Pagefile keeps going to C:!?!

[Julius Mong]

Hi,

I have an eeepc and a fresh install of XP and have tried setting pagefile to
go to E: (SDHC card) (My computer->properties->Advanced->Performance
settings->Virtual memory Change->) I tried turning it off on C & D and
enable it on E, however every time I reboot, a 2GB file gets created on C
and none on E, why isn't XP listening to me?

Please help,

Julius

 

[Lil' Dave]

Hi,

I have an eeepc and a fresh install of XP and have tried setting pagefile
to go to E: (SDHC card) (My computer->properties->Advanced->Performance
settings->Virtual memory Change->) I tried turning it off on C & D and
enable it on E, however every time I reboot, a 2GB file gets created on C
and none on E, why isn't XP listening to me?

Please help,

Julius

You can't put the swapfile on removable media.

 

[Alec S.]

Lil' Dave wrote (in

You can't put the swapfile on removable media.

Lil’s Dave is correct. Removable media is unreliable because, well, it can be
removed. What happens if you pull out the card and then Windows goes to read or
write to the pagefile? It would probably die; the pagefile is important.

Aside from that, you should not put the pagefile on a flash drive since they
only have a limited number of write cycles before failing (most are rated for
around 10,000 writes to any given cell before it fails). The pagefile is written
to frequently even when you have sufficient memory, so your card would be dead
in no time (well, at least some parts would be dead and it would have to be
remap them until it can’t anymore).

As for moving the pagefile, ideally you want to put it on another physical drive
(not just another drive letter, but a separate physical drive). That would allow
the best performance since it would be reading from a separate disk in parallel.
You would then set the pagefile to that new drive letter, and make sure to set
the one on C to disabled. However if you turn off the pagefile on the boot drive
altogether (usually C), there are consequences and limitations. For example, you
will unfortunately not be able to get memory dumps in the event of a BSOD.

 

[Doum]

Hi,

I have an eeepc and a fresh install of XP and have tried setting
pagefile to go to E: (SDHC card) (My
computer->properties->Advanced->Performance settings->Virtual memory
Change->) I tried turning it off on C & D and enable it on E, however
every time I reboot, a 2GB file gets created on C and none on E, why
isn't XP listening to me?

Please help,

Julius

<copied from wrong thread>

Julius wrote :

Hi, thanks. But even if I turned off pagefile completely I'm still

seeing the page file coming back on C:... any thoughts? Is my XP corrupt?

You already receive answers about your SDHC card, but just curious, what
is wrong with your pagefile? I don't think your XP is corrupt and it's
not a good idea to completely turn off the pagefile.

Doum

 

[R. McCarty]

I have an Eee PC running XP. The key to using XP is to try and
have a minimal install to preserve the SSD space. Generally, you
can reduce the Pagefile size to a range of 384-512 Megabytes &
it won't significantly impact performance. It depends on what the
SSD size is. The original Eee has a 4.0 Gigabyte and newer Eee's
have significantly larger SSD units.

 

[John Wunderlich]

Hi,

I have an eeepc and a fresh install of XP and have tried setting
pagefile to go to E: (SDHC card) (My
computer->properties->Advanced->Performance settings->Virtual
memory Change->) I tried turning it off on C & D and enable it on
E, however every time I reboot, a 2GB file gets created on C and
none on E, why isn't XP listening to me?

Please help,

Julius

Besides the answers you've already gotten, realize that SDHC is a Flash
Technology Memory. That means that writes occur *very* slowly compared
to regular magnetic disks. Also, there is a limit to the number of
times a Flash memory can be written. Usually that limit is in the tens
or hundreds of thousand writes, but if you make a flash memory your
Pagefile, you will could kill it in a day or two.

-- John

 

[Alec S.]

Besides the answers you've already gotten, realize that SDHC is a Flash
Technology Memory. That means that writes occur *very* slowly compared
to regular magnetic disks. Also, there is a limit to the number of
times a Flash memory can be written. Usually that limit is in the tens
or hundreds of thousand writes, but if you make a flash memory your
Pagefile, you will could kill it in a day or two.

Yes, I forgot to mention the write-speed (although with ReadyBoost compatible
ones it’s not too bad, at least for a pagefile).

As for limited life, I don’t know about a day or two. The drives usually remap
the dead cells to spares. Plus if there’s enough memory, the pagefile won’t get
hit as hard. It will probably take a little longer than a few days, but yes, it
will be a waste of a flash drive.

Which begs the question: what’s the deal with those 128GB SSDs?