Virtual Memory!!

[gannu_rox]

Hi Guys,

Where should we allocate the page file; in the C drive ( i.e where windows resides) or in a separate partition as Digit suggested in May'06 issue.

Any rough idea how to do so.
So far I let Windows do so for me. Not ba erformance though.\

Thanx
Ganesh

[JGuru]

Mostly, you don't need to do any modifications, Windows will manage it on its own. (That's the default setting). In general if you have more RAM , Windows won't use Virtual Memory (VM). If you use for demanding applications like PhotoShop, Oracle, Maya, 3D Studio MAX, Java IDE like JDeveloper, NetBeans etc., then Windows will decide based on how much RAM was requested by these applications and how RAM is available in the System. And create a VM as per the needs.

[kalpik]

You are recommended to put the paging file on a separate physical disk (if you have more than one). Putting it on a separate partition on the same disk creates no difference..

[siriusb]

"Seperate partition" don't cut it, as kalpik points out, you need seperate disks. Preferably a small, seperate, fast hdd (raid0 and scsi may not be necessary, but they help) dedicated for virtual memory. And if you have multiple hdds, you can distribute your swap file on different partitions on each disk (I don't know if does a raid0 or just a jbod internally).
And don't let windows auto-manage it for you. Rather take the maximum that windows sets and set it as the minimum too. This will eliminate the need for page file defragmentation later. And the maximum set by the windows (1.5x the RAM size, I believe) is not a mandatory rule.
But don't disable page file too, even if you have 2GB of RAM. If you have >=2GB of RAM, then you probably are using heavy apps that may reserve large blocks of memory. You'd better spare some hdd space than receive an "out of memory" error in that case.
Finally, if your page file use is too high, don't keep increasing the size. Try to buy some more RAM.

Also, format the partition to ntfs with a large block size. If it's a raid0, first format it with a large stripe size and then format it ntfs.

[kalpik]

More info regarding pagefile optimisation here: http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

[kai-revolution]

Originally Posted by gan12320021

Hi Guys,

Where should we allocate the page file; in the C drive ( i.e where windows resides) or in a separate partition as Digit suggested in May'06 issue.

Any rough idea how to do so.
So far I let Windows do so for me. Not ba erformance though.\

Thanx
Ganesh

keep it in another partition for better performance
search for a file named pagefile.sys in the c drive
find it then move it onto the other partition .
kai....

[siriusb]

Originally Posted by kai-revolution

search for a file named pagefile.sys in the c drive
find it then move it onto the other partition .
kai....

Er, that's not how you change the pagefile location! You have to go to Control panel->System->Advanced->Settings->Change (or something like that)

[Vyasram]

lol......u can never move the pagefile coz it'll be active most of da time

[vikasg03]

Originally Posted by kalpik

You are recommended to put the paging file on a separate physical disk (if you have more than one). Putting it on a separate partition on the same disk creates no difference..

Hello
i want to conferm from kalpik,are u trying to say if we put pagefile/virtual memory/swap file in secondry hard disk ( if we attahc 2 hard disk), then we got better performance in comparision to put in another partion on the primary disk??? .
vikas

[sakumar79]

@Vikas - Yes, putting pagefile in a second harddisk (especially if it is at the start of the disk and is continuous) will give slightly better performance... Did you see the link Kalpik gave in his second post? There is more info there...

Arun

[JGuru]

Better use more RAM. Use 1 GB RAM. And see your System race like Formula One
car, rather than tweaking with paging file!!

[sakumar79]

Using more RAM blindly will not solve the problem... For a budget PC (or a PC that is one or two years old), 1 GB may not improve performance over 512 MB because RAM by then will not be the bottleneck... The processor speed may become the bottleneck...

Even with 1 GB RAM, you should tweak the pagefile so as to improve performance... May not be much, but remember that tweaking the pagefile to be a set value with a contiguous stretch on the HD will improve the life of the HD..

Arun

[k_blues24]

keep virtual memory paging file in another partition