Pagefile fragmentation ?

[Guest]

I've increased my pagefile to maximum size to benefit from the additional
'RAM' effect. However, I heard recently that the pagefile becomes fragmented
(like general storage), and when you run a de-frag the pagefile isn't
included of course. So I assume I could end up with a very fragmented
pagefile which actually slows things down rather than speeds things up ????
Is this accurate information ? If so - what do I do about it ???

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

The pagefile is not one of the files that is defragmented - there are 6
others by default. Not only slowing the system down, the pagefile also
contains personal information if say, you have used eBay at any time and
used a Credit Card!! You can set the pagefile to 0(zero), reboot and then
defrag - and then reset the pagefile to your normal settings.

 

[Ron Martell]

I've increased my pagefile to maximum size to benefit from the additional
'RAM' effect. However, I heard recently that the pagefile becomes fragmented
(like general storage), and when you run a de-frag the pagefile isn't
included of course. So I assume I could end up with a very fragmented
pagefile which actually slows things down rather than speeds things up ????
Is this accurate information ? If so - what do I do about it ???

In my opinion pagefile fragmentation as a performance issue is right
up there with Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy - lots of
hype and very little substance.

There is no way to guarantee that the sequence in which memory pages
are saved in the pagefile have an relationship to the application
program, device driver, or windows component that they belong to. Nor
is there any way to guarantee that memory pages will need to be loaded
back into RAM in the same sequence in which they were written out to
the pagefile.

Therefore any loading back of information from the pagefile is almost
certainly not going to involve contiguous data clusters within the
pagefile even if the pagefile is totally unfragmented. This means
that the drive head mechanism will still be repositioning itself
multipe times regardless of the fragmentation status.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[kenchi]

Hi
When you run applications and your RAM is not sufficient to hold al
application modules in memory, they have to be switched to pagefile an
back, which may result in fragmentation of the page file over time
leading to slowdown. But you can always get a third party defragmente
that defrags the page file before windows starts.

 

[MAP]

I've increased my pagefile to maximum size to benefit from the
additional 'RAM' effect. However, I heard recently that the pagefile
becomes fragmented (like general storage), and when you run a de-frag
the pagefile isn't included of course. So I assume I could end up
with a very fragmented pagefile which actually slows things down
rather than speeds things up ???? Is this accurate information ? If
so - what do I do about it ???

Not a very big problem to concern yourself over,but here goes, check out
this link.
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PageDefrag.html