Page File

[John Callaway]

I have XP SP2, 2 Gig on my laptop. My 80 Gig HD is partitioned 32/48
for C & D respectively. I am satisfied with the performance, however I
would like to increase efficiency if practical.
My question is: Would setting up another partition dedicated for
the page file only be worth the effort or do I run the risk of
creating more problems than necessary?

JPC

 

[Leonard Grey]

Dedicating a partition to the page file prevents it from being
fragmented, which in turn improves a computer's performance.

On paper.

In the real world, and especially with today's faster hardware, you
won't notice any difference at all. As in: zero.

 

[mikeyhsd]

NO

only real advantage in moving page file would be to the first partition of a second disk, not just to another partition of the same disk.

(e-mail address removed)



I have XP SP2, 2 Gig on my laptop. My 80 Gig HD is partitioned 32/48
for C & D respectively. I am satisfied with the performance, however I
would like to increase efficiency if practical.
My question is: Would setting up another partition dedicated for
the page file only be worth the effort or do I run the risk of
creating more problems than necessary?

JPC

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have XP SP2, 2 Gig on my laptop. My 80 Gig HD is partitioned 32/48
for C & D respectively. I am satisfied with the performance, however I
would like to increase efficiency if practical.
My question is: Would setting up another partition dedicated for
the page file only be worth the effort or do I run the risk of
creating more problems than necessary?

That's not at all a good idea, but the reason is performance, not
problems. It puts the page file farther from the other data on the
drive, so the drive heads have to travel farther to get to and from
the page file. That will slow you down rather than improve
performance.

However, how much it slows you down depends on how much the page file
is used, and that depends on how much RAM you have. The more RAM, the
less page file use, and for many people these days, the difference in
performance is so slight as to be unnoticeable.

 

[John Callaway]

That's not at all a good idea, but the reason is performance, not
problems. It puts the page file farther from the other data on the
drive, so the drive heads have to travel farther to get to and from
the page file. That will slow you down rather than improve
performance.

However, how much it slows you down depends on how much the page file
is used, and that depends on how much RAM you have. The more RAM, the
less page file use, and for many people these days, the difference in
performance is so slight as to be unnoticeable.

Thanks for all the info! I guess I will well enough alone.

JPC

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks for all the info! I guess I will well enough alone.

You're welcome. Glad to help.