Paging Files

[Joe]

If a person has a computer with two 80 GB hard drives, with the C: drive
being a single partition and the second drive having two further extensions
making a total of three partitions, what would be the situation regarding
paging files for each drive.

The system has 1 GB of RAM and three of the four drives have 'System Managed
Size ' which on each of those three is
Minimum 2 MB
Recommended 1534 MB
Total Allocation for all drives 4605 MB

Should all partitions have a Virtual Memory allocation for the paging files
or should that only
be on the C: drive.

Your comments and advice would be appreciated.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

You only need one allocating space for the pagefile, and my recommendation
would be the first partition on the second drive. With that much ram, usage
of the pagefile is likely to be minimal. By placing it on the secondary
drive, it will not detract from head movement on the primary (C when it is
used.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Joe]

Thanks Rick, so if he has only the first partition on the second drive set
to 'System Managed Size ' and the others set to ' No paging file ' he should
be OK at that?

Appreciated mate

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Yep, should be fine.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Ron Martell]

If a person has a computer with two 80 GB hard drives, with the C: drive
being a single partition and the second drive having two further extensions
making a total of three partitions, what would be the situation regarding
paging files for each drive.

The system has 1 GB of RAM and three of the four drives have 'System Managed
Size ' which on each of those three is
Minimum 2 MB
Recommended 1534 MB
Total Allocation for all drives 4605 MB

Should all partitions have a Virtual Memory allocation for the paging files
or should that only
be on the C: drive.

Your comments and advice would be appreciated.

For best performance and stability you should only have a single
paging file on each physical drive.

I would remove the paging file from *one* of the partitions on the
second drive, leaving the other. Your choice as to which to remove
and which to leave.

For the boot drive (C I would leave a paging file there but would
modify the settings by specifying a minimum size of 10 mb and a
maximum size of 50 mb.

Windows uses the paging file for a number of specialized functions in
addition to the paging out of inactive RAM content, and it just seems
to be happier if there is a small paging file on the boot drive.

For more detailed information on virtual memory management in Windows
XP see the article by the late Alex Nichol MVP at
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Good luck


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

 

[Joe]

Thanks Ron, I will pass your information on.