Query about failure of Debian 6 64 bit to swap properly

[Bret Busby <bret@busby.net>]

Hello.

In the ongoing saga of the inability of the 64 bit version of Debian 6 
to swap properly, so that an i3 CPU with 8GB of RAM and a 40GB swap 
partition, runs about as fast as an 8086 trying to run MS Windows 3, a 
possible cause has occurred to me.

I have found that the file manager, despite the operating system being 
64 bit, cannot cope with a filesize of about 1GB.

I can download and delete files with a filesize of up to about 1.2GB, 
but, if I try to move or copy them, the system crashes, and requires the 
power button to be held down, to strangle the system, to shut the system 
down.

Sometimes, when this happens, I have to reboot a few times to get the 
system going again.

I am thus wondering whether, with the swap partition beng 40GB, and 
thus, bigger than the about 1GB maximum filesize that the file manager 
can cope with, the inability to use the swap partition, is due to the 
failure of the file manager to cope with files over about 1GB.

I can download, copy, and move, files with file size of about 600-700GB, 
such as CD ISO files, but not much bigger.

So, my query is this; is the inability of 64 bit Debian 6, to swap 
properly, instead using increasing amounts of RAM until it runs out of 
RAM, then crashing, while having 40GB of unused swap partition allocated 
and "swappiness" set to 70, due to the inability of the file manager to 
cope with filesize greater than 1GB?

I do hope that Debian 7 implements memory paging, or swapping.

Thank you in anticipation.

--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
  written by Douglas Adams,
  published by Pan Books, 1992
....................................................