I created a 3G slice on a harddrive just for the cache file. Windows says
the slice is 3056Mb in size and that I must have at least 5Mb of unused
space on that slice. So I mandate that the cache file be 3000Mb min/max.
Then XP starts telling me that I'm running out of cache space, even after
reboot. No, I'm not running any other pgms. So, I just told XP to manage
the cache file size and the msgs. stopped.

Why was I getting the errors?

R.A.

On Thu, 6 Sep 2007 01:57:11 -0400, "R.A." <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

> I created a 3G slice


"Slice"? Do you mean partition?


> on a harddrive just for the cache file.


What "cache file"? Do you mean the page file? Note that the page file
is not only not a cache, but is almost the exact opposite of a cache.

Caching is using a faster medium in place of a slower one (usually
either RAM instead of disk, or high-speed RAM instead of ordinary RAM)
to speed up operations. Paging is using a slower medium instead of a
faster one (disk instead of RAM), which slows down operations, but
makes it possible to do more than you could with the limited RAM you
have.


> Windows says
> the slice is 3056Mb in size and that I must have at least 5Mb of unused
> space on that slice. So I mandate that the cache file be 3000Mb min/max.


Two points here:

1. Putting the page file on a separate partition is *not* a good thing
to do. The thing that most slows down use of the page file is moving
the drive heads to and from it. Putting the page file on a second
partition on your only (or main) drive puts it far from the other
frequently-used data on the drive, increases the time it takes to get
to and from it, and negatively impacts performance.

Putting the page file on another *physical* drive, on the other hand,
normally increases performance. A good rule of thumb is that the page
file should be on the most-used partition of the least-used physical
drive. For almost everyone, that's C:

However, note that most people these days have enough RAM so that page
file use is minimal. If you fall into that category (for most people,
512MB or more) it hardly makes any difference where the page file is
located.

2. 3000Mb min/max is *not* a good setting for the page file. For most
people, just letting Windows control it automatically on C: is best.
But if you want to do it yourself, you should make the minimum low and
the maximum high.

For more information, read this article by the late MVP, Alex Nichol:
"Virtual Memory in Windows XP" at http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
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