Configuring Complete Memory Dump Files

A complete memory dump file, sometimes referred to as a full dump file, contains everything that was in physical memory when the Stop error occurred. This includes all the information included in a kernel memory dump file, plus user-mode memory. Therefore, you can examine complete memory dump files to find the contents of memory contained within applications, although this is rarely necessary or feasible when troubleshooting application problems.

If you choose to use complete memory dump files, you must have available space on the systemdrive partition large enough to hold the contents of the physical RAM. Additionally, you must have a paging file equal to the size of your physical RAM.

When a Stop error occurs, the operating system saves a complete memory dump file to a file named %SystemRoot%\Memory.dmp and creates a small memory dump file in the %SystemRoot%\Minidump folder. A Microsoft technical support engineer might ask you to change this setting to facilitate data uploads over slow connections. Depending on the speed of your Internet connection, uploading the data might not be practical, and you might be asked to provide the memory dump file on removable media.

Note By default, new complete memory dump files overwrite existing files. To change this, clear the Overwrite Any Existing File check box. You can also choose to archive or move a dump file prior to troubleshooting.