As I mentioned - you can have mulitple pagefiles (for virtual memory purposes).
I am specifically talking about generating memory dump files. If you load WinDBG (or kernel debugger) and run the lm command, you will see two sets of mass storage controller drivers loaded. One will be something like viamraid (for a Via RAID controller) and the second will be dump_vaimraid. THe second is an exact clone of the first. But in case the first crashes for whatever reason and dump needs to be created, the backup copy is used. The dump creation process writes the dump data to the physical blocks on the disk where the pagefile is located on the boot (Windows) volume. It does not write dump data to any other configured pagefile on any other volume. When the machine next boots, the csrss.exe (or winlogon, or something) detects that there is dump data in pagefile.sys and invokes savedump.exe to copy this data to memory.dmp. This is why, sometimes after booting from a BSOD, you get low memory errors. Because the pagefile hasn't been cleaned out yet. The information is in the Windows SDK. You can also read Windows Internals, or similar books to get the same information. Cheers Ken ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, 10 June 2008 12:50 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Trend 8.0 server hang - revisiting Ken Schaefer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 06/06/2008 07:24:05 PM: > Hi, > > You mention you have plenty of room on the pagefile drive. That is > not what is required to create a dump file. What is required is: > > a) Pagefile must be located on the boot volume (this is the > volume that holds Windows) NOT on other volumes (or, you can have > multiple pagefiles but only the one on the boot volume is used) I don't know that this is correct. If you have multiple pagefiles, say 1 on each of your 2 internal drives, then both pagefiles can be used. I'm told that SQL will use 2 page files, but perhaps the OS won't? Can anyone confirm/deny/elaborate? -- Michael Leone Network Administrator, ISM Philadelphia Housing Authority 2500 Jackson St Philadelphia, PA 19145 Tel: 215-684-4180 Cell: 215-252-0143 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
