Putting the page file on different partitions...

by **Jeffro** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 6:06 pm

I have seen instructions online on how to do this but have had a couple questions about it...

1.) I have 1024 RDRAM...is it really nessassary to put the page file on several partitions (or whatever you call em')?

2.) I have the page file set to 1.5x the initial, and 3x the maximum of my ram...is that correct?

3.) Should I have made this a poll?

by **CrazyBri** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 6:56 pm

1) Your pagefile should not be on the same partition as your operating system if possible. I wouldn't recommend spreading the pagefile across more than 2 different hard drives. Ideally you would want the pagefile on your fastest harddrive with its own separate partition.

2) That was what I recommended to you awhile back because it's what microsoft recommends for XP (you are running xp right?)

3) yes so that we could have made jokes afterwards

4) boisclair will hijack this thread so get ready

by **Jeffro** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 7:08 pm

Originally posted by CrazyBri
1) Your pagefile should not be on the same partition as your operating system if possible. I wouldn't recommend spreading the pagefile across more than 2 different hard drives. Ideally you would want the pagefile on your fastest harddrive with its own separate partition.

2) That was what I recommended to you awhile back because it's what microsoft recommends for XP (you are running xp right?)

3) yes so that we could have made jokes afterwards

4) boisclair will hijack this thread so get ready

Hmm..
Number one sounds complicated...

How do change partitions and stuff...there are several sites that show how to do it, but i am afraid of going on a sucky one and screwin' up my pc..l.

by **Landon West** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 7:20 pm

I always have my pagefile set to a static size. I have the max and min set to 1.5x my amount of RAM, and I have heard that yields the greatest performance increase.

by **CrazyBri** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 9:36 pm

Jeffro don't add or delete any partitions if you're not comfortable with it. Just worry about assigning the pagefile to the appropriate partition. BTW, you can usually use floppy disks supplied by the hard drive manufacturers to partition your hard drives or I create them during the windows install (or on some motherboards use the BIOS if you're working with RAID).

Ok I need to add some more info to my first answer from my previous post. You can get faster performance by splitting up your pagefile across several hard drives since XP will read the data across all of the drives simultaneously. The reason why I say keep it in one partition is because I like not having to worry about the pagefile getting heavily fragmented .(which is when the files you store on the hard drive gets separated into lots of random areas instead of being in a continuous order)

Landon I used to keep my min and max static just like you do because I thought it was another nice way to avoid fragmentation.

However, in this expert column on microsoft's site it says this is a no-no

"You might think that setting the initial size and the maximum size to the same (relatively large—say, two or three times RAM) value would improve performance since it would mean that Windows XP would never resize the page file. In practice, however, it has been shown that this trick does not improve performance, and in some cases can actually decrease performance.

If you have a large amount of RAM (at least 1 GB), you might think that Windows XP would never need virtual memory, so that it would be okay to turn off the page file. This won't work, however, because Windows XP needs the page file anyway and some programs may crash if no virtual memory is present."

here's the link:
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/expertzone/columns/mcfedries/03june16.asp

by **CrazyBri** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 10:23 pm

alert! alert! this thread is now under Boisclair control! :lol:

ps I am going to add music to the next song I sing to skilo. It will be fantabulous

by **WeSSiN** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 10:39 pm

CrazyBri: I just wanted to say thanks for that info about the page file you posted!

by **Jeffro** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 3:36 pm

Hmm...who should i believe...

landon or bri?

by **CrazyBri** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 4:19 pm

Originally posted by Jeffro
Hmm...who should i believe...

landon or bri?

Click on the URL I gave you and read the advice from an official XP expert.

Actually the quote I pasted should tell you enough but go to the URL for more info.

np Frick :beer:

by **Jeffro** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 4:27 pm

Originally posted by CrazyBri
Click on the URL I gave you and read the advice from an official XP expert. Actually the quote I pasted should tell you enough but go to the URL for more info.

np Frick

Ok...sounds good from the article...

by **Landon West** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 8:04 pm

I followed the advice of that article. I haven't really noticed any performance increase, but with 1 GB of RAM I have set up my page file as follows:

C: [System] 256-1536
D: [Stuff] 256-1536

by **Tommy Boy** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 9:48 pm

Originally posted by Landon West
I always have my pagefile set to a static size. I have the max and min set to 1.5x my amount of RAM, and I have heard that yields the greatest performance increase.

Is this difficult to do? I have 1 Gb of Ram so what would you recommend?

by **Mr. Slayer** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 11:40 pm

Originally posted by Tommy Boy
Is this difficult to do? I have 1 Gb of Ram so what would you recommend?

All you have to do is go to start, control panel, performance and maintenance, then click system. After you have the system dialogue box up go to the advanced tab and under "performance" click settings. After that click the advanced tab and the bottom section is where you can control your page file (Virtual Memory.) That link that CrazyBri posted best explains how it all works, and the reccomended settings. (Windows sets it automatically normally.)

by **CozMoDan** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:52 am

Guys I would like to say a few things and not to piss anyone off. But partitions on the same drive will not allow reading of multiple files at the same time. Reason, it is on one channel and the data must flow up the same path to memory. I am not sure why anyone would partition a drive to start with. Now if you have a two channel controller (which most MoBos do now) that would be better, however it would still not help to have several partitions on that drive and spreed the file across them as it is still the same channel. I have a raid controller and have two drives set to RAID 0 which means that it look like one drive to the OS and in fact will read both drives at the same time because of the controller software not the OS. I believe that there is some way you can create a fake RAID with WIN OS but I don't think it is that good.

One other thing if you do not want the OS to change the size of the file then make the min and the max the same size i.e both at 1.5 gigs.
I am not a expert at this but I think what I am telling you is correct.

by **Tommy Boy** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:54 am

Originally posted by slayer_1
All you have to do is go to start, control panel, performance and maintenance, then click system. After you have the system dialogue box up go to the advanced tab and under "performance" click settings. After that click the advanced tab and the bottom section is where you can control your page file (Virtual Memory.) That link that CrazyBri posted best explains how it all works, and the reccomended settings. (Windows sets it automatically normally.)

thanks, I will check this out.

Putting the page file on different partitions...

Putting the page file on different partitions...

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