!

Your welcome :).

This was complete, accurate and fast! Thanks for all of the help!

I have to object to this - AT WORST, this should have been a 50/50 split.  I provided the answer in great detail.

Actually, I already knew where the pagefiles were - and ecsrd gave me the answers to my question (See post 25056192). And, all you provided were links to sites saying how to do it, when I did not need that - I just needed help figuring out how much to make each pagefile area...post 25056150 said exactly what I was looking for if you would have READ THE QUESTION.

You asked (everything with a question mark):

> If I were to change it to make it smaller on the C drive (What should I make it if I do?)
My answer is in the link - QUOTE "Move the pagefile to it's own spindles if possible, otherwise, another logical partition. Leave a 2 MB min and max size pagefile on the C: drive."

> We use mirrored raid 1 drives and are wondering if changing the pagefile from the C
> partition to the D partition would help with freeing up space so we would have
> 10-20% free versus the less than 2% now. Is this recommended?

and

> RIght now the paging file size is 2046-4092 on the C drive. If I were to change it to
> make it smaller on the C drive (What should I make it if I do?) and 2046-4092 on the
> D drive, would this free up my space so that the disk manager would show greater
> than 2% freespace remaining?

My answer IS the link - Anyone who reads it would clearly understand the ENTIRE PURPOSE of the link is how to get more free space on C - is that not what you were asking for?  EVEN if you don't want to do other steps, the POINT of the article answers these questions with a resounding YES.

I created that page because people here posted questions like that frequently and rather than retype things EVERY SINGLE TIME and rather than to fill up with a CUT AND PASTE EVERY SINGLE TIME, I just refer people to the link.  Do you think this is a bad idea?

hey guys i have to agree with the award here in that ECSRD did answer the question rather than provide a how to link, allbeit that is a great link leew and as allways your opinions are well worth reading, however a quick look at the profiles of yourself an ecsrd and i feel that the credit should go to ecsrd to reward his input.

That said.
what i would be more concerned by is that by moving a 4 gig page file you are increasing the space on the C drive by about 15% this indicates that the c drive is only about 40Gig. i would seriously consider adjusting your partition sizes.

also i note that you said "Exchange Databases NOT ON SERVER" i am assuming that you do not use exchange at all then, so why would you have SBS?
if you ARE using exchange (and why wouldnt you) then the database must be on the server. and the drive it is on must have at least 10% free otherwise esxchange will fall over.

Cheers
Thats my 2cents worth.