Swap File on External Hard Drive

[Matt Pierce]

Hi Everyone.

My computer is getting pretty old and I'm always trying to find ways to
get a little extra time out of it. My HD (27GB) has been filling up
fast since I got broadband too. So I decided that an External HD might
be able to solve those problems.

The HD I'm looking at is an Iogear 80GB Firewire model. In my
understanding it comes pre-formatted with three FAT32 partitions. It's
also faster (7200rpm) than my current HD.

I'm running Windows XP Service Pack 2 on an NTFS formatted disk. My
processor is an older Intel Pentium III 600mhz. The RAM on this system
is maxed out at 384MB. Daily I run Graphics/Video Editing software that
fills my RAM and starts writing to the Swap File.

I've read, and believe that moving the Swap File to a seperate disk can
improve performance. However I'm not certain that the Swap File can be
moved to an external HD. So now my questions..


Can a copy of Windows XP running off of an NTFS disk store it's Swap
File on an External HD which is formatted as FAT32?

Can the partitions of a single drive be formatted using different
filesystems? (I.E. One NTFS partition for video and one FAT32 for
average sized files)


Any help you could give me will be very much appreciated. I really need
to know the answer to these two things before I purchase anything else.
If I'm entirely mistaken about my belief in moving the Swap File please
let me know.

Thanks,
Matt Pierce

 

[R. McCarty]

Unless you have other unstated reasons for an external drive, I
would get a newer internal drive. Clone your existing XP install
to it - Backup your data. Use the new drive as your XP system
disk and boot to it. Then format your existing drive and use
it as a secondary. Place your Swapfile on it and perhaps create
a dedicated partition for personal data. To save money, I would
get a smaller new drive and not the latest 300+ Gigabyte - say a
80-100 Gigabyte which you should be able to find for ~$75.00.

 

[André Gulliksen]

Can a copy of Windows XP running off of an NTFS disk store it's Swap
File on an External HD which is formatted as FAT32?

I have not tested it myself, but I don't think this should be a problem.

Can the partitions of a single drive be formatted using different
filesystems? (I.E. One NTFS partition for video and one FAT32 for
average sized files)

Yes.

That being said, I second Matts suggestion about replacing your existing
drive, unless you have specific reasons for wanting an external drive. And
even if you do get an external drive, you might benefit from physically
swapping the two drives, i.e. remove your new drive from the external
casing, mount it in your computer and mount your current drive in the
external casing.

 

[jopa66]

I defintiely concur with R. McCarty re: getting a new internal drive and
setting your system up as he explains. Windows XP will not allow the
pagefile to be set up on external drives. You would have the extra
difficulty in tricking the OS into seeing the Iogear as a fixed drive. For
an excellent tutorial on the Swap or PageFile see this link:
http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

 

[Matt Pierce]

I have not tested it myself, but I don't think this should be a problem.




Yes.

That being said, I second Matts suggestion about replacing your existing
drive, unless you have specific reasons for wanting an external drive. And
even if you do get an external drive, you might benefit from physically
swapping the two drives, i.e. remove your new drive from the external
casing, mount it in your computer and mount your current drive in the
external casing.

Thanks to both of you for responding. I would have replied faster but I
was waiting for Google Groups to refresh. I'm in Thunderbird now so I
got your responses as soon as the headers downloaded.

I thought about a getting a new Internal HD. It would be easier. However
my computer is getting very outdated and nearly every available space
inside is full. I'm also not sure my BIOS could handle a newer drive. My
PSU is very overtaxed as well.

To save the strain on my PSU I figured the External HD would be my best
bet. The model I'm looking at is $124 at Amazon. My computer was
manufactured in 1998 or 99.

I really don't know a lot about computer BIOS and the like. Maybe
someone who knows more about the internals could bring me some insight.
Here are some of my main board specifications:

Motherboard manufacturer Intel Corporation
Motherboard model WS440BX, AA744110-203
BIOS vendor Intel Corp.
BIOS revision 4W4SB0X0.15A.0013.P08
BIOS release date 04/22/1999
Chipset Intel i440BX/ZX rev. C1
Southbridge Intel 82371 (PIIX4) rev. 2

Does anyone know if I could get a newer HD would run inside it?

Thanks Again,
Matt Pierce

 

[R. McCarty]

The "BX" chipset Motherboards were one of the best ever made.

But that platform is showing it's age.You might be better served by
saving up for a new PC ($475-$500) or you could re-use some of
your components and upgrade the Motherboard/CPU & Memory.
However, that's becoming less and less a cost-effective way to upgrade.

I hate to recommend it, but the Dell "Weekly" special would get
you a newer platform and perhaps an LCD Monitor. They (Dell)
are just impossible to beat on new system pricing.

If your current system is meeting your requirements, an external
drive isn't a bad solution. You would probably want a Firewire or
USB2.0/Firewire card to interface the drive to.

 

[DanS]

The "BX" chipset Motherboards were one of the best ever made.

But that platform is showing it's age.You might be better served by
saving up for a new PC ($475-$500) or you could re-use some of
your components and upgrade the Motherboard/CPU & Memory.
However, that's becoming less and less a cost-effective way to
upgrade.

I hate to recommend it, but the Dell "Weekly" special would get
you a newer platform and perhaps an LCD Monitor. They (Dell)
are just impossible to beat on new system pricing.

<SNIP>

As a note, there's a special from Dell that shows up on the Yahoo.com
homepage periodically, for a final cost of $349, for a P4-2.8 Ghz (NOT
Celeron), 40 GIG, 256 Meg, 17" monitor, no floppy or speakers. My employer
purchased one for me when I started. The system work's quite well for
business use, but there is one issue.

The M/B has the Intel Extreme Graphics on-board using shared RAM, and after
opening the case, I found that this CAN NOT be upgraded as there is no AGP
slot. The footprint for it is on the MB, but there is no connector.

Regards,

DanS

 

[Al Dykes]

Hi Everyone.

My computer is getting pretty old and I'm always trying to find ways to
get a little extra time out of it. My HD (27GB) has been filling up
fast since I got broadband too. So I decided that an External HD might
be able to solve those problems.

The HD I'm looking at is an Iogear 80GB Firewire model. In my
understanding it comes pre-formatted with three FAT32 partitions. It's
also faster (7200rpm) than my current HD.

I'm running Windows XP Service Pack 2 on an NTFS formatted disk. My
processor is an older Intel Pentium III 600mhz. The RAM on this system
is maxed out at 384MB. Daily I run Graphics/Video Editing software that
fills my RAM and starts writing to the Swap File.

I've read, and believe that moving the Swap File to a seperate disk can
improve performance. However I'm not certain that the Swap File can be
moved to an external HD. So now my questions..


Can a copy of Windows XP running off of an NTFS disk store it's Swap
File on an External HD which is formatted as FAT32?

Can the partitions of a single drive be formatted using different
filesystems? (I.E. One NTFS partition for video and one FAT32 for
average sized files)


Any help you could give me will be very much appreciated. I really need
to know the answer to these two things before I purchase anything else.
If I'm entirely mistaken about my belief in moving the Swap File please
let me know.

Thanks,
Matt Pierce

I'm not sure XP will allow you to make a drive that can be removed as
swap. Bettwe yoiu should burn some of yoiur old files into CDRs and make
space on C for sawp.

YOu could aslo pop a bare disk inside yoiur machine as a second
drive and put swap there. You can also image your C drive to it as a
backup stragtegy.

A 40GB 7200rmp disk is about $50 and would be a speed boost
for your old machine.

I see you run graphics software. MAX out the memory. It's the
cheapest performance boost you can get.


FInd out where your space is being eaten up and come up with a strategy
for dealing with it.

with NTFS on your C drive you can use the compression property to make
lots of space if your data is in an uncompressed format.

 

[Admiral Q]

XP will not allow the "pagefile" to be placed on a removable device - that
said, within explorer, right click on the drive, select properties, then the
"hardware tab", select the drive and hit the properties button, change from
"Quick Removal" to "Performance" and click ok, theoretically you should be
able to move and/or add a pagefile.sys to the drive, but you've just doubled
your chances of a crash:
a) It now has a pagefile, which could contain parts of the executive (OS)
and if removed, no telling what will happen,
b) The drive is a "quick" removal drive, and if you forget and remove it
without taking the proper sequence, well you never know.

--
Star Fleet Admiral Q @ your service!
"Google is your Friend!"
www.google.com

***********************************************

 

[Matt Pierce]

I'm not sure XP will allow you to make a drive that can be removed as
swap. Bettwe yoiu should burn some of yoiur old files into CDRs and make
space on C for sawp.

YOu could aslo pop a bare disk inside yoiur machine as a second
drive and put swap there. You can also image your C drive to it as a
backup stragtegy.

A 40GB 7200rmp disk is about $50 and would be a speed boost
for your old machine.

I see you run graphics software. MAX out the memory. It's the
cheapest performance boost you can get.


FInd out where your space is being eaten up and come up with a strategy
for dealing with it.

with NTFS on your C drive you can use the compression property to make
lots of space if your data is in an uncompressed format.

Sorry for the really late response. I just wanted to thank everyone who
responded to my questions. Now I have a much better idea of what I need
to do.

For now it looks like I'll be getting the External HD. I'll see what I
can do with it. Like most of you said it looks as if putting a swap file
on the External drive will not be possible.

If I find that to be true then I'll leave the Swap File on my current
disk and copy my DV directly to the External drive. I'll also use the
External drive as my "Scratch Disk" while editing graphics.

Things I download from the Internet will go onto their own partition on
the External disk as well. I'll be able to manage the files better that
way. So it looks like I'll be using the External disk for large files
that become heavily fragmented.

Eventually I'll get a new computer. I had a look at Dell's website and
customized the Dimension 4700 model. It seems that to get what I need
from the system it'll cost around $875. I'll have to budget myself for a
while before I can shell that out.

Thanks Again for all of your help.
Matt Pierce

 

[Alex Nichol]

I've read, and believe that moving the Swap File to a seperate disk can
improve performance. However I'm not certain that the Swap File can be
moved to an external HD. So now my questions..


Can a copy of Windows XP running off of an NTFS disk store it's Swap
File on an External HD which is formatted as FAT32?

No. Such a disk is at least nominally removable, and you may not have
page file there. But you may be giving it more space than it needs -
see at www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm