Pagefile.sys big even though only 24% of RAM is being used.

[i_know_but_need_help]

Why is my pagefile.sys so big when only 24% of RAM is being used. I limited it but then later when working computer froze up due to less RAM even though not much RAM was being used.

[vanished]

The system automatically moves data around depending on what is probably best for performance.  For example, if you have an application that is actively using all of the memory it has reserved, Windows will ensure that it is stored in RAM for best performance.  Alternatively, if a program has reserved a large amount of memory that is remaining relatively static, it may shuffle that off to the pagefile in order to free up RAM that could be better utilized by other applications, or even just for caching other frequently used data so that programs will launch faster.  Although data stored in the pagefile will be substantially slower to retrieve than data stored in RAM, this should not cause any noticeable performance issues if the data stored there is not being accessed much anyway.  For this reason, you can perhaps have much more memory in use than you have RAM and not have issues.  Only when the amount of "active" memory that needs to be fast exceeds the amount of space available in RAM should performance issues become apparent.  When and if this does happen though, "apparent" could be considered quite an understatement.

[LogicalDrm]

You can manually set max space reserved for pagefile. You need it to be active as some software just don't function properly. But you can choose which drive to use (Windows doesn't care) and how much you need. I would say 8gigs is enough, maybe more if you use Adobe's poop.

[GoodBytes]

12 hours ago, i_know_but_need_help said:

Why is my pagefile.sys so big when only 24% of RAM is being used. I limited it but then later when working computer froze up due to less RAM even though not much RAM was being used.

pagefile size is static. It is reserved space on your drive where the OS can use to maximize the RAM usage. Since Vista, Windows will always favor RAM usage over disk. This means that, because data in RAM is in hard blocks, can't be split (fragmented), you may fall into a situation where you have, in total,  plenty of free RAM, a program can't run because there is not one single block free that will make it fit. Windows (and any other OS) will swap things in and out to organize your RAM. Essentially, defrag free space. Pagefile typically is the size of your RAM. You can shrink it or disable it. But doing so, opens you doors of program crashing on you. And Windows telling you you are low in virtual memory. I don't know your current or future usage, same for Windows. So it assumes the worse case scenario, and so pagefile is the amount of RAM you have, typically.