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    Paging File on C or D?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by antonantal, Apr 28, 2007.

  1. antonantal

    antonantal Notebook Enthusiast

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    Is there any difference in performance if I set the paging file to be on the second partition (D) instead of the first one (C)? All my programs are on C and I always thought it would be better if the programs and the paging file are "closer" to each other.
     
    antonantal, Apr 28, 2007
    #1
  2. stamar

    stamar Notebook Prophet

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    no put the paging file on a different partition from windows.

    In comes with it set on the same partition, set it to a different partition.

    this is for less file fragmentations.
     
    stamar, Apr 28, 2007
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  3. antonantal

    antonantal Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes I noticed that the paging file is very fragmented when it's on C. That's exactly why I wanted to move it to D.
     
    antonantal, Apr 28, 2007
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  4. stamar

    stamar Notebook Prophet

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    Yes do that.
     
    stamar, Apr 28, 2007
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  5. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    I disagree agree about the best location. For best transfer performance the paging file should be as near as possible to the start of the HDD. I'm sure that you have seen the HDTune charts where the transfer rate drops off from left to right. D: will be on the right half.

    I agree about the fragmentation problem. However, there is an antidote. First set a fixed size paging file (My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced ) and change the Vitrual Memory setting to Custom with the same values for Initial and Maximum. To see what values you might need, open up all your favourite applications and look in Task Manager for the total memory usage. 1536 (1.5GB) or 2048 (2GB) may be suitable.

    Now you have stopped the file from changing size (the cause of the fragmentation), how to defrag it? Fortunately, someone (Mark Russinovich) has been there before us. Download PageDefrag and let it do the necessary.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Apr 28, 2007
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  6. sesshomaru

    sesshomaru Suspended Disbelief!

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    The ideal location of the paging file is on the first partition of a different physical disk. This is not usually an option in laptops, which,in most cases have one hard disk. Other than that, I agree with what John says...
     
    sesshomaru, Apr 28, 2007
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  7. Jalf

    Jalf Comrade Santa

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    Of course, if you put the pagefile at the start of the HDD, you'll get a better transfer rate on that, but everything else will have to be pushed back a bit, giving you a worse transfer rate on something else.

    Your paging file shouldn't be used much at all. If it does, you need more RAM.
    And if it isn't used much, it doesn't matter where it's located.
     
    Jalf, Apr 28, 2007
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  8. villageman

    villageman Notebook Evangelist

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    NEVER on a different partition on the SAME disk. This is the worst configuration.
    Best option would be on a different physical disk, but that is not possible in most laptops.
    Second best would be the SAME partition with OS and with FIXED size. I have disabled the pagefile on my laptop since I already have lots of memory. No big difference but I would expect that at least things wont get worse as the disk fills up.
    I agree with John above.
     
    villageman, Apr 28, 2007
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  9. sanpabloguy

    sanpabloguy Notebook Deity

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    Ditto what John and Villageman say.

    Putting a pagefile on a separate partition on the same physical disk gives no improvement and having it on a separate disk only helps if the disk is on a different channel (since IDE can only read from one IDE device per channel at a time).

    The pagefile virtual memory architecture came from VMS, and is designed around being on the same disk as applications and OS, so the benefit of even having it on a separate disk on a separate channel is minimal at best.

    Just set it to something static (so windows won't resize it with the chance of it being fragemented) and let it be.

    To "defrag" the pagefile, you can change the settings to not use a pagefile, reboot, change the settings to use pagefile (static amount), reboot. Pagefile is deleted.

    A fragmented pagefile really doesn't mean anything or degrade performance.
     
    sanpabloguy, Apr 28, 2007
    #9