I was trying to help my mom with her Windows XP computer problems when I came into this problem.
Following the advice of a website, I tried to defrag a part of her hard drive partitioned for pagefile.sys but found that Defraggler ineffective in defragmenting this type of file. After the defragging session, I found new files (probably created by Windows) entitled "$LogFile" and "$MFTMirr". I know that these files are quite puny, but is there a way of deleting these?
Also, is there some tool out there that can defragment pagefile.sys?
Thank you for your time.
Take care,
RedStarYellowSun
2
Defragging pagefile.sys in XP
Started by RedStarYellowSun, Jun 09 2009 11:21 PM
11 replies to this topic
#2 OFFLINE
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Posted 10 June 2009 - 07:30 AM
The $ files are NTFS meta files and should not be touched under any circumstances, especially the MFT Mirror, which is fixed in the centre of the drive (and is also very small).
On my spouse's laptop I used Pagedfrg from Microsoft, this defrags page, hiber and registry files on startup. It took a long time sitting there (over an hour, I think) but did the job fine. You'll have to search M/S pages or Google to find it as I don't know the link.
In fact pagedfrg is a shining example to code writers, peanuts small download, no-frills, just does its stuff.
On my spouse's laptop I used Pagedfrg from Microsoft, this defrags page, hiber and registry files on startup. It took a long time sitting there (over an hour, I think) but did the job fine. You'll have to search M/S pages or Google to find it as I don't know the link.
In fact pagedfrg is a shining example to code writers, peanuts small download, no-frills, just does its stuff.
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Posted 10 June 2009 - 07:37 AM
Is this the one Augeas?
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb897426.aspx
only 70kb download
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb897426.aspx
only 70kb download
CCLEANER, RECUVA, DEFRAGGLER AND SPECCY DOCUMENTATION CAN BE FOUND HERE
http://www.piriform.com/docs
http://www.piriform.com/docs
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Posted 10 June 2009 - 08:23 AM
Yep, thanks Hazel.
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Posted 10 June 2009 - 03:51 PM
I just tried PageDefrag and it doesn't do Vista - unchanged since Nov 06.
There is another method, though it requires two reboots instead of one.
Go into "Virtual Memory Settings" in "Advanced" in "Properties of My Computer".
Opt for no pagefile at all, then reboot and opt for a fixed pagefile (I recommend 1.5xRAM).
That will need another reboot. Unless your remaining space was fragmented, your new one should be in one piece.
If not, run defraggler during the no-pagefile session.
There is another method, though it requires two reboots instead of one.
Go into "Virtual Memory Settings" in "Advanced" in "Properties of My Computer".
Opt for no pagefile at all, then reboot and opt for a fixed pagefile (I recommend 1.5xRAM).
That will need another reboot. Unless your remaining space was fragmented, your new one should be in one piece.
If not, run defraggler during the no-pagefile session.
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Posted 13 June 2009 - 10:28 PM
Augeas, on Jun 10 2009, 02:30 AM, said:
The $ files are NTFS meta files and should not be touched under any circumstances, especially the MFT Mirror, which is fixed in the centre of the drive (and is also very small).
On my spouse's laptop I used Pagedfrg from Microsoft, this defrags page, hiber and registry files on startup. It took a long time sitting there (over an hour, I think) but did the job fine. You'll have to search M/S pages or Google to find it as I don't know the link.
In fact pagedfrg is a shining example to code writers, peanuts small download, no-frills, just does its stuff.
On my spouse's laptop I used Pagedfrg from Microsoft, this defrags page, hiber and registry files on startup. It took a long time sitting there (over an hour, I think) but did the job fine. You'll have to search M/S pages or Google to find it as I don't know the link.
In fact pagedfrg is a shining example to code writers, peanuts small download, no-frills, just does its stuff.
Thanks for the info. I learned something new.
But concerning Microsoft's Pagedfrg: Something seems odd with my pagefile.sys . I have set Pagedfrg to run during e evry start up. So, when the computer starts up, It reports that the pagefile.sys is in 1 (while, unified) fragment. But after start up, both Windows Defragmenter and Piriform Defraggler report that it is in 2 fragments and the and the $LogFile and $MFTMirr are in between each fragment.
What can I do?
MikeYates, on Jun 10 2009, 10:51 AM, said:
I just tried PageDefrag and it doesn't do Vista - unchanged since Nov 06.
There is another method, though it requires two reboots instead of one.
Go into "Virtual Memory Settings" in "Advanced" in "Properties of My Computer".
Opt for no pagefile at all, then reboot and opt for a fixed pagefile (I recommend 1.5xRAM).
That will need another reboot. Unless your remaining space was fragmented, your new one should be in one piece.
If not, run defraggler during the no-pagefile session.
There is another method, though it requires two reboots instead of one.
Go into "Virtual Memory Settings" in "Advanced" in "Properties of My Computer".
Opt for no pagefile at all, then reboot and opt for a fixed pagefile (I recommend 1.5xRAM).
That will need another reboot. Unless your remaining space was fragmented, your new one should be in one piece.
If not, run defraggler during the no-pagefile session.
$LogFile and $MFTMirr are in the way, so they're still 2 fragments.
I shouldn't have defragged the partition.
To both: Thanks for your time.
Take care,
RedStarYellowSun
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Posted 15 June 2009 - 09:39 AM
RedStarYellowSun, on Jun 13 2009, 10:28 PM, said:
Darn...
$LogFile and $MFTMirr are in the way, so they're still 2 fragments.
I shouldn't have defragged the partition.
$LogFile and $MFTMirr are in the way, so they're still 2 fragments.
I shouldn't have defragged the partition.
Yes, you should.
A fragmented pagefile is not too bad - it only gets used it little bits anyway.
Did you try creating a fresh pagefile? Defragging without one?
What about an off-line (not the system disc) defrag?
Defraggler DOES move $files if it can.
Either put your HDD in another PC as second drive (or in a USB "caddy")
or build a UBCD and run defraggler from that separate CD-booted system.
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Posted 16 June 2009 - 02:41 AM
MikeYates, on Jun 15 2009, 04:39 AM, said:
Yes, you should.
A fragmented pagefile is not too bad - it only gets used it little bits anyway.
Did you try creating a fresh pagefile? Defragging without one?
What about an off-line (not the system disc) defrag?
Defraggler DOES move $files if it can.
Either put your HDD in another PC as second drive (or in a USB "caddy")
or build a UBCD and run defraggler from that separate CD-booted system.
A fragmented pagefile is not too bad - it only gets used it little bits anyway.
Did you try creating a fresh pagefile? Defragging without one?
What about an off-line (not the system disc) defrag?
Defraggler DOES move $files if it can.
Either put your HDD in another PC as second drive (or in a USB "caddy")
or build a UBCD and run defraggler from that separate CD-booted system.
I tried creating a fresh pagefile and defragging without one. Unfortunately, it only moved one square.
Your other suggestions, I do not know if I can do that. I only have one hard drive and the partition especially made for pagefile is in that same 1 hard drive.
Thanks for your time.
Take care,
RedStarYellowSun
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Posted 16 June 2009 - 02:10 PM
RedStarYellowSun, on Jun 16 2009, 02:41 AM, said:
Your other suggestions, I do not know if I can do that. I only have one hard drive and the partition especially made for pagefile is in that same 1 hard drive.
Well, I didn't think it was any use making a special partition for the pagefile in Windoze - you've just confirmed that.
If you had two drives, it IS worth putting the pagefile on the other one BUT windows complains that it can't do error-dumps then.
An off-line defrag is by far the most efficient. UBCD comes with (I think) 4 defraggers. Still best to run the latest defraggler from your hard-drive when booted on the CD, though.
Pagefiles and Hiberfiles can easily be moved when booted into a CD-Linux system (e.g. Knoppix, Slax, Ubuntu-Live) too, provided they have the new reliable NTFS-3G drivers. I rather think you can move all the $files too, but I'm not sure now.
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Posted 16 June 2009 - 09:52 PM
Coming in late on this. But Diskeeper09 handles the Paging file in their boot time mode. Even the freebie version. That being said, Paging File doesn't get fragmented too often.
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Posted 23 June 2009 - 07:09 PM
Hello say you have xp have you gone to system tools and defraged from there. Just a though you likely tried this but just incase. It is also called the same thing for say vista in the same place. 
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Posted 28 June 2009 - 11:39 PM
AXE, on Jun 23 2009, 02:09 PM, said:
Hello say you have xp have you gone to system tools and defraged from there. Just a though you likely tried this but just incase. It is also called the same thing for say vista in the same place.
Thanks for the advice.
Unfortunately, I have already used the Windows standard defragmentor.
Thanks for your time, though.
Take care,
RedStarYellowSun
