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Page File

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Thursday

Technical User
Aug 5, 2002
5
GB
Can some helpful soul talk me through how i set up my xp pro page file to use another partition ?
(ie not the one the o/s is using - i have 3 spare 10 gig partitions.)
Apparently this can increase performance ?
 
it's best to leave it where it is, unless your extremely sure of what you are doing. I have several partitions, and when i moved it it really didn't make any difference to performance. Just make sure you leave about 500mb free on your primary partition (when installing software install them, to the other partitions, it won't make any difference to how the software runs as long as there is space for any dll or systems files that need to be in the windows system directory). Once or twice i had start-up probs when the page file was moved to another partition.

I know that isn't the answer you wanted, but it is good advice (i think!!).

If it annoys Microsoft then it's worth doing, and doing well!!
 
Are all of these 4 partitions on the same physical disk?

If they are then it will make absolutely no difference to your performance if you move the page file.

If you have more than one physical disk installed in your system, then moving the page file to a non-system disk may have some improvement.

I have also found that setting the page file to a fixed size can help a bit too. You should make it at least the same size as the amount of memory you have.
 
I have six partitions total. 2x on one 20g disk & 4x on a 40g disk.
I have 512mb of sdram installed.

So if i wanted to try....how do i do it ?
 
If you can wait a few hours I will send you the exact details on how to do this.

I am currently at work, using a Windows 2000 system. I don't have access to an XP system from here. I could make a guess but this may screw up your system.
 
Ok i'll check back later tonight...Thanks
 
Right, I'm at home now.

To change the page file to a new location click on the following

Start | Control Panel | Performance & Maintenance (if in Category View only) | System (either view)

This will bring up the System Properties window.

Click on Advanced and then the Settings button in the Performance section.

Click on Advanced in the next window, then Change in the Virtual Memory section.

This will bring up a Virtual Memory Window.

By clicking on each drive letter (i.e C:) and clicking on the Custom Size button, you can specify how large a page file to place on each partition. NOTE: You can have a page file on more than one logical drive partition. Sometimes it helps to have one on each physical disk.

Let me know if you need any more help.
 
Two other things.

In the Virtual Memory window, if you make any changes make sure you click on Set after each one.

When finished you will need to reboot to pick the changes up.
 

you'll want to set up a static pagefile (prevents file fragmentation) by setting both the initial size and the maximum size to the same value. for starters set it at 1.5 x ram, in your case 768 mb. you only need one pagefile. i'll post more info if you need it.
 
Thursday,

Just follow the methos I have given, noting the comment of bigjef314159 and you will be fine.

It's purely up to you whether you have one page file or one on each physical disk. I work with Unix systems alot and on there it is recommended that you split them across as many disks as possible.

Let us know how you get on.
 
Thanks for your help guys...i'll try it when i get home tonight.
 
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