XP Pagefile drive???

[Majestic One]

hey everyone...

i just put together an old system that maxes out w/ win xp - no win 7 for this machine.

it has a 40GB primary os drive and a 40GB secondary for storage. ALL 100% fresh install and the secondary drive is zeroed.

i built this machine so my girlfriend could have her own computer.

the trip is when i went to put some files on her secondary (blank) drive there was a bunch of folders and crap that looked like an installation of windows 7!!?? what gives it away is the structure of the 'documents' folder and on the root of the drive it has a 'users' folder...

what the hell???

i can't format the drive. drive management format is greyed out.
even in safe mode i cannot format.
the trippy thing for me is under disk management - the partiton type says it is 'pagefile' instead of like 'primary or active'. i have never seen this before

it is a proprietary compaq system but i have 'customed' it a little and am using my own version of win xp vs the compaq recovery disk set - so there should be NO partition creating, backing up etc going on with this machine.

i haven't unplugged the 2nd drive and tried to boot with just the os drive - but that shouldn't matter - it WAS blank when i finished with the os installation + updates etc.

any body have any ideas how to release the hold on the drive that windows seems to have so i can get her fresh scratched drive back to being freshly scratched? (zeroed)

thanks all.

PEACE!

 

[Hawkeye22]

1. right-click "my computer" and select properties.
2. go to the "advanced" tab
3. Click the settings button under performance.
4. click the "advanced" tab.
5. Click the "change" button under virtual memory.
6. Move the page file to some other drive.

See if that works fo you.

 

[Majestic One]

hey, Hawkeye - i just got a chance to check your method.
there is no paging file on the secondary HDD.

to continue on with more details, here is a list of folders on this drive:

$WINDOWS.~BT (581 kb)
$WINDOWS.~LS (0 k)
PerfLogs (0 k)
Program Files (391 MB)
Users (80 MB) [2 user folders: Administrator & Public]
Windows (2.63 GB)
autoexec.bat (1 kb)
config.sys (1 kb)

I have NO clue why this drive is like this or why I cannot format it.
I am just about ready to unplug it and format it in my Win 7 machine but am investigating here @ Tom's to see if that is a wise idea.

As I said - I have NEVER seen anything like this (keeping in mind I have never put in a Win 7 disk into this machines optical drive - hence the "Users" folder]

I will check back again a little later to see if this thread gets any hits - but will unplug the drive tomorrow and boot up. IF all loads fine, then i will scratch it in my Win 7 machine and try the HDD again back in GF's computer. Observe and report back IF and ONLY if the drive seems to recreate these folders again.

hmmm... mayby this has something to do with me doing an X-Files marathon... lol

again, PEACE!