A paging file is a portion of the hard drive used to increase RAM and improve access time for frequently used programs. When RAM is full, the system turns to the paging file. It’s faster than running from random locations on the drive, but slower than accessing RAM. Page file contents can be recovered later using software recovery tools.
On some Microsoft Windows operating systems, a paging file is the name given to a portion of the hard drive reserved for increasing Random Access Memory (RAM). It works like virtual RAM, or virtual memory, to improve access time for frequently used programs and data. All other things being equal, the less RAM a system has, the more reserved it is likely to be. If there is enough RAM, there may be no pagefile.
RAM is a fast storage area designed to improve access time to frequently used programs, processes, and files. Recovering data from RAM is faster than recovering from standard platter-style hard drives. When a computer starts up, it stores many routines in RAM so that the system can run better. When the user opens programs, even more RAM is consumed. Firewalls, antivirus programs, and other software running in the background also consume RAM.
When RAM is full, the system turns to the hard drive for help. Using contiguous white space, the system designates a paging file of a certain size. The portion must consist of contiguous space and not just any empty space. The system can access information in contiguous space faster than if it were distributed across disks.
Less accessible data that is in RAM is automatically moved to the paging file. When the user switches to other programs or files, this process continues, using the area as a holding cell. Going back to a previous program will cause the system to swap the contents in the paging file with the contents in RAM. In previous versions of Windows, it was known as a swap file.
If the user has so many processes and programs running that they can’t all be run from RAM, the overflow is done by the pagefile itself. While it’s faster than running from random locations on the drive, it’s significantly slower than accessing RAM. Ideally, a system has so much RAM that a page file isn’t needed, although some programs designed to work with one will create one.
When a computer shuts down, all data in RAM is lost. This is obviously not true of the hard drive, which holds the information. Page file contents, even if deleted upon shutdown, can be recovered later using software recovery tools. For this reason, some people configure their computers to clean the area when they shut down their computer. Cleanup slows down the shutdown process considerably, but it’s a good safety measure for anyone concerned. In both cases, a new page file is created on the next boot if needed.
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