Do I need a pagefile

[Tim Mavers]

I am running WindowsXP Pro (SP2) on a machine that has 2GB of memory. Do I
need to have the pagefile active? I haven't read up on the how Microsoft's
latest MemoryManager works, but a while ago (Maybe 2000 or NT4), I remember
reading that a pagefile was needed in that it still paged things to the disk
even though you had more than enough room. It had to do with access
popularity or some concept like that--where less used pieces of memory were
paged out to disk--regardless of how much real memory you had?

Is this still the case? With 2GB I don't plan on running out of real memory
anytime soon. Is it a good idea to turn paging off? Will it improve
performance? I know that it is a good idea to temporarily disable paging
when defragging as the standard XP defrag doesn't access the pagefile
(unlike full versions of Diskeeper--I say full versions because I know XP's
defragger is a 'lite' version of Diskeeper's).

Thanks!

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Yes tim you still need the paging file.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

I am running WindowsXP Pro (SP2) on a machine that has 2GB of
memory.
Do I need to have the pagefile active?

Yes.


I haven't read up on the how
Microsoft's latest MemoryManager works, but a while ago (Maybe
2000
or NT4), I remember reading that a pagefile was needed in that
it
still paged things to the disk even though you had more than
enough
room.

No, that's not the reason. The reason is that Windows allocates
memory in anticipation of needing it. Even if that space is never
used, the allocations are made. That means that if you don't have
a page file, the allocations have to be made in RAM, thus tieing
it up and preventing you from using some of your RAM.

Having a page file never hurts your performance unless it's
actually used, not just allocated. There's no reason to fear
this. Don't turn it off.

It had to do with access popularity or some concept like
that--where less used pieces of memory were paged out to
disk--regardless of how much real memory you had?
Is this still the case? With 2GB I don't plan on running out
of real
memory anytime soon. Is it a good idea to turn paging off?

As I said above, no. It's a very bad idea.

Will it
improve performance?

No, definitely not. Having a pagefile available, even if Windows
completely ignored it, and didn't make allocations there, can not
possibly hurt performance in any way.

I know that it is a good idea to temporarily
disable paging when defragging as the standard XP defrag
doesn't
access the pagefile

It doesn't hurt, but it's really not necessary.

 

[Rock]

I am running WindowsXP Pro (SP2) on a machine that has 2GB of memory. Do I
need to have the pagefile active? I haven't read up on the how Microsoft's
latest MemoryManager works, but a while ago (Maybe 2000 or NT4), I remember
reading that a pagefile was needed in that it still paged things to the disk
even though you had more than enough room. It had to do with access
popularity or some concept like that--where less used pieces of memory were
paged out to disk--regardless of how much real memory you had?

Is this still the case? With 2GB I don't plan on running out of real memory
anytime soon. Is it a good idea to turn paging off? Will it improve
performance? I know that it is a good idea to temporarily disable paging
when defragging as the standard XP defrag doesn't access the pagefile
(unlike full versions of Diskeeper--I say full versions because I know XP's
defragger is a 'lite' version of Diskeeper's).

Thanks!

Adding to the yes that others have said, see this excellent article on
VM by Alex Nichol. There is good info there on how to set the pagefile:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

 

[David Candy]

Your CPU is designed to page. Your IC's around the CPU are designed to page. Your operating system is designed to work with your hardware. So it too is designed to page. In fact you cannot turn paging off. The page file is only one type of paging. Disabling that wil cause paging of code rather than unused data and code.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I am running WindowsXP Pro (SP2) on a machine that has 2GB of memory. Do I
need to have the pagefile active? I haven't read up on the how Microsoft's
latest MemoryManager works, but a while ago (Maybe 2000 or NT4), I remember
reading that a pagefile was needed in that it still paged things to the disk
even though you had more than enough room.

Yes you do (or you will lock out quite large parts of RAM unnecessarily
without actually writing anything to the file. Also there are programs
that will not run without a page file present. See more at my page
www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm