Swap File Configuration

[Kev Sharratt]

Hi

I have recently changed my hard drives. I now have;

C: (OS) WD 250Gb (New drive) 7200rpm - Primary Master and
D: Seagate 60Gb (This drive came with the PC in 2002) 5400rpm - Secondary Slave

I am running XP Home with 2 x 512Mb 2700 ram

I have 3 questions;

Firstly on which drive is it best to put the swap file
Secondly should I let windows control it or should it be set to a fixed amount. If you recommend a fixed amount, how much (difficult question I know but I do some photo editing and have bought the new Hard Drive, DVD Burner and 9800 Pro AIW to do a large amount of converting VHS Video to DVD (DivX))
Thirdly, some programs I use allow you to select a 'data' drive. Should I set that to the faster 'C' drive where the OS & program is installed or the slower 'D' which is currently only used for long term store.

Incidently this may not make any difference but my primary slave is a DVD Ram Burner and my Secondary Master is my Normal DVD/CD Burner

Thanks for any advice

Kev :)

[Sterling_Aug]

1.) Put the swap on the 60GB drive.

2.) Set the swap file size to 1.0GB min. and max. to reduce fragmentation.

3.) Store the programs on C: drive with the OS, it is faster. I use my D: drive for downloads and data only.

[Kev Sharratt]

Excellent, thanks Sterling

Kev :D

[cdroman]

Leave about 5Mb of swap on C:, windows will need it for dumps. Create a separate drive on D: solely for the swap file; it will not get fragmented that way.

[Kev Sharratt]

Hi

If I add a new partition on the 60Gb for the swap file. Should I put it before or after the other 59Gb, and I make it exactly 1024Mb so it will not fragment.

Thanks Kev :)

[BipolarBill]

What I do is to use any drive but the boot drive. I create a small partition at the very front of the fastest remaining drive. It's important to set a fixed size to prevent "topping out" of the page file.

Remember that drive speed is everything inre the swapfile. The outer edge of a drive holds more data and rotates more quickly, so that's where you want the swapfile. Creating a small partition there will prevent the file from moving around on the drive.

[Sterling_Aug]

I prefer to turn off dumps of any kind so my C: drive swap file gets deleted.

With 1GB RAM, you will rarely use the swap file anyways. If you do, add more RAM for speed.

[Kev Sharratt]

Hi, I have done as suggested.

However, there are 5 users set up on this PC, I have one for personal use & another for work.

On the work one I have been getting 'short of space' warnings on the page file drive

From Task Manager I get;

Physical Memory, Total 1048052
Available 624268
System Cache 433312

Commit Charge, Total 340896
Limit 1990268
Peak 365020

Kernal Memory, Total 80912
Paged 46260
Non-Paged 34696

Now the strange thing is when I go into my personal user name, I came open a load of applications and commit more memory and use more of the page file but I get no warning about low space.

One question now come its using so much of the page file when there is alot of memory still available?

Do I need to change any settings

Many Thanks

Kev

[Kev Sharratt]

I think I may have made a mistake here...

If I add the total commit + the Available Physical + Kernal Memory = The total of my ram. So would I be right in thinking that although I have a 340K page file, my programs are in fact running in the memory and not using that page file

Kev

[cdroman]

Hi

If I add a new partition on the 60Gb for the swap file. Should I put it before or after the other 59Gb, and I make it exactly 1024Mb so it will not fragment.

Thanks Kev :)


I do like BPB and put it at the front of the of the fastest remaining drive. I leave the 5 MB swap file on C: as windows will ignore it and use the larger page file from the other drive. I usually set the drive size from 1-2 GB and set the page file fixed at 85% of the size of the drive. A good sized swap file is necessary because many programs will set aside hundreds of MB of virtual memory that they may or may not use. You don't want that to be used out of your RAM; which will happen if you don't have a large enough swap file. Many programs like a lot of page file space. If I use multiple HDD's, I put a fixed swap file at the front of each additional drive.

[AllGamer]

Best option

Dissable Swap File completely, speed performance is increased tenth forth ;)

if any stupid program complains about not having Swap file... AKA Adobe products

just set a tiny swap file of 2 meg (minimum allowed space)

if you have more than 1 GIG of RAM, you don;t need swap file, it'll just slow down the machine.

[Strawbs]

I use 2mb on C: and have a 2gb partition on my second drive w\ swap file fixed at 1.8gb - the extra 200mb headroom mutes the "out of space" nag.

[Kev Sharratt]

Hi

Sorry but I'm now getting confused. I have in the past run Win 98 with no swap file & not had any probs. I am now using XP Home. It seems that everybody has a slightly different opinion. I currently have 1 Gb of 2700 ram (2 x 512Mb) the Mobo only has 2 slots so to increase this I would need to sell a 512Mb stick & replace with a 1Gb stick (the max the mobo will take). Am I OK to run with no Page file & 1 Gb ram. I use office applications + Doom 3 + C & C Generals/Zero Hour + Adobe Photoshop and I am planning to do some conversion of VHS To DivX.

I am thinking of trying it with no page file & if I have problems putting back the page file in the 1Gb partition

thanks Kev :)

[cdroman]

Here is M$'s take on it. Read "How to manage computer memory" on down.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308417

[Kev Sharratt]

Interesting read. One thing that seems odd, if you increase the amount of ram you have, you will need to use the swap file less, so windows increases your swap file by 50% of your additional memory size. Sounds like windows default is intended for systems with a smaller amount of ram. According to this if you were lucky enough to have a system with 4Gb of ram, windows would set up a 6Gb swap file?

Thanks for the info

Kev :)