How to move the Windows page file to another drive

How to Access Virtual Memory Settings

Access virtual memory settings in Windows by opening the Start menu ⊞, typing View advanced system settings, and pressing Enter to open the System Properties window. From there, select the Advanced tab and click the Settings ⚙️ button inside the Performance section to open the Performance Options window where you can change your page file configuration.

1. Open the Start menu ⊞, type View advanced system settings, and press Enter to open the System Properties window.

   

2. Select the Advanced tab at the top of the window.

   

3. Locate the Performance section and click the Settings ⚙️ button.
4. Select the Advanced tab in the Performance Options window that appears.

   

5. Locate the Virtual memory section at the bottom of the window and click the Change button.

Disabling Automatic Page File Management

Disable automatic page file management in Windows by opening the Virtual Memory window and clearing the check box next to Automatically manage paging file size for all drives at the top of the window. Turning this off is necessary before you can manually move your page file to a different drive or change its size.

1. Open the Virtual Memory window using the steps in the previous section.
2. Clear the check box next to “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” at the very top of the window.

   

Removing the Page File From Your Current Drive

Remove the page file from your current drive by clicking your original system drive in the Virtual Memory window list, selecting the No paging file option, and clicking the Set button. This clears the page file from your main drive so you can set it up on your new drive without conflicts.

1. Click on your original system drive (typically drive C:) in the drive list inside the Virtual Memory window.
2. Select the “No paging file” radio button.
3. Click the Set button next to the drive list.
4. Click Apply if prompted, but do not restart your 🔄 computer yet.

Creating the Page File on the New Drive

Create a page file on a new drive by selecting your target secondary drive letter in the Virtual Memory window, choosing either System managed size or Custom size, and clicking the Set button before clicking OK. This tells Windows to use your secondary drive for virtual memory storage.

1. Click on your target secondary drive letter in the drive list inside the Virtual Memory window.
2. Select the "System managed size" radio button, or select "Custom size" and enter your specific Initial size and Maximum size in megabytes.
3. Click the Set button next to the drive list.
4. Click OK at the bottom of the Virtual Memory window.
5. Click OK on the Performance Options window and the System Properties window.

Restarting Your Computer

Windows locks system files while they are in active use, meaning the operating system cannot release the old page file or fully activate the new one until a reboot occurs.

1. Save any open work in your applications.
2. Open the Start menu, click the Power icon, and select Restart.

Verifying the Move

Verify the page file move by opening File Explorer to check your destination drive for the pagefile.sys file, or by returning to the Virtual Memory settings window to confirm the active allocations on each drive. This ensures Windows successfully placed the file on your new drive before you finish up.

1. Open File Explorer and open your destination drive to check for the file. You may need to enable "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" in File Explorer view options to see it.
2. Return to the Virtual Memory settings window to verify that the active allocation points exclusively to the new drive letter.

Optimizing Page File Sizes on Secondary Drives

Optimize page file sizes on secondary drives by choosing between System managed size to let Windows handle the space automatically, or Custom size to set fixed minimum and maximum values. Picking a custom size helps you stop the page file from taking up too much disk space if your secondary drive has limited storage.

What to do next

You should now see the updated drive allocation reflected in your system performance properties and your primary drive will have recovered space. Move on to configuring Storage Sense (a tool that automatically frees up space) or managing your installed applications to free up additional capacity.