Virtual Memory in USB Memory Stick

[=?iso-8859-1?B?VG9taSBI5HPk?=]

Can I use a USB memory stick with my computer for virtual memory in
Windows XP?

At the moment I use my laptop (512 MB RAM memory, 60 GB hard drive, AMD
Turion 64 Mobile 1.8 GHz processor, Windows XP Home Edition SP2) mainly
for word processing with OpenOffice.org 2.0.1 and searching for
information from the net with Internet Explorer 6 (and sometimes with
other web browsers).

I have read that for some people the hard drive is grinding all the
time. Mine isn't, it's accessed for about once in a minute (even when I
tried turning off most of the programs (even virus scanner)), but when
I'm in the middle of writing a sentence and the hard drive is accessed
for a second, my concentration sometimes gets interrupted, so I was
thinking of turning virtual memory off or using a very silent memory
device such as a USB memory stick or similar. Any thoughts?

 

[Adam]

My only thought would be maybe turn on a radio in the back ground or TV set.
You could even goto the doctor and get some medication for that attention
span.

 

[Adam]

but honestly I wouldnt use a USB port and memory stick for virtual memory.

 

[Guest]

Hello Tomi,

If the USB drive and/or USB crontroller are USB 1.1, then this will not work
very well because the USB 1.1 transfers data upto 12 Mbps (1.5 MB/s) which is
horribly slow...there would be a major impact on performance. If the
controller AND drive are USB 2.0, then this *may* work. USB 2.0 will
transfer upto 480 mbps (60 MB/s) which is close to a decent hard drive...so,
performance might be good.

Although, even if this did work, I'm not sure how this would affect the life
span of the USB thumb drive. My USB drive (Kingston Datatraveller) gets
pretty warm just being pluged in - let alone transfering data.

Another alternative (unless you are on a very tight buget and don't have a
lot of time) is to look into a better hard drive for your laptop. Seagate
Momentus drives are reasonably fast and are very quiet.

Good luck,

Francis

 

[Adam]

Although, even if this did work, I'm not sure how this would >affect the

life
span of the USB thumb drive. My USB drive (Kingston >Datatraveller) gets
pretty warm just being pluged in - let alone transfering data.

You know, I just bought myself a Data Traveler 128mb and it dont seem to get
hot at all, even being plugged in overnight.
I wouldnt ever use it for virtual memory though, not when I could pick up a
hard drive for little of nothing

 

[=?iso-8859-1?B?VG9taSBI5HPk?=]

If the USB drive and/or USB crontroller are USB 1.1, then this will not work
very well because the USB 1.1 transfers data upto 12 Mbps (1.5 MB/s) which is
horribly slow...there would be a major impact on performance. If the
controller AND drive are USB 2.0, then this *may* work. USB 2.0 will
transfer upto 480 mbps (60 MB/s) which is close to a decent hard drive...so,
performance might be good.

Although, even if this did work, I'm not sure how this would affect the life
span of the USB thumb drive. My USB drive (Kingston Datatraveller) gets
pretty warm just being pluged in - let alone transfering data.

Another alternative (unless you are on a very tight buget and don't have a
lot of time) is to look into a better hard drive for your laptop. Seagate
Momentus drives are reasonably fast and are very quiet.

Thanks for the quick answer. I bought my laptop this month, so the hard
drive should be quite new, and it's pretty quiet, but even it does
interrupt my thoughts when I have been writing all day long (yes, I do
take breaks...) and I enjoy a work space preferably with no surrounding
sounds, so maybe a new hard drive doesn't solve the problem (on the
other hand I haven't tested various hard drive sounds in stores), so I
might try a USB drive and see what happens. On the other hand I also
have other connections like FireWire IEEE-1394, which might be 800 Mbps
(according to standard 1394b), but I think it's meant mostly for video
recorders.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?B?VG9taSBI5HPk?=]

but honestly I wouldnt use a USB port and memory stick for virtual memory.

In a few days I might try it and report here if there is anything
interesting to report like does it work at all, is Windows much slower,
etc.

 

[Ron Martell]

Can I use a USB memory stick with my computer for virtual memory in
Windows XP?

At the moment I use my laptop (512 MB RAM memory, 60 GB hard drive, AMD
Turion 64 Mobile 1.8 GHz processor, Windows XP Home Edition SP2) mainly
for word processing with OpenOffice.org 2.0.1 and searching for
information from the net with Internet Explorer 6 (and sometimes with
other web browsers).

I have read that for some people the hard drive is grinding all the
time. Mine isn't, it's accessed for about once in a minute (even when I
tried turning off most of the programs (even virus scanner)), but when
I'm in the middle of writing a sentence and the hard drive is accessed
for a second, my concentration sometimes gets interrupted, so I was
thinking of turning virtual memory off or using a very silent memory
device such as a USB memory stick or similar. Any thoughts?

No.

Windows XP does not support the use of virtual memory paging files on
removable drives.

The reason is quite simple. Imagine what would happen if you removed
the memory stick (or replaced it with a different one) and Windows
needed to reload some memory content that had been moved out to the
pagefile. The application(s) involved, and perhaps the entire
operating system, would crash.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[=?iso-8859-1?B?VG9taSBI5HPk?=]

No.

Windows XP does not support the use of virtual memory paging files on
removable drives.

The reason is quite simple. Imagine what would happen if you removed
the memory stick (or replaced it with a different one) and Windows
needed to reload some memory content that had been moved out to the
pagefile. The application(s) involved, and perhaps the entire
operating system, would crash.

You seem to be right. I happen to have a 512 MB USB stick (drive) at
hand, but first I wanted to ask can I use it in case I would brake it
or something. So I turned off the Windows virtual memory paging file
for my main hard drive (the 60 GB drive I mentioned), and created a
paging file [400 MB / 450 MB] for the USB stick and Windows doesn't
seem to use any space from it and I can't see any hidden or system
files in it.

But still Windows is accessing something in the main hard drive once in
a minute or so, so maybe it isn't the paging file (because it probably
doesn't exist) that is accessed, so I tried to find out which program
is causing it by looking at the I/O columns in the the Windows Task
Manager when the main hard drive is accessed (written/read), but I
can't deduct the program, so maybe that EXE/DLL/program/process is not
shown in the Task Manager, because for example I can see svchost.exe,
but the processes it executes might not be shown to me, because Task
Manager might only show some of the processes run in Windows according
to this page:

"svchost.exe is a system process belonging to the Microsoft Windows
Operating System which handles processes executed from DLLs."
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/svchost/

 

[Bob I]

You do realize that "memory sticks" have a finite number of write
cycles, and then they start losing space. Bad idea in my book to use
them for something like paging file with all the writing activity.

No.

Windows XP does not support the use of virtual memory paging files on
removable drives.

The reason is quite simple. Imagine what would happen if you removed
the memory stick (or replaced it with a different one) and Windows
needed to reload some memory content that had been moved out to the
pagefile. The application(s) involved, and perhaps the entire
operating system, would crash.

You seem to be right. I happen to have a 512 MB USB stick (drive) at
hand, but first I wanted to ask can I use it in case I would brake it
or something. So I turned off the Windows virtual memory paging file
for my main hard drive (the 60 GB drive I mentioned), and created a
paging file [400 MB / 450 MB] for the USB stick and Windows doesn't
seem to use any space from it and I can't see any hidden or system
files in it.

But still Windows is accessing something in the main hard drive once in
a minute or so, so maybe it isn't the paging file (because it probably
doesn't exist) that is accessed, so I tried to find out which program
is causing it by looking at the I/O columns in the the Windows Task
Manager when the main hard drive is accessed (written/read), but I
can't deduct the program, so maybe that EXE/DLL/program/process is not
shown in the Task Manager, because for example I can see svchost.exe,
but the processes it executes might not be shown to me, because Task
Manager might only show some of the processes run in Windows according
to this page:

"svchost.exe is a system process belonging to the Microsoft Windows
Operating System which handles processes executed from DLLs."
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/svchost/