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32 Responses for "Is it Safe to Delete HIBERFIL.SYS and PAGEFILE.SYS?"

1. xangelo October 17th, 2007 at 12:57 pm 1

   Hi i’ve been visiting this site for quite a while now, subscribed to RSS feeds and everything. Basically what I wanted to know was this.

   If paging acts as RAM, then you essentially have around double the amount you physically have? And if this is the case, can you set it as high as you want? For example, would having only 1GB physical memory, and having a 2GB paging file result in 3GB of available RAM?

   Thanks,
   xangelo

2. Raymond October 17th, 2007 at 1:47 pm 2

   xangelo, usually Windows will try to use your physical memory first. If you have low physical memory, it will take your hard drive space as virtual memory. Having 2GB paging file won’t really help because you won’t use up to a total of 3GB memory.

   For servers maybe, but then servers uses high performance ram for stability.

3. phyzhoe October 17th, 2007 at 5:03 pm 3

   thanx raymond. at least i can free up my disk space

4. MR7 October 17th, 2007 at 7:18 pm 4

   Adding to Raymond answer, it is not an advantage have a high page file because the speed of reading/writing it’s very, very low, compared to physical memory. I don’t know the right values, but the difference is huge…

5. Is it safe to delete Hiberfil.sys October 18th, 2007 at 1:04 am 5

   [...] Raymond.cc Related [...]

6. Sakar October 18th, 2007 at 2:17 am 6

   nice stuff

7. KwangErn October 18th, 2007 at 6:07 am 7

   Actually, for Windows systems, it’s not advisable to turn off pagefile completely. An extra 256-384MB wouldn’t hurt, and it usually acts as a safety net for Windows.

   Windows doesn’t manage physical RAM as efficient as one would think. Unless you are doing very basic things, I wouldn’t recommend turning off pagefile; except if you have ridiculous amount of RAM in a way.

8. ma7moud October 18th, 2007 at 7:58 am 8

   Thank you Rymond

9. Raymond October 18th, 2007 at 8:38 am 9

   I agree with KwangErn. Unless you have ridiculous amount of RAM, you can turn it off. If you have 2GB of memory or more and running Windows XP. plus you don’t use big programs such as AutoCAD or even Photoshop, then it shouldn’t be a problem.

10. TechGuyBou October 18th, 2007 at 9:11 am 10

    Hey Raymond, is it safe if I do it on Vista?
    By the way, this one is a nice one.

11. Raymond October 18th, 2007 at 10:05 am 11

    Vista takes up more memory than XP does. So again, unless you have a minimum of 2GB ram, i wouldn’t suggest you to turn off your paging file.

12. KwangErn October 18th, 2007 at 5:10 pm 12

    Ouch, for Vista, if you want to turn it off, I would suggest you having at least 4GB of RAM.

    Unless you run barebones of Vista, including without the sidebar/widgets. Then maybe, just maybe, 2GB is enough.

    Am not happy at all with Vista; it’s a hungry monster.

13. Gremlin March 14th, 2008 at 11:49 pm 13

    Thanks for the info on that Raymond I\’d never used hibernation before today, and needed to see what that BiG new file was related to. It\’s all gone now

    I just wanted to add a few bits, in case it\’s of interest to anybody. Photoshop shouldn\’t (in theory) be affected by having no pagefile, as it uses its own \’scratchpad\’ file area. Some of my more extravagant customers I have, use a completely seperate SATA drive for just that single purpose, though their fast PCs make it hard to see any notable difference. I\’ve not used AutoCAD, so can\’t comment on that one.

    Regarding the idea of completely switching off the pagefile, i\’ve played with this on a few machines, and found XP Pro seems happy with it, till it gets pushed (i have 2GB DDR2 fitted).
    I think Microsoft have assumed all along that it\’s a required safety net, and the system actually depends to some degree on it being available. We can see how badly Windows is setup in dealing with used memory, by its effects after copying a full CD/DVD – watch it try to wake back up even after the software is exited.

    Just curious, does anybody know of a utility that wipes memory on \’application exits\’ safely? i\’ve tried many, but all cause instablity (or no effect) – i assume they all clean some bits of data in error maybe?

    What i\’d like to see, is a memory manager, to lock specific applications memory area & usage. So Windows doesn\’t waste so much time shuffling & searching. If NERO (example) was locked at the 1.5Gb memory page & limited to 100Mb application use, it would be far more efficent i reckon (based on old style prgramming ways from years ago).

    One last point (hope i\’ve not ranted for too long)…… Regarding MR7\’s very true mention of speed differences, the speed is entirely down to the individual PC, based on drive transfer capabilities, and memory speeds (EDO/DDR types etc.), and also, it\’s worth mentioning that XP is naturally setup to give most physical memory up to \’programs\’, and not for the \’system\’, though this setting is changable. I wonder if \’system\’ would include the pagefile? I will have to investigate.

    Thanks again Raymond, excellent website
    (and VISTA is sooo yucky, I think).

14. hayhay April 21st, 2008 at 3:48 pm 14

    hi there, it is a good site to visit, a lot material to read. thanks for for the effort.

    The memory usage;
    is it better to adjust to program or system cache???

    Virtual memory;
    for 1 gb ram initial 1524 and max 3048.
    is it really needed to adjust max up to 3048 ??? why and what is this max ????

    Is it better to choose the custom size or system manage???

    thanks alot

15. GoingCrazy June 19th, 2008 at 9:02 pm 15

    My desktop is partitioned in such a way that the C: drive is small and now almost full and my D: drive has ample free space. with the pagefile.sys at 1.8 gig I have no space at all left on my c: drive. Is it at all possible to set up the paging file on the more empty D: drive and if so how do I do that.

    As I say I am going nuts because I constantly get a low disk space error on C:

    Thanks in advance for your help.

16. Stranger July 29th, 2008 at 1:22 pm 16

    To GoingCrazy: If you still need a hand with the pagefile problem, just look at the screenshot around the text “Click on Advanced tab again” from the article. It has a C: drive listed because that computer only has one drive. For your own PC, you will be able to click on each drive and individually turn on and off the pagefiles for each drive. Just click on “No page file” and click on set for C: and then if you want, click on D: or whatever the other hard drive / partition is, and set the numerical value there.

17. Paul August 9th, 2008 at 7:17 am 17

    I have a question regarding the interaction between the pagefile and hibernation….

    When you hibernate XP, what happens to the data in the pagefile? eg, say your system was using all (1Gb) memory, and 512Mb in the pagefile, then you hibernate. Is Windows going to clear the pagefile before hibernating, or is the pagefile going to be saved in the hiberfil.sys (resulting in a 1.5Gb hiberfil), or is the pagefile going to retain its current data and thus effectively become part of the hibernation data.

    I ask this, because if for example I have multi-boot with multiple copies of XP, and want to have a separate partition for the pagefile which is shared amongst the different installs (but keeping hiberfil.sys in each installation partition), would any hibernation information be lost if I hibernated one install and then booted another?

18. Charles August 10th, 2008 at 9:37 am 18

    To Stranger: I created a pagefile on the other hard drive (and it does appear there), but even though I disabled the pagefile on the C drive, it is still sitting there taking up 371 MB of space. Can I now safely delete the old pagefile on C?

    thanks
    Charles

19. Alaukik September 6th, 2008 at 9:05 am 19

    hi,
    along with xp, i do have linux(ubuntu) as well in my pc, while going thru dir in linux, i found dese files”pagefile.sys n hiberfil.sys” n i deleted them from their, now when ever i start my comp if i go for Ubuntu it properly works but when i choose windows xp it again restarts

20. the great britain October 31st, 2008 at 7:23 pm 20

    thanks for the additional knowledge. It will help me to save space if I would not use big programs. You’re the best man! Thanks again.

21. OrloPas December 17th, 2008 at 4:41 am 21

    Muy bueno el sitio, una pregunta para todos: Necesito minimo 604Kb de memoria RAM convencional en XP para ejecutar un programa viejo. lo mas que puedo sacar son 592Kb. Como puedo mover programas de la memoria convencional a la XMS o a la EMS?

22. OrloPas December 18th, 2008 at 4:54 am 22

    To all people:

    Sorry, I saw this site translate to Spanish. My question was: I have XP Pro, how can I move programs from the first 640Kb of RAM to EMS or XMS??. I need to execute an old program of DOS and it only run in Conventional memory, with at least 604 KB free of memory.

    Thansks for your help!

23. Tiina January 28th, 2009 at 4:57 pm 23

    Thank you, ever so much for really helpful advices

24. aiken February 10th, 2009 at 10:00 am 24

    yung hiberfil.sis ngko-cause ng plging pg rerestart hbang ntgal?

25. Larry Miller May 22nd, 2009 at 11:48 pm 25

    This article contains some misinformation. Some of the comments are worse.

    First of all, the pagefile is NOT virtual memory. The pagefile serves a supporting role in the virtual memory system. You can disable the pagefile but this will NOT disable virtual memory.

    Yes indeed, disk access is much slower than physical RAM. That is exactly why your computer has a pagefile. Virtual memory involves paging from many different disk files, not just the pagefile. The pagefile is used only with modified data, not application code, DLL’s etc. RAM functions as a cache for data on disk. It will be unable to do this effectively if large portions of it are used for data that has not been accessed for a long time, and may never be needed at all. The pagefile is used to free precious RAM from holding this static data and freeing it for more important uses.

    There are a few unusual situations where disabling the pagefile may be beneficial. Having 1GB or more of RAM is not such a situation. In almost all cases, disabling the pagefile will impair performance – if not worse. It may cause application failures and loose hours of work.

26. Ron Lawry July 1st, 2009 at 6:10 am 26

    Going to try this. My pagefile says it’s over 900 gb on my 100 gb hd. Bless ya’ll

27. Ron Lawry July 1st, 2009 at 6:15 am 27

    MY face is quite red. My pagefile is only 960 mb not gb. I have some 74 gb of unknow files. Still you were very useful

28. emachines computers July 16th, 2009 at 5:19 am 28

    I bought an emachines notebook recently and I find it quite reliable

29. Purush September 4th, 2009 at 12:33 am 29

    thanx raymond.

30. Compgenius999 September 19th, 2009 at 12:53 am 30

    I have an XP Pro computer, it has a hibernation file which is almost 512mb, but as my drivers are messed up, hibernation is not in my power options, and when i turn off my computer hibernation/standby is greyed out so, why do i have hiberfil.sys and is it safe to delete it?

31. inchizitor November 14th, 2009 at 8:22 pm 31

    Thank You very much!!!

32. my57facets November 15th, 2009 at 1:18 am 32

    I have that sucky vista and aside from the power option in the control panel, there are none of the tabs you speak of for shutting hibernation down.

    I have power plans with hibernation showing nowhere.

    Can you show how to turn it off there?