No Paging File

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Klytus

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When I boot this hard drive into Windows 2000, I am greeted with the error message "Your system has no paging file, or the paging file is too small" after I log in. It offers me suggestions on how to fix it, but since I can never get into Windows, I can't change the size of the paging file. What I have attempted, many times, is to slave that drive to a different one, and then though THERE change the size of the paging file. Yet matter what I do, every time I boot to this hard drive, I am greeted with this error on Windows login.

Now this hard drive did have a nasty infection of viruses and spyware. Slaving it to the other hard drive was the only way I was able to run the sweeps on it that eventually cleaned the infections. I was getting this error message before the virus sweep, and hoped getting rid of the infection would help.

Any ideas?
 
What prevents you from changing the pagefile setting? Does the OS restart before you get there?

The message is just a warning, it shouldn't prevent using Windows. Maybe it isn't fully cleaned yet.
 
Originally Posted by Mictlantecuhtli said:
What prevents you from changing the pagefile setting? Does the OS restart before you get there?

The message is just a warning, it shouldn't prevent using Windows. Maybe it isn't fully cleaned yet.
I get to the login, and I log in. Then it gives me that warning about the page file. I click OK. It plays the Windows login music. Then, I'm right back to the login again. It even does this in Safe Mode (with and without network support).

All of my sweeps had been coming up clearn - but I may ned to re-sweep it with evreything. Heck, I may even need to throw a few new programs into the mix. Its also possible the infection damaged the page file - even though I did delete and create a new one, or the registry. If that is the case, I'm going to have to break down, save the data and re-image the drive.
 
Mictlantecuhtli said:
Then it gives me that warning about the page file. I click OK. It plays the Windows login music. Then, I'm right back to the login again. It even does this in Safe Mode (with and without network support).
This is not just a pagefile problem. When Windows determines there's not enough space for a pagefile, it will boot by allocating 0-20mb. It runs very, very slow, but it won't kick you out into the login screen. It sounds like you have a virus.
Its also possible the infection damaged the page file - even though I did delete and create a new one, or the registry.
No, the page file is volatile. It is destroyed and recreated at boot, so you can do whatever you'd like to it but it wont' affect your computer after a restart. The registry of course, is open season... anything goes with that. :)

Your best course of action is to free up space and see if you can get your computer to boot. Boot from the Windows install CD and enter recovery console. Try deleting some junk (large files are preferable, as recovery console cannot delete multiple files at once). You can also use another OS like Knoppix (boot live Linux CD) to make this easier with a GUI.

Once you free up a substantial amount of space (1.5 times your RAM should be enough), reboot and see if it fixes your problem. If it doesn't, you can be almost certain its a virus or a oddly damage Windows install. If you can rule out or repair viruses, then a Windows repair may be in order to get your crippled system back up on its feet.
 
I have slaved the drive in question to a different one. I have run virus sweeps and spyware sweeps (with 3 different programs) more than once, and it is all coming up clean. The drive has *tons* of free space on it.

Looks like I have to bite the bullet, do a backup of the data, and just re-image the bloody thing.

Bugger.
 
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