Moving Paging file?

[David]

I have a PC running XP. I have 1 Gig of RAM.
The PC has a floppy (A drive, a hard drive (C, a CD/DVD drive (D
and I have plugged a buffalo 2 Gig drive in to a USB port
which is listed in 'My computer' as drive E:

I want to have my paging file on E: and not C: but despite doing as
required, the paging file remains on my hard disk C: and not on the
USB drive. I have followed the instructions given on
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886 which are:

My computer
Properties
Advanced
Performance - Settings
Advanced
Virtual Memory - Change
C: is empty as I clicked 'No paging file' and 'Set'
I have clicked 'System managed size' for E: (and also tried variations
of this i.e., custom size (complying with the 'recommended size'
shown below)).
I then click yes when required and restart the PC.

When it restarts, the paging file is still on the C: drive (1,572,280
KB), and there is nothing on the E: drive. Attempts to move the
paging file to E:, or delete it, are unsuccessful as a message comes
up saying it is being used.

Articles about this subject say a paging file can be moved to another
drive, so I cannot seee what I am doing wrong.
Is the problem because the 'other drive' is a portable plugged into
a USB port? Does the non-C: drive used for the paging filoe have to
be internal;? Or?

Can anyone help please? Thanks

David

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf]

I have a PC running XP. I have 1 Gig of RAM.

The PC has a floppy (A drive, a hard drive (C, a CD/DVD drive (D
and I have plugged a buffalo 2 Gig drive in to a USB port
which is listed in 'My computer' as drive E:

I want to have my paging file on E: and not C: but despite doing as
required, the paging file remains on my hard disk C: and not on the
USB drive. I have followed the instructions given on
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886 which are:

My computer
Properties
Advanced
Performance - Settings
Advanced
Virtual Memory - Change
C: is empty as I clicked 'No paging file' and 'Set'
I have clicked 'System managed size' for E: (and also tried variations
of this i.e., custom size (complying with the 'recommended size'
shown below)).
I then click yes when required and restart the PC.

When it restarts, the paging file is still on the C: drive (1,572,280
KB), and there is nothing on the E: drive. Attempts to move the
paging file to E:, or delete it, are unsuccessful as a message comes
up saying it is being used.

Articles about this subject say a paging file can be moved to another
drive, so I cannot seee what I am doing wrong.
Is the problem because the 'other drive' is a portable plugged into
a USB port? Does the non-C: drive used for the paging filoe have to
be internal;? Or?

Can anyone help please? Thanks

David

You cannot have a paging file on a removable device. Paging files,
last I checked, have to be on fixed (non-removable) devices.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

 

[JS]

Just a guess but your USB drivers most likely being loaded to late in the
boot cycle for Windows to see the E: drive and therefore creates the
pagefile on C: when the specified location (E is not available.

JS

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

You cannot have a paging file on a removable device. Paging files,
last I checked, have to be on fixed (non-removable) devices.

Over and above this, if he were able to do what he wanted, it would
slow down his computer every time he used the Page file.

 

[VanguardLH]

I have a PC running XP. I have 1 Gig of RAM.
The PC has a floppy (A drive, a hard drive (C, a CD/DVD drive
(D
and I have plugged a buffalo 2 Gig drive in to a USB port
which is listed in 'My computer' as drive E:

I want to have my paging file on E: and not C: but despite doing as
required, the paging file remains on my hard disk C: and not on the
USB drive. I have followed the instructions given on
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886 which are:

My computer
Properties
Advanced
Performance - Settings
Advanced
Virtual Memory - Change
C: is empty as I clicked 'No paging file' and 'Set'
I have clicked 'System managed size' for E: (and also tried
variations
of this i.e., custom size (complying with the 'recommended size'
shown below)).
I then click yes when required and restart the PC.

When it restarts, the paging file is still on the C: drive
(1,572,280
KB), and there is nothing on the E: drive. Attempts to move the
paging file to E:, or delete it, are unsuccessful as a message comes
up saying it is being used.

Articles about this subject say a paging file can be moved to
another
drive, so I cannot seee what I am doing wrong.
Is the problem because the 'other drive' is a portable plugged into
a USB port? Does the non-C: drive used for the paging filoe have to
be internal;? Or?

Can anyone help please? Thanks

David

Your USB drive is a removable device. It can't be use for paging.

Install another hard disk that uses an onboard or daughtercard
controller. You can configure Windows to use paging files on multiple
disks. Don't eliminate the pagefile in the OS partition. Just add
more space on another partition (on a different disk). You can reduce
the size of the pagefile in the OS partition but don't delete it.
Windows will give preferential use to the pagefile that is on a
different disk than where the OS partition resides. This allows the
OS to concurrently use its own system files while also using the
pagefile on the other disk.

Make the max and min size for the pagefile the same. This will reduce
fragmentation of the pagefile over time. I set the min and max to the
same and then delete the old pagefile (by booting into Recovery
Console mode), and reboot into Windows.

http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/WindowsGeneralWeb/RAMVirtualMemoryPageFileEtc.htm

With 1GB of physical RAM that you have, set a pagefile on C: to 1024MB
and another pagefile on D: (on a different disk) to 1024MB. Each is
set to the minimum of the physical RAM size, min = max to reduce
fragmentation, and the pagefile on D: gets used first to allow
concurrent read operations between the hard disks for system and
paging files, and if the 2nd hard disk dies then the pagefile is still
set correctly on the first disk.

 

[Lil' Dave]

That's the reason the paging file isn't relocated, true. But, as Ken said,
you don't want it there. Reason: the USB2 bus can't move data as fast as an
onboard ide or SATA hard drive.

 

[Lil' Dave]

The only thing that will work is another hard drive.

For equivalent or faster access speed to the swapfile:

The only location the swapfile can be is the beginning of that hard drive.
Dedicated partition.

The hard drive cannot be on the same bus as the hard drive containing the
operating system.

The bus the hard drive with the moved swapfile must be as fast or faster
than the bus with the hard drive that contains the operating system.

The bus must be operate concurrently, no waits for operation.

Only option, SCSI.

All other recommendations for move of the swapfile are ignoring what's
happening at the hardware level.

 

[David]

Thanks for all the very helpful replies.
Much appreciated.

David