How much Virtual Memory when hard disk > 90% full?

[the disk is about done]

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this next question,
but if someone could offer clarification about how Virtual
Memory effects system performance in the following
scenario...

The system is a stand-alone Dell laptop and is configured
as follows. OpSys: WinXP, CPU: P-III 1000MHz, RAM: 512MB,
30GB hard-drive with 2 partitions(very small FAT
partition, and remaining 28GB is an NTFS partition), and
that hard drive has only 3GB free. if one were to set
minimum Virtual Memory at 1.5 times RAM then the
pagefile.sys could be taking up almost 1/3 of the free
hard-drive space. The drive has been Defrag'd to within a
fraction of a millimeter of its platter's float, and there
is no longer enough free disk space to complete the
defragmentation process. Deleting files is not an option,
recycling bin, internet cache and temp files have already
been purged... actually if I set VM to 0 and deleted
pagefile.sys, there would probably be enough free space to
defrag again, but is that really going to make a big
difference?. I know, I know... a 240GB portable hard-drive
is already on order, and should be shipped within the next
day or so.

But in the meantime, taking into consideration the
read/write speed of the disk and the lack of free space,
does it stand to reason that setting Virtual Memory to the
minimum required 2MB required for a small memory dump on
system abend, might actually improve performance over the
recommended minimum of 768MB? Incidentally, if you choose
to let the OS manage VM size, it goes immediately to 768.

 

[Paul B T Hodges]

Check to see if hibernate(suspend to disk) is enabled.
You could turn this off temporarily, that will yield an additional 512MB as
the hiberfil.sys file takes up space equal to physical memory

control panel/power options/hibernate tab

As its a laptop, it may even have its own suspend to disk file as part of
the manufacturers tools, external to windows.

Another way to reclaim space is to turn off system restore.
this will delete and reclaim space used by existing restore points.
You can always turn it back on again to set one restore point.

control panel/system/system restore/turn off restore on all drives

As to the size of the pagefile, I've run quite happily on this system with
512MB of RAM with no page file although just to be safe, I normally have a
page file of 256MB.

256MB without a pagefile gets upset quite quickly, just running internet
explorer and outlook express.

One point to make is that if you don't have a page file of at least the size
of physical RAM, xp cant take a full memory dump if the system crashes. This
isn't an issue for me, as the system is very stable, and unless you have a
very fast internet connection, are you ever going to upload a full memory
dump for analysis by microsoft?

If you're worried about the pagefile size, all you have to do is go into
task manager,

ctrl-alt-del or right click the grey taskbar at the bottom of the screen
and select task manager.

Go into the performance tab, and look under Commit Charge values Limit and
Peak.

The limit is very roughly (excluding some overheads including the kernel),
Page File Size + Physical Memory.

If the peak value starts to get close to the Limit, you know you need to
increase the size of the pagefile. If you have system managed page file, xp
does this for you. What you could do if you want to play safe is , set an
initial size to 256MB and set a maximum to 768MB , then it will grow it if
necessary.


Paul

 

[Ron Martell]

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this next question,
but if someone could offer clarification about how Virtual
Memory effects system performance in the following
scenario...

The system is a stand-alone Dell laptop and is configured
as follows. OpSys: WinXP, CPU: P-III 1000MHz, RAM: 512MB,
30GB hard-drive with 2 partitions(very small FAT
partition, and remaining 28GB is an NTFS partition), and
that hard drive has only 3GB free. if one were to set
minimum Virtual Memory at 1.5 times RAM then the
pagefile.sys could be taking up almost 1/3 of the free
hard-drive space. The drive has been Defrag'd to within a
fraction of a millimeter of its platter's float, and there
is no longer enough free disk space to complete the
defragmentation process. Deleting files is not an option,
recycling bin, internet cache and temp files have already
been purged... actually if I set VM to 0 and deleted
pagefile.sys, there would probably be enough free space to
defrag again, but is that really going to make a big
difference?. I know, I know... a 240GB portable hard-drive
is already on order, and should be shipped within the next
day or so.

But in the meantime, taking into consideration the
read/write speed of the disk and the lack of free space,
does it stand to reason that setting Virtual Memory to the
minimum required 2MB required for a small memory dump on
system abend, might actually improve performance over the
recommended minimum of 768MB? Incidentally, if you choose
to let the OS manage VM size, it goes immediately to 768.

With 512 mb of RAM the default page file settings are usually grossly
overstated unless you are doing something that is very demanding, such
as video editing.

Try setting the virtual memory to 100 mb minimum and 500 mb maximum.
It will inform you if these settings are not adequate.

But you really need to do something about the hard drive space -
either upgrade to a larger drive, or get an external drive that you
can connect via USB and use for storing files that are used only
occasionally.

Good luck


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

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."