Moving the pagefile...

[Wing Nut]

Has anyone done this?  It's supposed to give you a bit of a performance boost across the board.  As I understand it, the pagefile fakes your PC into thinking it has more memory than it does, though I'm not sure why moving it off of the c-drive is supposed to help.  It was recommended that it get it's own little partition, so that it can be accessed easier, and be defragmented easier.  I have moved it to a larger drive, but have yet to give it it's own home yet and have had mixed results...

Kevin

[sonic]

I personally Have a lot better results with my pagefile set at 2 gigs on my 2second harddrive I also set it static mainly so It wont get fragmented.

[Delta_]

I have mine on my larger second hdd too, i find it has better performance there.  

[4_Series_Scania]

The only real performance advantage is if you move the pagefile to a separate partition on a separate physical HD.

To change your pagefile size and location with the default Category Control Panel:

1. Head to Start
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select Performance and Maintenance
4. Select System
5. Select Advanced Tab
6. Under Performance, select the Settings button
7. Select Advanced Tab
8. Under Virtual Memory, select the Change button
9. Adjust as needed, or select "No paging File," then select the Set button
10. Select the Ok button to apply the settings
11. You must reboot for the changes to take effect


From Fastest to Slowest, these are the configuration's you can try:

* No swap file at all. Some software may fail. You also need plenty of memory to do this. Greater than 1024 MB.
* A static swap file on a separate hard drive (and preferably, controller) from Windows and frequently accessed data.
* A dynamic swap file on a separate hard drive (and preferably, controller) from Windows and frequently accessed data.
* A static swap file on a separate partition, but on the same physical hard drive as Windows.
* A dynamic swap file on a separate partition, but on the same physical hard drive as Windows.
* The Default: A dynamic swap file on the same partition and physical hard drive (usually C) as Windows.

Microsofts own article about Pagefile

http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/...es/03june16.asp  

[the_autopilot]

Oh, you need a page file. Do not turn it off.
My computer needs a page file, so yours should too.

[4_Series_Scania]

I have a friend with a very high spec machine, approx 4GB RAM and he has NO pagefile with no problems, he is a 3D designer and uses Photoshop 99% of his PC time, the other 1% he plays "GTR" which runs happily on his Pagefile free beastie.

I'm not saying its wise to have no Pagefile, just, its possible.

I have more than enough problems WITH my pagefile!  ::)

[the_autopilot]

Are you sure he doesn't have problems??

I have problems with unstable programs when I turn off the page file. Some programs just need a page file, even if it is set to 14 mb or some insanely low level, the page file must exist.

I would love to see this computer that can run all programs problem free without a page file. I would buy the computer off of him if it were really true.

[4_Series_Scania]

Are you sure he doesn't have problems??

I have problems with unstable programs when I turn off the page file. Some programs just need a page file, even if it is set to 14 mb or some insanely low level, the page file must exist.

I would love to see this computer that can run all programs problem free without a page file. I would buy the computer off of him if it were really true.

No problems to date, his PC is about 2 months old.....

3.7GHz Intel Pentium

[Wing Nut]

I just realized I have been running without it for the past few days also.  No problems here to report, though I did rebuild it...

[chomp_rock]

I run with my pagefile on my D: drive... I used to run no pagefile when I had 4Gb of DDR400. NO PROBLEMS, but with 2Gb RDRAM I have loads of slowdowns with no pagefile.

[the_autopilot]

Hmm, what kinda of programs you guys running?

I can run all mainstream programs like office, or fs2004, or photoshop, etc. with no page file.

But there's always that odd obsecure program that runs like crap or crashes with no page file.

I doubt any of those obsecure programs ever uses 16 gigs of memory...

[Weather_Man]

MS recommends a minimum 22mb pagefile. It is required for some programs. If you notice, the pagefile always has at least 2-10mbs of data in it regardless of what you're doing. With 1024mb or more of RAM, you rarely use the pagefile so you don't need a large one, certainly not the 1.5x RAM pagefile that used to be recommended back in the old days when 256mb of RAM was almost unheard of.

As for location, the fastest access will be at the front of the harddrive, whether it's the same drive as Windows or a second HDD. Having it on another partition D: on the same harddrive as Windows does not make it faster since the D: partition will be in the middle or rear of the HDD, behind C:. If you only have one HDD, then keep it where it is on C:. If you have 2 HDDs, then it may be better on the second, at the front.

With today's systems with large amounts of very fast RAM, the pagefile location or size will have no impact whatsoever. All of these pagefile tweaks were conceived in the late 90's before the days of WinXP (which has much better memory management), 1GHz computers and DDR RAM. It's really best just to let windows manage it and forget about it.

[4_Series_Scania]

MS recommends a minimum 22mb pagefile. It is required for some programs. If you notice, the pagefile always has at least 2-10mbs of data in it regardless of what you're doing. With 1024mb or more of RAM, you rarely use the pagefile so you don't need a large one, certainly not the 1.5x RAM pagefile that used to be recommended back in the old days when 256mb of RAM was almost unheard of.

As for location, the fastest access will be at the front of the harddrive, whether it's the same drive as Windows or a second HDD. Having it on another partition D: on the same harddrive as Windows does not make it faster since the D: partition will be in the middle or rear of the HDD, behind C:. If you only have one HDD, then keep it where it is on C:. If you have 2 HDDs, then it may be better on the second, at the front.

With today's systems with large amounts of very fast RAM, the pagefile location or size will have no impact whatsoever. All of these pagefile tweaks were conceived in the late 90's before the days of WinXP (which has much better memory management), 1GHz computers and DDR RAM. It's really best just to let windows manage it and forget about it.

In the spirit of Science & Discovery, I've set my pagefile to 25MB, so far so good! If anything, my PC seems quicker... I'm probably imagining it though.... I'll keep you posted!

[the_autopilot]

MS recommends a minimum 22mb pagefile. It is required for some programs. If you notice, the pagefile always has at least 2-10mbs of data in it regardless of what you're doing. With 1024mb or more of RAM, you rarely use the pagefile so you don't need a large one, certainly not the 1.5x RAM pagefile that used to be recommended back in the old days when 256mb of RAM was almost unheard of.

As for location, the fastest access will be at the front of the harddrive, whether it's the same drive as Windows or a second HDD. Having it on another partition D: on the same harddrive as Windows does not make it faster since the D: partition will be in the middle or rear of the HDD, behind C:. If you only have one HDD, then keep it where it is on C:. If you have 2 HDDs, then it may be better on the second, at the front.

With today's systems with large amounts of very fast RAM, the pagefile location or size will have no impact whatsoever. All of these pagefile tweaks were conceived in the late 90's before the days of WinXP (which has much better memory management), 1GHz computers and DDR RAM. It's really best just to let windows manage it and forget about it.

Well said.

The good old days when pagefiles meant all the difference in the world.

[GunnerMan]

Well, most things ive heard for best performance is make your PF 1.5X your physical memory ad put it on its one partition on the master drive. They say it performes better because of the I/O etc.