Moving page file?

[Terry Pinnell]

My pagefile.sys is 767MB and is on my main system drive C. That is now
getting a bit tight on space (due to so much stuff in \Windows !)
Can I just move pagefile.sys to say D, the second partition on my HD,
which has more room? Will there be any performance issues please?

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Please have a look at the following article by the late Alex Nichol:

"Virtual Memory in Windows XP"
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

 

[Winux P]

Since D: partition is on the same disk as C: then leave it where it is, as
there will be a performance issue. You may want to move stuff over to D:
other than the pagefile and system stuff, if space is becoming an issue. In
general you do get a performance hit when partitioning the drives, and
putting stuff on both partitions for one system.

If you decide to put another disk in to resolve your space issue, and you
want to place [a\the] pagefile on the other disk, you'll get a better
performance if the other disk is not a slave disk.

To answer your question though, yes you can, and there will be performance
costs.

HTH

- Winux P

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

My pagefile.sys is 767MB and is on my main system drive C. That is now
getting a bit tight on space (due to so much stuff in \Windows !)
Can I just move pagefile.sys to say D, the second partition on my HD,

"How To Move the Paging File in Windows XP"
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;307886

which has more room? Will there be any performance issues please?

That depends. You won't "feel" any difference, most likely.

 

[Og]

I felt taller and slimmer afterwards...

steve

"How To Move the Paging File in Windows XP"
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;307886


That depends. You won't "feel" any difference, most likely.

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

I felt taller and slimmer afterwards...

Too many 'magic mushrooms', I guess.

 

[Lil' Dave]

Unlikely you will notice any substandard performance. Imaging and
filesystem backup software don't copy it. Do it.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

My pagefile.sys is 767MB and is on my main system drive C. That
is now
getting a bit tight on space (due to so much stuff in \Windows
!)
Can I just move pagefile.sys to say D, the second partition on
my HD,
which has more room?

Yes.


Will there be any performance issues please?

Maybe. In general, this puts the page file on a location on the
hard drive distant from the other frequently-used data on the
drive. The result is that every time Windows needs to use the
page file, the time to get to it and back from it is increased.

Putting the swap file on a second *physical* drive is a good
idea, since it decreases head movement, but not to a second
partition on a single drive. A good rule of thumb is that the
page file should be on the most-used partition of the least-used
physical drive. For almost everyone with a single drive, that's
C:.
How much of a performance issue that will be depends on how much
you use the page file and how much RAM you have. If you have
enough RAM, the penalty for doing what you've done may be slight,
since you won't use the page file much.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

In


Maybe. In general, this puts the page file on a location on the
hard drive distant from the other frequently-used data on the
drive. The result is that every time Windows needs to use the
page file, the time to get to it and back from it is increased.

Putting the swap file on a second *physical* drive is a good
idea, since it decreases head movement, but not to a second
partition on a single drive. A good rule of thumb is that the
page file should be on the most-used partition of the
least-used
physical drive. For almost everyone with a single drive, that's
C:.
How much of a performance issue that will be depends on how
much
you use the page file

Sorry. I meant to write "...how you use the *computer*..."

 

[Terry Pinnell]

In


Maybe. In general, this puts the page file on a location on the
hard drive distant from the other frequently-used data on the
drive. The result is that every time Windows needs to use the
page file, the time to get to it and back from it is increased.

Putting the swap file on a second *physical* drive is a good
idea, since it decreases head movement, but not to a second
partition on a single drive. A good rule of thumb is that the
page file should be on the most-used partition of the least-used
physical drive. For almost everyone with a single drive, that's
C:.
How much of a performance issue that will be depends on how much
you use the page file and how much RAM you have. If you have
enough RAM, the penalty for doing what you've done may be slight,
since you won't use the page file much.

Thanks for those helpful replies. I do in fact have an identical
second physical HD, partitioned like the first into E (15 GB) and F
(45 GB). I didn't mention it mainly in case it muddied the water, but
also because I'd assumed the swap file should be 'where the action
is', which is certainly C and D.

But from your reply, Ken, E looks a good candidate, as it's almost
never used. (It's currently a 'copy' of an old version of C, to serve
as an emergency OS environment.)

I've just made these changes:
- For C, checked No page file
- For E, checked System managed
and left D and F as No page file.

I will reboot in a minute, so I'll soon know, but does that sound OK
please? The aspect I'm still a little unsure of (after reading those
articles) is whether I still need some *minimum* on C as well?

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Thanks for those helpful replies. I do in fact have an
identical
second physical HD, partitioned like the first into E (15 GB)
and F
(45 GB). I didn't mention it mainly in case it muddied the
water, but
also because I'd assumed the swap file should be 'where the
action
is', which is certainly C and D.

But from your reply, Ken, E looks a good candidate, as it's
almost
never used. (It's currently a 'copy' of an old version of C, to
serve
as an emergency OS environment.)

You're welcome, Terry. Again, though, depending on how much use
the page file gets, you may or may not see a measurable
performance improvement.