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FolderRisk: Safe

Minidump C:\Windows\Minidump

Small .dmp files (small memory dumps) generated on blue screens. They can be deleted after analysis.

Updated on By AltF4 Formation

What it’s for

Windows stores the small memory dumps created on a stop error (blue screen) here. The path matches the MinidumpDir Registry value. These files are mostly used to identify the faulty driver or module.

What it contains

  • .dmp files, one per crash, whose name encodes the date (for example Mini022900-01.dmp: first dump of February 29, 2000).
  • For each crash, the basic information: stop code, stack of the faulting thread, list of loaded drivers.

Risks and best practices

  • Copy the dumps before any diagnosis or hand-off to support. Once the analysis is done, you can delete the contents.
  • A small dump needs a paging file of at least 2 MB on the boot volume.
  • Dumps can contain memory fragments, so do not share them carelessly.
  • Generation depends on the dump type chosen in the Startup and Recovery settings.

Useful commands

Fenêtre de terminal
# List of dumps, newest first
Get-ChildItem "$env:windir\Minidump" -Filter *.dmp -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending


# Configured dump type (3 = small memory dump)
Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl' | Select-Object CrashDumpEnabled, MinidumpDir
Fenêtre de terminal
:: Open a dump in the debugging tools (WinDbg), then run: !analyze -v
windbg -z C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini022900-01.dmp

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