why page-file used if physical memory available ?

[John A Grandy]

xp pro sp1 , toshiba satellite pro 6100 , 512mb ram

task manager | performance
physical memory (k)
total 523056
available 135764
system cache 105012

but the "pf usage" chart shows a nearly steady 448-449mb

if i have 135764k physical memory available , why is the page-file being
used at all ?

 

[Richard Urban]

Because of the fact that Windows XP was designed to use a pagefile. There
are also quite a few programs that will down right refuse to run without
one.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Jim Macklin]

The space on the hard drive is assigned but that does not
mean that it is really being used. But many applications
will not run unless there is some virtual memory available.

Your pagefile is about 1/2 a GB, it costs nothing and does
some good. How big is your hard drive, 40 GB?



"John A Grandy" <johnagrandy-at-yahoo.com> wrote in message
| xp pro sp1 , toshiba satellite pro 6100 , 512mb ram
|
| task manager | performance
| physical memory (k)
| total 523056
| available 135764
| system cache 105012
|
| but the "pf usage" chart shows a nearly steady 448-449mb
|
| if i have 135764k physical memory available , why is the
page-file being
| used at all ?
|
|
|
|

 

[John A Grandy]

hd=60gb

paging file:
"custom size" selected
initial=384mb
max=768mb

i didn't configure the virtual memory. toshiba must have configured it this
way.

should i change the init/max settings? plenty of space available on the
hard drive (9+ gb are free)

would "system managed size" be a better choice?

 

[Jim Macklin]

See this article http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

If you set Windows Managed it will work just fine, but it
will set the size based on the size of the hard disk
partition not the applications running, until it runs short,
then it will increase the size.
You can set the minimum and maximum size the same and that
is said to save time since Windows doesn't spend time
resizing the volume.

Read the article


"John A Grandy" <johnagrandy-at-yahoo.com> wrote in message
| hd=60gb
|
| paging file:
| "custom size" selected
| initial=384mb
| max=768mb
|
| i didn't configure the virtual memory. toshiba must have
configured it this
| way.
|
| should i change the init/max settings? plenty of space
available on the
| hard drive (9+ gb are free)
|
| would "system managed size" be a better choice?
|
in message
| | > The space on the hard drive is assigned but that does
not
| > mean that it is really being used. But many
applications
| > will not run unless there is some virtual memory
available.
| >
| > Your pagefile is about 1/2 a GB, it costs nothing and
does
| > some good. How big is your hard drive, 40 GB?
| >
| >
| >
| > "John A Grandy" <johnagrandy-at-yahoo.com> wrote in
message
| > | > | xp pro sp1 , toshiba satellite pro 6100 , 512mb ram
| > |
| > | task manager | performance
| > | physical memory (k)
| > | total 523056
| > | available 135764
| > | system cache 105012
| > |
| > | but the "pf usage" chart shows a nearly steady
448-449mb
| > |
| > | if i have 135764k physical memory available , why is
the
| > page-file being
| > | used at all ?
| > |
| > |
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
|
|

 

[John A Grandy]

i did read the article ... but the article actually says NOT to set min =
max ...

did you read the article?

 

[Jim Macklin]

Yes I read it and I have my system set to Windows managed.
But if you are going to manually manage your settings I
wanted to mention the option of using a fixed size.

The best system would have two physical drive and run the
pagefile on the secondary drive, so that data reads/saves
could happen while you were doing something else on the
primary drive.


"John A Grandy" <johnagrandy-at-yahoo.com> wrote in message
| i did read the article ... but the article actually says
NOT to set min =
| max ...
|
| did you read the article?
|
in message
| | > See this article http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
| >
| > If you set Windows Managed it will work just fine, but
it
| > will set the size based on the size of the hard disk
| > partition not the applications running, until it runs
short,
| > then it will increase the size.
| > You can set the minimum and maximum size the same and
that
| > is said to save time since Windows doesn't spend time
| > resizing the volume.
| >
| > Read the article
| >
| >
| > "John A Grandy" <johnagrandy-at-yahoo.com> wrote in
message
| > | > | hd=60gb
| > |
| > | paging file:
| > | "custom size" selected
| > | initial=384mb
| > | max=768mb
| > |
| > | i didn't configure the virtual memory. toshiba must
have
| > configured it this
| > | way.
| > |
| > | should i change the init/max settings? plenty of
space
| > available on the
| > | hard drive (9+ gb are free)
| > |
| > | would "system managed size" be a better choice?
| > |
| > | "Jim Macklin" <p51mustang[threeX12]@xxxhotmail.calm>
wrote
| > in message
| > | | > | > The space on the hard drive is assigned but that
does
| > not
| > | > mean that it is really being used. But many
| > applications
| > | > will not run unless there is some virtual memory
| > available.
| > | >
| > | > Your pagefile is about 1/2 a GB, it costs nothing
and
| > does
| > | > some good. How big is your hard drive, 40 GB?
| > | >
| > | >
| > | >
| > | > "John A Grandy" <johnagrandy-at-yahoo.com> wrote in
| > message
| > | > | > | > | xp pro sp1 , toshiba satellite pro 6100 , 512mb
ram
| > | > |
| > | > | task manager | performance
| > | > | physical memory (k)
| > | > | total 523056
| > | > | available 135764
| > | > | system cache 105012
| > | > |
| > | > | but the "pf usage" chart shows a nearly steady
| > 448-449mb
| > | > |
| > | > | if i have 135764k physical memory available , why
is
| > the
| > | > page-file being
| > | > | used at all ?
| > | > |
| > | > |
| > | > |
| > | > |
| > | >
| > | >
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
|
|

 

[Paul Forgey]

An excellent use for your old drive if it can do UDMA. Back in the old days
when 20 MB/s SCSI was actually fast, I used old, small Mac hard drives
exclusively as a swap volume.

Keep in mind IDE is one operation per device per bus, even today with UDMA.
This is why your CDROM is on the secondary controller. Although you still
gain benfit if your swap drive is on the same IDE bus because the heads
don't seek as much, you can benefit even more if you put it on your
secondary bus, unless you access your CDROM a lot, because the penalty in
that case is way worse (this is one of many reasons I run SCSI..)

Yes I read it and I have my system set to Windows managed.
But if you are going to manually manage your settings I
wanted to mention the option of using a fixed size.

The best system would have two physical drive and run the
pagefile on the secondary drive, so that data reads/saves
could happen while you were doing something else on the
primary drive.


"John A Grandy" <johnagrandy-at-yahoo.com> wrote in message
| i did read the article ... but the article actually says
NOT to set min =
| max ...
|
| did you read the article?
|
in message
| | > See this article http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
| >
| > If you set Windows Managed it will work just fine, but
it
| > will set the size based on the size of the hard disk
| > partition not the applications running, until it runs
short,
| > then it will increase the size.
| > You can set the minimum and maximum size the same and
that
| > is said to save time since Windows doesn't spend time
| > resizing the volume.
| >
| > Read the article
| >
| >
| > "John A Grandy" <johnagrandy-at-yahoo.com> wrote in
message
| > | > | hd=60gb
| > |
| > | paging file:
| > | "custom size" selected
| > | initial=384mb
| > | max=768mb
| > |
| > | i didn't configure the virtual memory. toshiba must
have
| > configured it this
| > | way.
| > |
| > | should i change the init/max settings? plenty of
space
| > available on the
| > | hard drive (9+ gb are free)
| > |
| > | would "system managed size" be a better choice?
| > |
| > | "Jim Macklin" <p51mustang[threeX12]@xxxhotmail.calm>
wrote
| > in message
| > | | > | > The space on the hard drive is assigned but that
does
| > not
| > | > mean that it is really being used. But many
| > applications
| > | > will not run unless there is some virtual memory
| > available.
| > | >
| > | > Your pagefile is about 1/2 a GB, it costs nothing
and
| > does
| > | > some good. How big is your hard drive, 40 GB?
| > | >
| > | >
| > | >
| > | > "John A Grandy" <johnagrandy-at-yahoo.com> wrote in
| > message
| > | > | > | > | xp pro sp1 , toshiba satellite pro 6100 , 512mb
ram
| > | > |
| > | > | task manager | performance
| > | > | physical memory (k)
| > | > | total 523056
| > | > | available 135764
| > | > | system cache 105012
| > | > |
| > | > | but the "pf usage" chart shows a nearly steady
| > 448-449mb
| > | > |
| > | > | if i have 135764k physical memory available , why
is
| > the
| > | > page-file being
| > | > | used at all ?
| > | > |
| > | > |
| > | > |
| > | > |
| > | >
| > | >
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
|
|