Let's Swap...........
bobbycanada
Sea Cliff, N.Y.
I am looking into my page(swap) file. I have been told that an entire drive can be dedicated to this. If so, is it something that an average user might want to do, If so, how?
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Here's an explaination of what it does and how it works......
Windows has the default option of controlling your swap file, which in all circumstances is ok. The problem comes in when you start using more of your swap file than you actualy have. What happens in this case is that your swap file is made larger by windows. This all works well and great except it costs you performance every time this is needed.
People have resolved this issue by setting a Maximum swap file size, which also helps greatly, but doesnt quite do the job that we need.
The best way to get performance out of your swap file is to set the Miminum and Maximum SWAP file size to the same amount, eg, 500 minimum and 500 maximum.
What this does is stop your swap file from changing size and as such stops your hard drive from overworking as the swap file is constantly adjusted.
Note: Select a nice big swap file size (normaly double of what your available memory is,) if your swap file size is too small this will degrade your performance.
That said: Here's how to get to it......If you goto the "System Properties" (Start / Settings / Control Panel / Sysyem). Select the "Advanced" Tab and click the "Performance" Button, the select the "Advanced" Tab and click the "Change" Button. Here is where you can change the swap file setup.
Also, here's a pagefile defrag program that when used sometimes makes the pc run a little smoother with faster bootup. PageDefrag <BR> Hope this helps you understand it a little better.
And in no way am I encouraging anyone to change system settings. You do this at your own risk.
I read that you can address an entire drive to page file.
The reason some do it is because they do alot of video editing and such that uses mucho virtual memory for processing.
It's a choice you'll have to read on and make a decision. This next site does some more explaining on it too.
Check this out........Virtual Memory in Windows XP
The general rule is doulbe your ram for the swap file. THough as your ram gets to 1gig+ usually it's 1.5 times your ram for the swap file.
I think though you may be confusing swap file with a scratch disk. For example Adope Photoshop/Painter...etc use what is called a scratch disk as do other graphical rendering programs. It's often these scratch disks that people will dedicate a single drive to specifically.
I put the link to the main folding page so you can go through all.