Microsoft Windows uses Pagefile.sys as a file for virtual memory, where it stores a lot of data and therefore takes up a lot of space on your hard drive. Another file that also tends to grow quite large is hiberfil.sys, in this case related to hibernation and the data saved during this process. These files can be deleted, and the result will be a large amount of space on your computer. storage unitSo, if you're short on space, you should follow these steps to free up a lot of gigabytes.
What is pagefile.sys?
Microsoft Windows uses the file called pagefile.sys as a storage for the operating system itself for paging, that is, as part of the virtual memory so that programs "think" they have more RAM than the system actually has installed. This way, running processes can be moved to RAM if they have priority or offloaded to the hard drive within this pagefile.sys when they don't.
In other words, it would be the equivalent of the swap file or partition SWAP in Unix-like operating systems. There's even a trick in Linux to use Windows' pagefile.sys in a Dual Boot installation instead of SWAP.
However, storing all these processes makes this file grows in size and end up taking up a lot of space on your HDD or SSD drive, it could even reach several gigabytes, and this could be a problem when you don't have too many.
What happens if I delete pagefile.sys?
Before proceeding to explain how you can delete pagefile.sys, the following is explain what can happen if this file is deleted. As we explained, this file allows programs to seemingly have more RAM than is actually installed. This space can then be accessed as part of the virtual memory we discussed earlier.
So, as you might expect, when you have low RAM, such as <8GB, then you'll notice that your computer loses some performance. You'll notice it slows down, so it's not recommended in these cases.
Instead, yes you have 16 GB The performance impact will be minimal; you'll hardly notice it. And if you have more than that amount, you certainly won't need pagefile.sys in most cases. For example, in configurations with 32 or 64 GB, or even more, it shouldn't be necessary in most cases.
Therefore, removing it would free up significant space. However, The size of this file is dynamic, so its size is usually directly proportional to the capacity of your hard drive. That is, it will be larger on larger drives than on smaller drives.
How to delete pagefile.sys in Windows
Delete this pagefile.sys file This doesn't mean the system will stop working. To remove it, you can follow these steps:
- Go to the Windows Control Panel.
- Select System.
- Then go to Advanced system settings.
- Once there you can go to the Advanced Options tab.
- You will now see the Performance section, where you must select the Settings button…
- You will see another window open, from there you must go to Advanced Options, and then go to the Virtual Memory section.
- There you'll see the current amount of space occupied by pagefile.sys. Click the Change... button.
- By default, it is checked to automatically manage the size of the pagefile.sys, but we can uncheck the box and select the storage drives you have installed and click on "No paging file."
- Click Set. Accept, and that's it.
Now you will see that pagefile.sys occupies 0 KB of space, so you will have gained free space.
What is hiberfil.sys?
Hiberfil.sys It's another well-known Windows file. As I mentioned earlier, it's related to hibernation. That is, it dumps all the information about active processes and open files constantly so that when we put the computer into hibernation mode, it won't be lost. When power is cut off from the RAM, all the data in it will be lost, but not if it's stored on the hard drive.
However, it is possible that never use hibernate mode, so you could do without the space occupied by this Windows file. Just like you delete pagefile.sys, you can also do the same with hiberfil.sys.
What happens if I delete hiberfil.sys?
Again, as with pagefile.sys, the question also arises as to whether remove hiberfil.sys It could cause some harm to the operating system or its performance. And the truth is, if you're not going to use hibernation mode, there won't be any problem with removing it. You also won't notice any performance loss, regardless of your RAM configuration. For that reason, it's not as problematic as pagefile.sys. So if you're low on RAM, you could choose to delete hiberfil.sys instead of pagefiles.sys without any performance loss.
As I mentioned before, the only thing hiberfil.sys does is dump the contents of RAM to the hard drive So that if the PC goes into hibernation mode, nothing that was running at the time isn't lost. This way, the RAM can be turned off and saved energy instead of keeping it active.
That is, the only consequence The problem is that when you put your PC into hibernation mode and turn it back on, it won't be able to return to its previous state. In other words, hibernation would be like restarting your computer. However, if you don't need this mode, you don't have to worry about anything.
Delete hiberfil.sys
It can remove hiberfil.sys from your Windows by following these simple steps:
- The first thing is to access the Command Prompt or CMD and do it as Administrator.
- Once in the terminal, the next step is to type the command “powercfg /h off” without quotes.
- To execute this command press ENTER.
- After this, you can close the terminal window. All that's left to do is restart Windows.
- Once rebooted, the hiberfil.sys file will be gone, freeing up a good number of GB on your storage drive.
Of course, instead of using CMD, you can also use PowerShell, another possible Windows shell. The procedure would be exactly the same: open PowerShell as Administrator, run the command, and restart.