Virtual Memory Optimization Guide!

[Adrian Wong]

No problem!

[Flyhii]

Hi Adrian,

Since I "brought it up"

I got a question concerning as to why would any app or game have a problem accessing a pagefile that is put on a base disk other than the disk that contains the boot volume (OS)?

Now I understand the reasoning from an IT standpoint of being able to contain a full memory dump for debugging purposes, so this isn't my concern as I don't have, run or maintain a corporate networking type of infrastructure.

But why would any software developer write into their program(s) to look for a pagefile addressed on the boot volume drive instead of just letting Windows do the pageouts when needed?
This is the only issue that I can think of that would cause a pagefile setup like I have problems.

This wouldn't make sense. Since the user is essencially "instructing" Windows to place the physical location of the pagefile on a particular HDD & the setup parameters(s) to "tenetively" use so that the OS can perform the related functions-& the OS is the "brain", then why would software be written to query the OS as to a pagefile's certain location on a certain HDD instead of just querying the OS for the existance of a pagefile & leave the handling of all this to the OS?



Care to comment?

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Flyhii

Hi Adrian,

Since I "brought it up"

I got a question concerning as to why would any app or game have a problem accessing a pagefile that is put on a base disk other than the disk that contains the boot volume (OS)?

Now I understand the reasoning from an IT standpoint of being able to contain a full memory dump for debugging purposes, so this isn't my concern as I don't have, run or maintain a corporate networking type of infrastructure.

But why would any software developer write into their program(s) to look for a pagefile addressed on the boot volume drive instead of just letting Windows do the pageouts when needed?
This is the only issue that I can think of that would cause a pagefile setup like I have problems.

This wouldn't make sense. Since the user is essencially "instructing" Windows to place the physical location of the pagefile on a particular HDD & the setup parameters(s) to "tenetively" use so that the OS can perform the related functions-& the OS is the "brain", then why would software be written to query the OS as to a pagefile's certain location on a certain HDD instead of just querying the OS for the existance of a pagefile & leave the handling of all this to the OS?



Care to comment?

Unfortunately, I'm no application programmer. I can't tell you why they do what they do.

But I don't have any problem running the paging file in a partition that does not contain the operating system. What kind of problems are you talking about?

[Flyhii]

Hi Adrian,

What I was referring to was the Microsoft article that recommends to leave a small pagefile on the drive that contains the boot volume (OS) when setting up pagefile(s) on multiple HDD's.

The only other reason that I can see as to why to do this (outside of wanting to contain a full system dump upon a system crash) is that some software devs write into their .exe's to look for the pagefile on the boot volume drive (or HDD where the app is installed on) instead of just querying the OS for the existance of a pagefile regardless of where it's addressed (which makes infinitely more sense).

I'm not having any problems running either & I have my pagefile setup on a 2nd HDD that does not have the OS & apps/games on it & no pagefile setup at all on the 1st logical HDD (RAID 0 array) & this "drive" contains the boot volume, OS & apps/games on it. My results seem to contradict this MS recommendation. This was my comment in previous posting.

Was just wanting to hear your comments on this.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Flyhii

Hi Adrian,

What I was referring to was the Microsoft article that recommends to leave a small pagefile on the drive that contains the boot volume (OS) when setting up pagefile(s) on multiple HDD's.

The only other reason that I can see as to why to do this (outside of wanting to contain a full system dump upon a system crash) is that some software devs write into their .exe's to look for the pagefile on the boot volume drive (or HDD where the app is installed on) instead of just querying the OS for the existance of a pagefile regardless of where it's addressed (which makes infinitely more sense).

I'm not having any problems running either & I have my pagefile setup on a 2nd HDD that does not have the OS & apps/games on it & no pagefile setup at all on the 1st logical HDD (RAID 0 array) & this "drive" contains the boot volume, OS & apps/games on it. My results seem to contradict this MS recommendation. This was my comment in previous posting.

Was just wanting to hear your comments on this.

Actually, Microsoft only recommend you keep a small paging file on the boot drive for debugging purposes. Here's a quote :

To enhance performance, it is good practice to put the paging file on a different partition and on a different physical hard disk drive. That way, Windows can handle multiple I/O requests more quickly. When the paging file is on the boot partition, Windows must perform disk reading and writing requests on both the system folder and the paging file. When the paging file is moved to a different partition, there is less competition between reading and writing requests.

However, if you remove the paging file from the boot partition, Windows cannot create a dump file (Memory.dmp) in which to write debugging information in the event that a kernel mode Stop Error message occurs. This could lead to extended downtime if you must debug to troubleshoot the Stop error message.

AFAIK, there should be no problem for applications if the paging file is not on the boot drive. In fact, I don't believe the applications can even directly access the paging file.