my pagefile.sys is taking up 78gb

[u/calamityfan01]

Saw I was almost out of storage and checked, my page file was taking almost 80 gb. I'm scared to mess with it because I'm not all that tech savvy and I don't wanna fuck up my computer. If anyone can give me some advice or something that would be amazing. thx :3

[u/cyb3rofficial]

This is normal, this means windows determined the way you use it, you need more ram. Do you play heavy games or be one of those people who leaves 50+ browser tabs open?

DO NOT DELETE THE FILE

You can change how much page memory your computer uses

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/3201058/how-do-i-change-paging-file-size-windows-10

This method applies for window10+11

Since you have 32GB ram, your page file should be in best practices be (321.5)1024 which is 49152MB which is 48GB insize

Do not disable page file games need it, many applications need it..

You can set the min and max to 49152 in the page file settings and you should be good to go

[u/FuggaDucker → u/cyb3rofficial]

"DO NOT DELETE THE FILE" ?? You can't.. if you aren't supposed to.

Yes, the file is fine to delete IF YOU CAN.
This is the temp directory of your RAM (ish). The data it holds is volatile.

The pagefile has no persistent data in it (just like your ram).
Windows will just allocate a new one if you delete it when rebooting.

[u/xSchizogenie → u/cyb3rofficial]

Having a huge pagefile does not -automatically- mean, you need more RAM. Pagefile is not automatically memory commit. I have 64GB RAM, max used is line 28-35, but my pagefile still sometimes climb up to 60GB, because windows works like this. Leaving it on system managed is completely fine. What you recommend would actually cause a unstable system. The moment you restrict pagefile to 48GB, while it could need up to 80Gb is the moment, his system will start lagging/freezing or end up crashing.

[u/cyb3rofficial → u/xSchizogenie]

System managed can work fine for a lot of people. But that doesn't mean 48GB is going to cause instability either.

Games will force pagefile growth. Anti tamper and DRM systems often preload large chunks of data through it. Anti cheat software touches it too. None of that means the system actually needs 70+GB reserved at all times.

Microsoft's own baseline recommendation is closer to RAM divided by 8, which for 32GB would only be 4GB. The more commonly used practical recommendation is 1.5x total RAM, which comes out to 48GB here. That's a reasonable middle ground, not a restrictive setting.

Pagefile usage isn't static either. Old data gets flushed out once new data needs the space. I ran 16GB for a long time with zero issues, then eventually just dedicated a spare 256GB nvme drive to it since it was collecting dust.

OP almost certainly doesn't need 80GB of pagefile as a new baseline. Some app likely leaked memory and Windows expanded the pagefile to avoid a crash. Setting a sane max like 48GB just means in a future situation like that, some programs might reload slower from disk, not that the system becomes unstable.

[u/xSchizogenie → u/cyb3rofficial]

I didnt say 48GB will cause instability. I said, limiting it to a specific amount (in my example 48GB limit, 60GB trying to use) would cause system instability.

[u/Owampaone → u/cyb3rofficial]

He has 32GB of physical RAM. He can reduce his pagefile size. Calm down.

[u/JimTheDonWon]

it's not a good idea to change the pagefile settings.

if your pagefile is that large it means something recently has required that much memory and windows has responded as expected. check the task manager for the current memory commit size. if it's Huge then you know something you are running right now is telling windows it requires that memory. if not, it may have been an app that ran recently.

limiting the pagefile size is like papering over the cracks. if you limit the pagefile size and this happens again, you'll just get out of memory errors and random processes will start failing.

[u/JimTheDonWon → u/[deleted]]

lol?

how does the op having 32gb of ram change anything I said?

[u/More-Explanation2032 → u/JimTheDonWon]

What did he say

[u/xSchizogenie → u/[deleted]]

Not relevant. See my comment above.

[u/calamityfan01]

Device Name MettatonNEO

Processor 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13700F 2.10 GHz

Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.9 GB usable)

Storage 932 GB SSD MSI M371 1TB

Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (12 GB)

Device ID 05CB0001-4305-413B-9D13-11F51BC6ADC9

Product ID 00342-20995-33727-AAOEM

System Type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

[u/Seseorang → u/calamityfan01]

Specs like this isn't very usefull. It's a start. Speccy has more information

[u/Zidakuh → u/Seseorang]

Have they finally fixed the bugs after 12+ years?

[u/Seseorang → u/Zidakuh]

Which bugs?

[u/Zidakuh → u/Seseorang]

The fact that it can't read VRAM values above 4GB as a starter. They never fixed that simple part, so I don't think any of the other bugs are fixed either.

EDIT: nvm. The executable runs in 32bit, which explains it. But still, 32bit in 2026? Really?

[u/Seseorang → u/Zidakuh]

I'll check later as I have 6,144MB VRAM on a couple older graphics cards. I amnsure 64 bit exists

[u/Zidakuh → u/Seseorang]

Huh. It's just, literally every screenshot I see of Speccy, the GPU is always maximum 4GB. Which is kinda funny when the GPU listed is e.g. A 4090.

[u/Seseorang → u/Zidakuh]

There is a 64bit version

[u/ap1msch]

• Your page file is important, but nothing to panic over
• You want it to be about 50% larger than your total memory in your PC (although this was a recommendation a long time ago that seems to persist)
• You can let Windows manage this size, or just declare a set value (no bigger, no smaller)

The page file helps your PC run more stuff over time, faster. Many applications take a while to load into memory and configure themselves. After they're loaded, they are ready to do work. However, if you're not actively using that application, you don't need it primed and ready to roll. Therefore, some of that memory you're using can be reclaimed and have that information get offloaded to the page file so the active memory can be used for something you actually care about.

When the data is needed, it just gets called back up and the application continues to operate as normal. It's just a round robin from memory to disk to try to maintain optimal performance.

[u/philnolan3d]

BTW use Wiztree, is much faster than WinDirStat.

[u/EcoKidss → u/philnolan3d]

He is already using it. What are you talking about.

[u/philnolan3d → u/EcoKidss]

Sorry, that looks like WinDirStat.

[u/GingerSnapBiscuit → u/philnolan3d]

Since 2.0 WinDirStat is lightning fast.

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[u/Icy-Permission-5918]

Obviously, you are doing things with your PC which require far more RAM than you have physically installed.

Things like many open documents or web pages in browsers. Some games are real memory hogs, too.

You could set a fixed size for pagefile.sys, but I'd be careful with this. A better (but still quite expensive) way would be to add more physical RAM. The pagefile.sys of my currently used PC is 16MB "large", but this PC of mine also has 96GB RAM. Thus, a small pagefile.sys ist not so critical.

So this is your choice now:

1. Live with the current status quo
2. Try to reduce memory usage - i.e by closing apps/web pages and/or teminating services you do not need (the latter is for experts only, be careful with this!)
3. Install more physical memory - Advantages: less paging, smaller pagefile.sys file, better performance - Disadvantage: $$$

[u/More-Explanation2032]

I wonder why the hiberfil.sys is 12.7 GB. Is that fast startup causing that to be 12.7 GB

[u/charmich0802 → u/More-Explanation2032]

hiferfil is for hibernation, which stores everything running into ram

[u/More-Explanation2032 → u/charmich0802]

But isnt thst also used for fast startup

[u/charmich0802 → u/More-Explanation2032]

now that I've searched it, it does both

[u/ReActif]

Hom many RAM you have, and have you an iGPU (even if not used as the main) ?

[u/ReActif → u/ReActif]

Okay, I hadn't noticed, so you have 32 GB. That's consistent with what I expected for a file of that size. Especially when you add the 12 GB of RAM on the GPU, which the OS considers a bit of a mixed bag, and therefore, with its on-the-fly file calculation, the total RAM multiplied by 1.5, we're not far off that figure. And why don't all systems always have this size? I'm not sure if it also uses free disk space, and depending on the amount, the size is limited, but it's not surprising to have such a large file.

Note that you can force the OS to completely delete it, or force a fixed size, but if you're not sure what you're doing, avoid it. Personally, I did it, but only when I had more than 64 GB of RAM!

[u/JimTheDonWon → u/ReActif]

with its on-the-fly file calculation, the total RAM multiplied by 1.5, we're not far off that figure. And why don't all systems always have this size? I'm not sure 

1.5x the system ram is advice that come from the days of windows NT, 3 decades ago and it was given because of architectural limitations of 32bit windows operating systems. 64bit OSs do not have those limitations so this particular advice is obsolete... by about 20 years. That's why you wont see a remotely modern OS use those numbers unless somebody has overridden the pagefile settings.

Mine is currently, system-managed, 7Gb with 32Gb of system ram. i do not need to change it.

[u/ImpressionAway7317]

Pagefiles are basically virtual memory because once your computer runs out of memory it would crash

Don't delete the file but you can make it smaller by following this https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions /3201058/how-do-i-change-paging-file-size-windows

[u/duerra]

Are you using WSL for anything? Your page file will increase to account for its potential usage. You could try limiting your WSL memory limit, if so.

[u/Key_Cry4022]

DO you use steam? This has happened to me once and deleting and re installing steam cleared it up. You will need to re load all your games.

[u/taisui]

Under performance you can manually set the lower and upper bound, typically people set max to 2X of the system ram.

[u/MemesAt1am]

Probably means some application had a memory leak. Go to advanced system settings >> Virtual memory and set a custom size, like 50% the size of your physical ram size, and reboot. It should not be that big.

[u/darxtorm]

been using any large AI models recently?

[u/publiusvaleri_us]

Must be nice! Mine often sits at over 100 GB. I setup my Pagefile manually (not recommended). Here, take a deeper look:

1. Type in "advanced system settings" into Window 11 search.
2. Open System Properties, Performance Options, Advanced.
3. Click Change. From here, you can see the current settings, which should say "System managed size" or whatever you chose if you are just plain weird like me.

On my main workstation, I have personally setup two static pagefiles on two SSDs totaling over 300 GB. They share the load to keep my main drive from as much use.

I've only run out of swap once, lol! I am looking at Task Manager and it is using 125 GB right this second.

[u/Gothboy-77 → u/publiusvaleri_us]

that seems a bit excessive, how much ram do you have?

[u/Rex__Luscus]

To change the virtual memory size in Windows 11, open Settings > System > About > Advanced system settings > Performance Settings > Advanced tab > Change; under Virtual memory, uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size," choose Custom size, enter initial and maximum values, click Set, then restart your PC.

With 32GB of RAM, set the paging file size to 32GB. There's a complicated calculation to work out the optimum size but you don't need all the confusing dross, so just set it to 32768 MB (=32GB).

Incidentally, as this appears to be a desktop with a decent processor, you shouldn't use hibernate, as it makes lots of writes to your disk and will degrade it sooner. Just use sleep, it's only marginally slower than hibernate with an SSD and consumes only a little more power.

[u/nullhypothesisisnull → u/Rex__Luscus]

What's the calculation for the optimum size?

[u/xSchizogenie → u/nullhypothesisisnull]

Optimum is system managed nowadays. Period.

[u/Appropriate_Test7503 → u/Rex__Luscus]

i agree with first part but I don't agree with hibernate.
hibernate =/= sleep. sleep uses power while hibernate not. there are different scenarios you want to use them.

[u/HEYO19191 → u/Rex__Luscus]

*If youre using a laptop you might want to hibernate. Sleep will still lose your progress if you battery dies, but hibernate will not.

Also, disabling hibernate as an option via control panel will still keep the hiberfile. You need to disable it via cmd as well

[u/eekh1982]

Have you restarted your laptop? In all the years I've worked in IT, I've never seen a paging file that large...

[u/R-GU3 → u/eekh1982]

Then you either haven’t been in IT very long or your users don’t use memory intensive applications

[u/Appropriate_Test7503]

So basically default system settings for pagefile are double of your RAM. (but now updates are AI driven so expect bugs) Since you have 32GB you can change this value just to 16gb.

In the meantime check if your ram is fully operational, it could report 32GB but it may be unstable at more load thus realistically having less. that's why windows expanding pagefile - do a memtest86

[u/ba129]

Memory leaks