Windows XP SP2 error & Vista upgrade

[nihil]

Have you tried disabling DMA yet?

You only need one pagefile not multiple ones.

How big is your Windows partition?

1. Look for the pagefile in C:\ and delete it.....point to the file on another drive.

2. Look in the C:\ programs folder and uninstall stuff from there and reinstall it onto another partition. Windows defaults to C:\program files\XXXXXX for most installations. That fills your partition up pretty quick.

Back in the days of NT 4.0 we would create partitions for Windows, applications and data............. drives were not very big back then.

The main reason was that the Windows partition was standard and the applications one was department/function specific............ it made builds and restores easier

[morganlefay]

Your gonna have errors till you resize c: or move some stuff off it

recommended 20% of partition size left free

Can you not free up some space..or move stuff to another drive??

You can remove all the SP backup crap in your windows dir
all the files like this
$NtUninstallKB873333$

MLF

[Cider]

Ive practically done everything to try free up space. I install everything on my other drive. What I didn't take into consideration was the windows updates etc. My C:\ is 5GB, which I thought would be enough. But after the updates I cannot get more than 200 MB. I cant format as I don't have place to back up.

I get alot of files created in a folder named "Commin Files" on my C:\ drive. Can I delete the files etc in there? What exactly is this etc?

Okay it is definately a problem with space. Everytime I try browse my C:\ it crashes. Can someone maybe point me to a website what trash files I can delete in my windows folder or whatever to try free up space.

I am using that CCleaner already.

Nihil: Where exactly do I find this page file?

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

[morganlefay]

Be very careful deleting stuff......

Heres a good article showing where you can look


http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310312

MLF

[nihil]

The pagefile is usually in the root C:\ but also look in WINNT and System32. If you let Windows decide it defaults to the root directory, but I believe it moves if you set the size manually.

It should be called pagefile.sys or something like that (I am not using XP at the moment) What can happen when you change the rules is the old page file can remain in its old location.

The one to look at is C:\program files\ as that is where all the applications you allowed to default install will be. You may want to move them, but be careful of access paths, they will need to be reset. The best method is uninstall and reinstall.

Don't mess with the "common files" folder. these are files that are shared by more than one application.

[Cider]

Okay after all the drama I installed Vista ultimate and it seems to be working fine.

I give vista a thumbs up. Havent had a blue screen or anything. Runs smoothly.

Thank you to everyone for replying.

2 questions:

1) must I pagefile my drives in vista because default it is set to system managed.

2) any reason why I cannot format my Xp partition?

Thanks.

[nihil]

Okay after all the drama I installed Vista ultimate and it seems to be working fine.

How did you do that? are you dual booting with XP? what partition is Vista on?

Please check out this thread, it now seems pretty relevant to your position.

http://antionline.com/showthread.php?t=275405

It follows on from this one:

http://antionline.com/showthread.php?t=275400


EDIT: I would let Windows take care of the page file until you know something different. I would guess you may want to reduce it after a while.

[Cider]

Hi there Nihil

Thanks for the reply.

Okay, I have 2 hard drives. I partioned each divided into to.

C:\ had XP partition on.

Now on a serperate partition I loaded vista onto that. I am currently on vista. I would like to format my C:\ now to get rid of XP but it wont let me for some reason.

If you need any more information please let me know.

[nihil]

Hi Cider,

Please don't try removing XP or resizing its partition until we have a resolution of Moira's problem. Those are the two threads I referenced to, they are very much current and ongoing.

You may suddenly find that you cannot boot either XP or Vista

Would I be correct in thinking that you are currently offered a dual boot screen when you power up? If that is so then you are booting to the Windows NTLDR system from your BIOS. This is the system used by Windows prior to Vista; if you remove it you won't boot anything.

[Cider]

Yes I do get a dual booting screen. Ok well Ill check on moiras post and back to this one if anyone can solve the problem ...

Thanks