Help req re two pagefiles

  • Thread starter Thread starter Beemer
  • Start date Start date
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Beemer

I have XP prof sp2 on C: and again on separate drive D:. The latter was
installed in error after I tried to use my manufacturers support disk to
install just one file! I have kept Windows on D: to use in an emergency.

My dram memory is 1GB so my pagefiles are C: 1.572GB, D: 1.572GB

In reading that there is a windows speed benefit of having just a small
pagefile (250MB?) on C: and the large pagefile (1.572GB) on a separate drive
I am wondering if I can use the existing D: pagefile which was made by the
second (unused) windows installation?

Beemer
 
Hi,

If you decrease the size of the default pagefile, you will not be able to
get a complete memory dump on system failure. This may or may not be
important to you, for most it is not. To answer your question, yes you can
use both, but you may not need to. Go to the Control Panel/System
applet/Advanced tab, click on performance settings. On the advanced tab,
click on "change".

To reduce C:, set it to custom then indicate the desired size. With a gig of
ram, you likely can just use 100MB. Functionally, if you are looking for a
performance boost, you might consider not using C at all, but rather just D.
Your paging will likely be infrequent unless you are doing autocad or heavy
video editing. Therefore when you do page the other drive will be used
rather than increasing head movement on the existing drive.

Basically, whether or not doing anything will boost your system depends
greatly on how much paging you actually do. Information on virtual memory in
WindowsXP:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
The only swapfile move I've seen that always seems to benefit is an
exclusive hard drive with the first partition exclusively used for the
swapfile, nothing else. Leaving part of the swapfile on the C: partition is
simply junk collecting memoralbilia in this case.
 
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