Page file location and size?

[Terry Pinnell]

I have two 750 GB drives on this Quad Core (2.66 GHz), 4 GB PC
(running under XP Pro). I have just one Page file, on the non-OS
drive. Its Properties are currently:
Recommended: 4989 MB
Currently allocated: 4080 MB

Does that look OK please? Am I right that
- performance might be marginally better by keeping the page file off
the OS drive?
- 4 GB is more than generous for the size, despite the recommendation
of 5 GB?
- a fixed size is probably better than a varying one?

 

[LVTravel]

Here is a good read on Paging Files
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314482/EN-US/ and
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886/EN-US/

IMHO, MS does "somewhat" recommend a 128 MB paging file on the system boot
drive in case of a Stop error for the debugging file otherwise no problem
with your setup unless you are running a lot of programs at the same time
then you should increase your page file to the maximum recommended. If you
had created the page file with a fixed size on the second drive before
putting any data on the drive it will remain unfragmented which should
increase response time if it is being used extensively.


Hope this helps, let us know.

 

[JS]

How to configure paging files for optimization and recovery in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314482/en-us

Make note of the dump file limitations with a single page file like yours is
configured.
That said, I have a single page file on a second drive (first partition of
the second drive) and it is a fixed size.
Because I have it located on it's own dedicated partition there is no
fragmentation.

JS

 

[RJK]

I have two 750 GB drives on this Quad Core (2.66 GHz), 4 GB PC
(running under XP Pro). I have just one Page file, on the non-OS
drive. Its Properties are currently:
Recommended: 4989 MB
Currently allocated: 4080 MB

Does that look OK please? Am I right that
- performance might be marginally better by keeping the page file off
the OS drive?
- 4 GB is more than generous for the size, despite the recommendation
of 5 GB?
- a fixed size is probably better than a varying one?

I think it was, (quite a few years ago), on Jim Eshelman's site
www.aumha.org, who advised setting a minimum 60mb swap file on the boot
drive, (oooh!...I wonder if that was W98se advice?), and a full size, (1.5
times RAM size), system managed swap file on the first partition of another
hd, (e.g. 2nd hd). I've used this arrangement for many years. Makes for
several improvements in hd responsiveness and performance under quite a
range of conditions. I gave up trying to make the larger pagefile.sys on
my 2nd hd stay in the same place, (by setting it as fixed size = 1.5 times
the size of available RAM), ...several offline defrag's during that
particular fight !!
....or that could have been me switching on, or off, then on again
hibernation !! ...perhaps it was hiberfil.sys that was moving around !

regards, Richard

 

[RJK]

I think it was, (quite a few years ago), on Jim Eshelman's site
www.aumha.org, who advised setting a minimum 60mb swap file on the boot
drive, (oooh!...I wonder if that was W98se advice?), and a full size, (1.5
times RAM size), system managed swap file on the first partition of
another hd, (e.g. 2nd hd). I've used this arrangement for many years.
Makes for several improvements in hd responsiveness and performance under
quite a range of conditions. I gave up trying to make the larger
pagefile.sys on my 2nd hd stay in the same place, (by setting it as fixed
size = 1.5 times the size of available RAM), ...several offline defrag's
during that particular fight !!
...or that could have been me switching on, or off, then on again
hibernation !! ...perhaps it was hiberfil.sys that was moving around !

regards, Richard

Oooh ! ...after checking, ...just had to increase boot drive swap file to
128mb, and also discovered that my "full size" swap file on 1st drive, on
"next" hd was fixed at 1536 mb's min and max. ....a few days ago I replaced
my 1gb RAM with 4xCorsair XMS-512-3200LL modules (2gb) !!

regards, Richard

"There's FAR TOO much to rememoryber, in this XP machine !"

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Here is a good read on Paging Files
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314482/EN-US/ and
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886/EN-US/

IMHO, MS does "somewhat" recommend a 128 MB paging file on the system boot
drive in case of a Stop error for the debugging file otherwise no problem
with your setup unless you are running a lot of programs at the same time
then you should increase your page file to the maximum recommended. If you
had created the page file with a fixed size on the second drive before
putting any data on the drive it will remain unfragmented which should
increase response time if it is being used extensively.


Hope this helps, let us know.

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll pass on the small dump file. But
I'll try to make a new partition on my non-OS drive and place the 4/5
GB pagefile there, to get the no-fragmentation advantage which the
article describes. Can I split my 750 MB drive into separate 740 GB
and 10 GB partitions with XP Pro's own disk management tools? Or do I
need something like PowerQuest PM or Paragon please?

 

[LVTravel]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll pass on the small dump file. But
I'll try to make a new partition on my non-OS drive and place the 4/5
GB pagefile there, to get the no-fragmentation advantage which the
article describes. Can I split my 750 MB drive into separate 740 GB
and 10 GB partitions with XP Pro's own disk management tools? Or do I
need something like PowerQuest PM or Paragon please?

If the non-OS drive has no data on it or has data that can be copied off the
drive until partitioning has been done, yes you can use Windows partitioning
feature to do it.

Once the drive has nothing of value on it, right click My Computer, left
click Manage, left click Disk Management (under Storage) then find your
non-OS drive. Right click on it and then click on Delete Partition. Once
that has been done, Right click again and click on create partition. Create
your 10 GB partition first and then format it NTFS. Once that is done
create your second partition of the remaining drive space and format. I
would recommend setting the drive letter for your 10 GB partition (during
partition or format) to drive Z (unless some other drive uses that letter)
to keep it at the bottom of your drive list and "out of the way" when using
Explorer.

To prepare the 10 GB drive for the one file that will be there (page file)
turn off System Restore and Recycle bin on that drive then My computer on
the drive and delete the Recycle folder and then run Windows's defrag before
doing anything else to the 10 GB partition. Copy any of your data back to
the larger partition and also set your page file on the new partition.

To turn off Recycle bin on the drive, Right click Recycle Bin. Left click
Properties. Click Configure drives independently. Click tab for your 10 GB
drive and turn on the Do not move files....button. Click OK.

To turn off System Restore on the 10 GB drive. Right Click My Computer.
Left click Properties, left click System Restore tab. Select the 10 GB
drive, click Settings and put check box in Turn off System Restore for that
drive. OK

As an aside, if you set the page file to the same minimum and maximum file
size before any other data is placed on the drive you should always have a
non-fragmented drive even if data is saved on the same drive letter in the
future. I have a computer with a 250 GB second drive and it is my page file
drive. It is always non-fragmented since I turned off the recycle bin and
the system restore on the drive, created the min/max page file on it then
turned the restore and recycle bin back on. Kept me from having to
partition the drive.

Hope this helps, let us know.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

If the non-OS drive has no data on it or has data that can be copied off the
drive until partitioning has been done, yes you can use Windows partitioning
feature to do it.

Once the drive has nothing of value on it, right click My Computer, left
click Manage, left click Disk Management (under Storage) then find your
non-OS drive. Right click on it and then click on Delete Partition. Once
that has been done, Right click again and click on create partition. Create
your 10 GB partition first and then format it NTFS. Once that is done
create your second partition of the remaining drive space and format. I
would recommend setting the drive letter for your 10 GB partition (during
partition or format) to drive Z (unless some other drive uses that letter)
to keep it at the bottom of your drive list and "out of the way" when using
Explorer.

To prepare the 10 GB drive for the one file that will be there (page file)
turn off System Restore and Recycle bin on that drive then My computer on
the drive and delete the Recycle folder and then run Windows's defrag before
doing anything else to the 10 GB partition. Copy any of your data back to
the larger partition and also set your page file on the new partition.

To turn off Recycle bin on the drive, Right click Recycle Bin. Left click
Properties. Click Configure drives independently. Click tab for your 10 GB
drive and turn on the Do not move files....button. Click OK.

To turn off System Restore on the 10 GB drive. Right Click My Computer.
Left click Properties, left click System Restore tab. Select the 10 GB
drive, click Settings and put check box in Turn off System Restore for that
drive. OK

As an aside, if you set the page file to the same minimum and maximum file
size before any other data is placed on the drive you should always have a
non-fragmented drive even if data is saved on the same drive letter in the
future. I have a computer with a 250 GB second drive and it is my page file
drive. It is always non-fragmented since I turned off the recycle bin and
the system restore on the drive, created the min/max page file on it then
turned the restore and recycle bin back on. Kept me from having to
partition the drive.

Hope this helps, let us know.

Many thanks, sure does! Appreciate the clear and detailed
instructions. I'm prepared to tackle that, although it will take some
planning as there's 210 GB on that drive at present. Most of it is
backup from C:, plus temporary stuff from my old PC (until I'm 99%
sure I have this new one running the way I want it). And I do have
another old external 120 GB drive I could use.

I do have PowerQuest Partition Magic 7.0, although it's been years
since I last used it. Am I right in recalling that can split a drive
containing data into partitions, apparently unlike XP?

And I also have Paragon Drive Backup, so far unlearned and unused.

 

[LVTravel]

Many thanks, sure does! Appreciate the clear and detailed
instructions. I'm prepared to tackle that, although it will take some
planning as there's 210 GB on that drive at present. Most of it is
backup from C:, plus temporary stuff from my old PC (until I'm 99%
sure I have this new one running the way I want it). And I do have
another old external 120 GB drive I could use.

I do have PowerQuest Partition Magic 7.0, although it's been years
since I last used it. Am I right in recalling that can split a drive
containing data into partitions, apparently unlike XP?

And I also have Paragon Drive Backup, so far unlearned and unused.

PQPM 7 will split the drive with data on it and this (or a program like it)
is the only method of splitting the drive while data is still on it without
destroying the data. The data should be backed up to another device when
the attempt to split is made since things can and, unfortunately, often do
go wrong.

Haven't used PDB before so I can't comment on that program.

Have a great day!