Swap file clean up - John Corliss & Art

  • Thread starter Thread starter Offbreed
  • Start date Start date
O

Offbreed

Think the swap file could be renamed early enough so Windows can
recreate a new one, and the old one could then be over written by one
of the many utilities availible?

Just found the old thread. Looks like how to clean it up was never
settled.
 
Offbreed said:
Think the swap file could be renamed early enough so Windows can
recreate a new one, and the old one could then be over written by one
of the many utilities availible?

Just found the old thread. Looks like how to clean it up was never
settled.
Click to expand...

I think what happens when a batch file successfully deletes the
swapfile is that Windows simply undeletes the swap file. And since it
does so before Windows finishes starting, there is absolutely
overwriting-loss of data and the restored swap file is simply the old
one exactly. The way to get around this would involve deleting the
file and creating a new blank file that you name win386.swp. This,
however, might fu** things up for the system. I don't know since I've
never tried it.
 
I think what happens when a batch file successfully deletes the
swapfile is that Windows simply undeletes the swap file. And since it
does so before Windows finishes starting, there is absolutely
overwriting-loss of data and the restored swap file is simply the old
one exactly. The way to get around this would involve deleting the
file and creating a new blank file that you name win386.swp. This,
however, might fu** things up for the system. I don't know since I've
never tried it.
Click to expand...

The technique:

If Exist C:\Windows\Win386.swp Delete C:\Windows\Win386.swp

worked quite well for me (pre WinXP), back in the late Win95/early Win98 days.
Instruction added to (the) Autoexec.bat file, as I recall. File deleted upon
boot-up; Windows re-built it; no worries.
 
Vrodok said:
The technique:

If Exist C:\Windows\Win386.swp Delete C:\Windows\Win386.swp

worked quite well for me (pre WinXP), back in the late Win95/early Win98 days.
Instruction added to (the) Autoexec.bat file, as I recall. File deleted upon
boot-up; Windows re-built it; no worries.
Click to expand...

That used to work for me too. However, ME does this undelete trick,
but only since some update I foolishly installed.
 
Think the swap file could be renamed early enough so Windows can
recreate a new one, and the old one could then be over written by one
of the many utilities availible?

Just found the old thread. Looks like how to clean it up was never
settled.
Click to expand...

You should be doing that.
Deleting and recreating swap file will make the hard disk more
fragmented.
 
WebWalker said:
You should be doing that.
Deleting and recreating swap file will make the hard disk more
fragmented.
Click to expand...

I have, in the past, started in the safe mode, disabled the swap file
entirely, rebooted into the safe mode again, defragmented and then
reactivated the swap file and rebooted to normal.
 
John said:
I think what happens when a batch file successfully deletes the swapfile
is that Windows simply undeletes the swap file. And since it does so
before Windows finishes starting, there is absolutely overwriting-loss
of data and the restored swap file is simply the old one exactly.
Click to expand...

That's why I suggested renaming it. See my comments, below, about 8MB.
That would reduce the frag prob mentioned by the other poster.
The
way to get around this would involve deleting the file and creating a
new blank file that you name win386.swp. This, however, might fu**
things up for the system. I don't know since I've never tried it.
Click to expand...

LOL, Maybe on someone elses computer? Or a full backup to another HDD.

I just found an old post from the win98 ng, about how win98 *actually*
needed only 8MB swap, if there was enough RAM. I'd heard there were
several Win programs that checked for the existance of a swap file,
even if they never used it. (shrug) No telling if any of that means
anything to the discussion of using a RAMdisk with XP.

I'm eagerly awaiting the IDE flash drives. The last I saw was $600 for
1Gig, so it might be a while. They should be a bit easier to clean.
 
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