hi
i hope im posting in the right place. this is my first time using
these boards. i hope i can get answers here that i cannot get out of
microsoft.

I installed sp2 on my winxp professional a few months ago. Everything
worked great except the pagefile.
Before the update, I had set my pagefile on an external harddisk (F
rather than C: because i get an extra 4000rpm out of it and assumed
things would run faster. No problems there.
After the update, I could no longer set my pagefile on any of my
external drives no matter what I tried. It was determined to set it on
C:
This made programs run noticeably slower, besides the fact that I only
had 500mb left as a result.
I thought this must be some fault with sp2 so i uninstalled it and was
able to go back to my previous pagefile configuration.

Recently however, my network setup wizard had disappered off my pc and
there was no way for me to setup internet configuration sharing. out
of desperation, I installed sp2 once again as i half knew it has new
network wizards. and it turns out that way- my network setup wizard
works once again.
but the pagefile problem returned.

I have tried:
manually setting pagefile path and size in the registry
taking ownership of the root directory/whole drive
giving pagefile creation rights to ALL users in Local Policy, User
Rights Assignment
calling microsoft (said they dont recognise my cdkey..but my windows
came with my laptop?! and therefore they WONT help.)
created new partition specifically for pagefile

None of the above works.

Whats interesting is the folder ive set windows to place the pagefile
in gets modified everytime i reboot/startup windows. but its always
empty when i check it. (my explorer shows all system files and hidden
files)

suggestions much appreciated.
thank you