Microsoft's Windows Xp has something we call a paging file. The paging file is also known as virtual memory, rather than go into to much detail, just think of it like an overspill of the physical memory that is installed, but this is saved on your hard drive rather than in the RAM (memory). Microsoft Windows XP lets you choose where the paging file is located on your hard drive as well as the size. I recommend you set the paging file to your scratchpad partition, if you haven't set up a scratchpad partition, then set to your My Documents partition.
In respect of the size that the paging file should be there are varied opinions, normally 1.5 x the physical memory installed. You can select windows to manage the size, or select the size yourself. I always set the paging file to a fixed size of 1024MB. To do this navigate to:
Start > Control Panel > System
When the System Properties menu pops up, click advanced, then under the performance label click settings. click on the advanced tab then click change. This takes you to the area where you can change the paging file. All you need to do is select the drives/partitions one at a time, select the setting you want then click ok. You need to do this for every drive/partition. I turn the paging file off on every drive except Scratchpad, and select the maximum and minimum size to be 1024MB. (note: You can select a larger size if you desire, but anything over 1536MB is normally overkill and can have adverse effects)
