Swap file in Partition

[boothbay]

From what I've read, its suppose to be a good idea to put your swap file in a partition by itself..preferably in your primary one. I have my OS in my C drive with some space. How do i actually install this swap file either in that space or wherever? The manual of PowerMagic mentions nothing about how to do this. I need to know litterately how this is done..thanks.

[Bovon]

Well, don't think you would want to put it on the C drive where the OS is..its already there now.

What most do when fdisking a new hard drive is create some partitions..(this can also be done with special software, like partition magic) Then the drive is formatted leaving a small partition off at the end (some say having it on the D drive is better than at the end) Anyway, fron Win9x you would go to system properties, Performance tab...then the virtual memory button.

Under the virtual memory button, you will have two choices, let windows manage the virtual memory, or let you manage it. Put the bullet in the hole to let you manage it. Then, you specify how much space on that partition to have the swap file (you gotta specify which drive first) the usual is about 2 to 2-1/2 times your physical ram. If you have 128 mb then 256 to 320 mb of disk space is a good place to start. If you have lotsa ram, its kinda useless to devote over 500 mb to a swap file. I started off with 400 mb virtual memory for the swap file, and now that I have 256 mb of physical ram, I still have 400 mb of virtual ram...I donno if this is exactly correct or not, but my machine works fine.

When you make a swap file, and tell windows you are gonna handle it, and set it up..and start to exit, windows will tell you that by doing this, windows might not work properly...just click ok, and all will be fine.

[Dudster]

www.rojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/Swapfile_Optimization/Swapfile_Optimization_01.htm

It's quite a long read but it should answer all your questions

My swapfile is on it's own partition (primary) but that's on a seperate drive with it's own IDE cable. I've got 256MB of RAM so I made the minimum size 512MB and no maximum (over the top but I've got plenty of space anyway).

P.S. I wouldn't be surprised if this thread gets moved to Data Storage

[Yar1182]

I've heard arguments wheather having the swap on it's own partition is faster or not. Windows generally knows where to put the swap file which is on the outer edge of the hard disk. If you create a seperate partition for the sawap file it will not be on the fastest part of the hard drive.
The ideal way to set it up would to created your swap partition first, then your main bootable partiton with the OS, and finally all your other partitions. This would need to be done on a newly formated drive, to get it set up ideally.
The problem is that f-disk in win9x want the first partiton created to be the primary partition and let's you only create one primary partition. Win2K let's you make up to 4 primaries partitions so it's a lot easyier to set it up. In 9x I had a work around (I'm sure there is a better one) which required 2 drives and partition magic. One the first drive i had windows and partition magic installed. Then I formated and partition the second drive the way i wanted with the swap file first. Then i opened up the case swithched drives and installed windows on the second drive.

[NDC]

You might also want to read here

[This message has been edited by NDC (edited 08-02-2001).]

[redstone]

Another advantage of setting the swap file size is it keeps your hdd less fragmented. Set the min / max to the same size.

[elroy]

I read a very extensive article on swap file optimization. It said that setting the file to a set size is the best option and then use Norton Util's or Nuts & Bolts to optimize the file placement. Another option is to place it on another drive set as secondary master. If the drive is a least as fast as the primary master. But remember you are talking about VERY small differences in performance. Using the first option is probably going to get you as close to perfect as you'll get.