Best place for pagefile.sys?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Randy Brook
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Randy Brook

I have two physical drives, each with four partitions. I have 1 GB of
memory and WinXP Pro. The second drive is mainly used for backups
rather than regular use. I also have other backup systems, so that
isn't any issue.

I manually set my virtual memory to 1.5 GB on the last partition of
the second physical drive only, after defragging that partition. I'm
wondering if this is the best choice.
 
Randy Brook said:
I have two physical drives, each with four partitions. I have 1 GB of
memory and WinXP Pro. The second drive is mainly used for backups
rather than regular use. I also have other backup systems, so that
isn't any issue.

I manually set my virtual memory to 1.5 GB on the last partition of
the second physical drive only, after defragging that partition. I'm
wondering if this is the best choice.
Click to expand...

Logical place is the boot partition of XP.

If you have an alternate bus system other than what you're using now for
that physical drive that holds that partition, with a hard drive on that bus
system, and that hard drive is just as fast or faster as the one with the
boot partition with XP, and the bus system is just as fast or faster as your
bus system for your hard drive with the boot partition for XP, place the
pagefile on that hard drive instead. Otherwise, you're spinning your
wheels.
 
Randy Brook said:
I have two physical drives, each with four partitions. I have 1 GB of
memory and WinXP Pro. The second drive is mainly used for backups
rather than regular use. I also have other backup systems, so that
isn't any issue.

I manually set my virtual memory to 1.5 GB on the last partition of
the second physical drive only, after defragging that partition. I'm
wondering if this is the best choice.
Click to expand...

Best option is to configure 2 pagefiles. That way Windows XP will use
whichever of them is most efficient for each paging operation.

#1 should be on the Windows XP Boot drive. This is because Windows
XP uses the pagefile in this location (and only in this location) for
certain special purposes such as System Failure Memory Dumps. It can
be quite small, but needs to be at least large enough to hold
whichever of the memory dump options you have configured.

#2 should be on the second physical hard drive. As this drive is
only used for backups the choice of partition on that drive is not
likely to have any performance implications.

For more information on memory management in Windows XP see the
article by the late Alex Nichol MVP at
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm


Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
I agree with Ron, except for one issue:

I would place the pagefile.sys on it's own partition at the BEGINNING of the
hard drive. This decreases access time and drive latency rates when
accessing the swap information. It may be minor, but any increase in
performance can help.

Plus, a single SWAP partition keeps the partition from becoming fragmented.
It the pagefile.sys is recreated at each reboot on a partition that contains
a lot of other information (data files, ....), it is in contention with the
other part of the partition that will become fragemneted over time.

Just create a new partition, I call mine Swap, and set the pagefile.sys to
this partition. Move the other partition AFTER this.
 
Thank you all for the advice.


I agree with Ron, except for one issue:

I would place the pagefile.sys on it's own partition at the BEGINNING of the
hard drive. This decreases access time and drive latency rates when
accessing the swap information. It may be minor, but any increase in
performance can help.

Plus, a single SWAP partition keeps the partition from becoming fragmented.
It the pagefile.sys is recreated at each reboot on a partition that contains
a lot of other information (data files, ....), it is in contention with the
other part of the partition that will become fragemneted over time.

Just create a new partition, I call mine Swap, and set the pagefile.sys to
this partition. Move the other partition AFTER this.
Click to expand...
 
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