Pagefile.sys too large

System Properties-> Advanced -> Performance Settings-> Advanced->Change

Uncheck "Automatically manage page file", then manually set it to a value less than 13 GB (usually the same size as your RAM).

You can also move it to another partition. Just set "No paging file" on C and then press "SET"

Reboot and the pagefile will be the size you chose.

HTH,
Dan

Pagefiles are virtual memory - in most cases, unless your server has insane amounts of RAM, you NEED a pagefile and not having one will cause problems.

Move it to another drive as described above but leave 1 GB on the C: drive (do this by specifying the pagefile size.  Then place the remainder on another drive, preferrably on another PHYSICAL drive, not just another partition as this can improve performance.

Technically the page file should be set to 1.5 x physical ram in the system.  If you want to free up space you can move it to another drive like leew recommended but on average for 8gb of ram 13gb page file seems correct.

The 1.5x physical RAM was correct for XP and Server 2003 with less than 1 GB RAM.
For newer OS and larger RAM, the minimum is 1x RAM.

See here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2860880

@DanCraciun
That KB contains a lot of very good information.  How often do you accept Microsoft Minimums as the recommended amounts?  I've usually increased things because as you know, MS has a tendency to underestimate real world needs.

If, when I monitor my servers (not hundreds, I admit), I see lots of swapping, I usually add more RAM.

That being said, I too over provision on swap, if I have the space. Usually on a different hdd than the OS.

On 2 servers with 16GB RAM I keep only 4 GB as pagefile. Severely space constrained, and an update on storage is out of the question. But they work for more than 1 year now without noticeable bad side effects.

but if i move the file to a partition on the same drive that would kill the performance! wouldn't it?

Nope. You would have the same performance, maybe a little less if it will reside farther from the middle of the hdd platans.

It basically reads and writes on the same hdd. Why would it "kill" performance?

It would be faster if the swap resides on another hdd than your OS only if that hdd has fewer IO operations. Otherwise, if you move it to a heavily used hdd you'd end up with slower swap operations.

@DanCracuim
I have 2 drives: C and D
what do you recommend from your two options:
1- Uncheck "Automatically manage page file", then set the value manually? " if yes then do i still need to move the page file to D drive? also what's the initial size and maximum size in MB do you recommend for 16GB RAM?

2-move the page file to D drive & set "No paging file" on C?

Thanks

thank you