Lower Hard Drive virtual memory and increase flash memory

[ScrapGuy]

Hi!
I have a XP computer. I need technical help here. I saw the hard
drive has a high virtual memory in gigs. Is it wise to lower the hard
drive virtual memory, like in mb, and increase flash memory? I want
to do this so that hard drive won't burn up. Bottomline, will my
method work? What's the pro and con?

Thanks.

 

[Malke]

Hi!
I have a XP computer. I need technical help here. I saw the hard
drive has a high virtual memory in gigs. Is it wise to lower the hard
drive virtual memory, like in mb, and increase flash memory? I want
to do this so that hard drive won't burn up. Bottomline, will my
method work? What's the pro and con?

None of what you've written makes a whole lot of sense.

1. Are you referring to *space* on the hard drive? Many people confuse
memory and disk space.

2. Where are you seeing the "high virtual memory in gigs"? Are you saying
that your computer is slow because all the resources are taken up?

3. What do you mean "flash memory"? Do you really mean increasing the amount
of physical RAM in the system? Make/model of computer? Desktop? Laptop?

Be really precise about exactly where and what you're seeing, please. And
your hard drive isn't going to "burn up" because it's in use.

Malke

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi!
I have a XP computer. I need technical help here. I saw the hard
drive has a high virtual memory in gigs. Is it wise to lower the hard
drive virtual memory, like in mb,

No. Do not mix up the amount of page file *allocated* with the amount
that's in use. Windows preallocates virtual memory in anticipation of
a possible need for it. There is no disadvantage to that, neither with
respect to performance or anything else.

and increase flash memory?

Sorry, I don't understand that at all. Flash memory has nothing to do
with virtual memory.

I want
to do this so that hard drive won't burn up.

I don't understand that either. Your hard drive won't burn up because
the amount of page file allocated is high. It won't even burn up
because the amount in use is high.

As a general rule, hard drives don't burn up because of the amount of
use you give them, and it's more likely that you will need to replace
the drive after some number of years because you need a larger one
than because the old one died.

 

[ScrapGuy]

No. Do not mix up the amount of page file *allocated* with the amount
that's in use. Windows preallocates virtualmemoryin anticipation of
a possible need for it. There is no disadvantage to that, neither with
respect to performance or anything else.


Sorry, I don't understand that at all. Flashmemoryhas nothing to do
with virtualmemory.


I don't understand that either. Your hard drive won't burn up because
the amount of page file allocated is high. It won't even burn up
because the amount in use is high.

As a general rule, hard drives don't burn up because of the amount of
use you give them, and it's more likely that you will need to replace
the drive after some number of years because you need a larger one
than because the old one died.

I saw a clip on cnet.com where you can use the flash memory drive and
set it up for physical memory and this how I got the idea.

 

[Malke]

I saw a clip on cnet.com where you can use the flash memory drive and
set it up for physical memory and this how I got the idea.

It was probaby referring to ReadyBoost in Windows Vista. ReadyBoost
sometimes can help but is often problematic and is not available at all in
Windows XP.

Malke

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I saw a clip on cnet.com where you can use the flash memory drive and
set it up for physical memory and this how I got the idea.

It still isn't clear to me exactly what you're saying. You can *not*
use it for physical memory.

My guess is that what you saw was a reference to ReadyBoost. If so,
here are several points about ReadyBoost:

1. It's only available for Windows Vista, and not Windows XP.

2. You can read about what ReadyBoost does here

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/readyboost.aspx

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost

3. As a general rule, even in Vista, I recommend against using
ReadyBoost for the following two reasons:

a. It only does anything at all if you have less than 2GB of RAM

b. In general, 2GB of RAM is the minimum anyone running Vista should
have, and if you have less than that, although ReadyBoost may help
you, it would be considerably better to add RAM to bring the total to
2GB; the improvement of adding RAM would be greater and it wouldn't
cost much more than a ReadyBoost device.