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Possible Duplicate:
How to move the page file to another physical disk location Windows 7

I was given temporarily a PC, running Windows 7 Ultimate. The problem is it's hard drive is full, there are like 250 MB free. The swap file is set to none. It has 4 GB RAM. When I load a few tabs in Chrome or IE and start a game it runs out of memory. I already emptied Recycle Bin, %temp%, etc. Deleting/moving user files or adding RAM is not an option.

Now I have a USB 3 7200 RPM drive, it's connected to a USB 3 port and is really fast. Is there a way to create a swap file on that drive?

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Sara Cohen
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3 Answers3

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Running with your swap on a usb device sounds very very risky to me. I personally recommend you very seriously consider either deleting/moving unnecessary content elsewhere (perhaps to your USB drive), adding a hard drive to your computer and using that or completely replacing your hard drive and migrating your data over.

By running over USB, I fear that you could end up with a relatively unstable system. Swap space is fairly critical to maintain, if you're going to have swap at all.

If I were you, I would maintain all system files on to your C drive (or some volume inside your computer).. I'd instead move user files such as things from "My Documents" and possible some programs to reside on the USB drive. Note that many programs don't respond well to being moved, to do that, you may need to uninstall and install them again.

Keeping all system files on a local disk is should be much better protected from unexpected failures - such as an accidental kick of the foot. Fortunately, hard drives are quite inexpensive now, so if you wanted to explore getting another one, the cost should be minimal.

At least, this is my keen opinion. Take care!

James T Snell
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Yes there is a way to use your USB drive for your swap space.

  1. Click Start -> Computer.

  2. Right click on the drive and go to properties.

  3. Click on the ReadyBoost tab.

  4. Select either "Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost" or "Use this device" (if you choose "Use this device" specify the size you want to use).

If you need any further assistance with this, please let me know.

UPDATE

Actually, I think your question is a duplicate of this question.

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David
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Click the Start menu, type systempropertiesadvanced then hit enter. Under Performance click Settings... then go to the Advanced tab. Under Virtual Memory click Change..., now for the C: drive you should probably change that to No paging file then click Set. Next click on your usb drive (whatever letter it may be) change that to Custom Size and make it whatever size you want, and don't for get to click Set again after that. I hope that helps.

imtheman
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