how to shrink page file drive

Hi Nikhil,

How much space has been currently allocated to paging files?

Have you installed Windows 8 in the C:\ drive?

Paging files are essential files that Windows uses like Random Access Memory and hence needed for virtual memory. The paging files are by default stored in the drive where you have installed Windows. It is not recommended to delete the paging files, as it will result in poor system performance. However you can move the paging files from the boot partition to another partition. But when you move the paging files from the boot partition to another partition, windows cannot create a dump file which contains debugging information in case a kernel mode stop message error occurs. So, the ideal solution is to create another paging file in a different partition and then reduce the paging file size in the boot partition. Refer to these steps:

a)      Click start, then control panel, then Performance and Maintenance and then click System.

b)      Click the Advanced tab, and then under Performance Click Settings.

c)       Click the Advanced tab, and then under Virtual memory, click Change.

d)      Uncheck Automatically set paging file size for all drives.

e)      Select the other drive apart from the boot partition.

f)       Click on Custom size, then you can see the minimum, recommended and currently allocated paging file sizes in the bottom of the window. Set the values accordingly.

g)      Once you have configured paging file size in the other drive, now click on the drive with boot partition and set the paging file size to recommended or minimum paging file size as mentioned in the bottom.

As for moving the shadow copy storage, it is highly recommended not to move them. You can also refer to Ronnie Vernon’s reply in this post:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/where-can-i-find-volume-shadow-copy-service-vss/dbd3c488-de19-43f6-949b-dc33287b5dca

You can refer to the steps mentioned in this article to shrink a drive:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/can-i-repartition-my-hard-disk

Hope you find this helpful. Feel free to use this forum for any other Windows related queries in the future; we’d be happy to help.