Hi,
Managing computer memory
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When your computer is running low on RAM and more is needed immediately,
Windows uses hard drive space to simulate system RAM. This is known as
virtual memory, and is often called the paging file This is similar to the
UNIX swapfile. The default size of the virtual memory pagefile (named
pagefile.sys) created during installation is 1.5 times the amount of RAM on
your computer.
You can optimize virtual memory use by dividing the space between multiple
drives and removing it from slower or heavily accessed drives. To best
optimize your virtual memory space, divide it among as many physical hard
drives as possible. When selecting drives, keep the following guidelines in
mind:
Try to avoid having a pagefile on the same drive as the system files.
Avoid putting a pagefile on a fault-tolerant drive, such as a mirrored
volume or a RAID-5 volume Pagefiles don't need fault-tolerance, and some
fault-tolerant systems suffer from slow data writes because they write data
to multiple locations.
Don't place multiple pagefiles on different partitions on the same physical
disk drive.
You can choose to optimize your computer's memory usage. If you use your
computer primarily as a workstation, rather than as a server, you can have
more memory devoted to your programs. Your programs will work faster and
your system cache size will be the default size that came with Windows XP.
You can also specify to set aside more computer memory for a larger system
cache, If your computer is used primarily as a server, or if you use
programs that require a larger cache.
To change the size of the virtual memory paging file
============================================
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators
group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to
a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing
this procedure.
Open System in Control Panel.
On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
On the Advanced tab, under Virtual memory, click Change.
Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file
you want to change.
Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, and type a
new paging file size in megabytes in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size
(MB) box, and then click Set.
If you decrease the size of either the initial or maximum page file
settings, you must restart your computer to see the effects of those
changes. Increases typically do not require a restart.
Note
========
To open System, click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and
Maintenance, and then click System.
To have Windows choose the best paging file size, click System managed
size.
For best performance, do not set the initial size to less than the minimum
recommended size under Total paging file size for all drives. The
recommended size is equivalent to 1.5 times the amount of RAM on your
system. Usually, you should leave the paging file at its recommended size,
although you might increase its size if you routinely use programs that
require a lot of memory.
To delete a paging file, set both initial size and maximum size to zero, or
click No paging file. Microsoft strongly recommends that you do not disable
or delete the paging file.
Thanks,
(e-mail address removed)
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
