Virtual Memory Optimization Guide!

Discussion in 'Reviews & Articles' started by Dashken, Oct 29, 2004.

  1. Bestia(ry)

    Bestia(ry) Mac'ster

    Compared to a 5GB-HDD some years old and one of your Diamond-HDDs it would ... ;)
     
  2. Magnus_CA

    Magnus_CA Newbie

    Hi all,

    My XP boot drive is a 37 GB SATA150 Raptor. My second hard drive is a Hitachi SATA2 160 GB that I store my music files on. I have 1 GB of DDR400 RAM.

    Should I put my paging file on my second hard drive even though it's a slower drive? (7200 RPM vs 10000 RPM)

    THanks all!
     
  3. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Yeah, I would put the paging file on the second hard disk. Although, if you want to play safe, create a smaller paging file on your boot drive.

    When your boot drive is not doing anything, Windows XP will use the paging file on this faster drive for virtual memory.
     
  4. Magnus_CA

    Magnus_CA Newbie

    Thanks Adrian. Per your guide I will put a PF on my second (slower) hard drive sized according to Page File Usage History in the Task Manager.

    However, to get an idea what size PF I need (on the second drive) shouldn't I first move the paging file there, select size "System Managed Size", and then monitor from Task Manager?

    What size PF should I create on my (faster) boot drive?
     
  5. Johnie

    Johnie Newbie

    ...or even better...sell Hitachi drive and buy another (74GB model) Raptor...and then put paging file on that drive... :clap: :mrgreen: ;)
     
  6. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Magnus_CA,

    The optimal size of the paging file depends on your system. And it doesn't matter whether you place the paging file on the first hard disk or the second hard disk or on both. Your optimal paging file size remains the same.

    Remember - it depends on the amount of system memory you have and what kind of work you do. You have to test to find that out.

    When it comes to splitting up the paging file into two separate paging files on two hard disks, there's no hard and fast rule about that. But frankly, there's no need to toe the line on the optimal paging file size. We should be practical about these setups.

    Even if you find out that you only need 500MB of paging file, you can always create a 1GB paging file. It won't affect your performance - it just takes up some of your hard disk space.

    So, you can create paging files of any size that you wish - either both of equal size or the larger paging file on the non-boot drive. Then let Windows use whichever paging file thta's not active.
     
  7. Magnus_CA

    Magnus_CA Newbie

    Thanks again Adrian. :thumb:
     
  8. Magnus_CA

    Magnus_CA Newbie

    Hi again,
    I just had to run something by you guys. I apologize in advance if this has been answered somewhere. My 15 day trial for Diskeeper is nearly up!

    I have two SATA hard drives. One is a 74 GB Raptor (boot drive) and the second is a 250 GB TK7250 used strictly for data.

    I placed a 512 MB Paging file on my boot drive and a 1024 MB Paging file on my data drive.

    Is it normal that the Advanced tab only recognizes the 512 MB paging file on my boot Drive? The Virtual Memory page also shows only 512 MB is currently allocated (see attachment).

    Thanks in advance!
     

    Attached Files:

  9. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Just wondering.. Did you reboot before checking the size? :think:
     
  10. Magnus_CA

    Magnus_CA Newbie

    Yes, and many times since then. It still shows only 512 allocated.
    :think:
     
  11. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Hello Magnus_CA,

    You might want to check out this article - http://www.rojakpot.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=163

    Also, onclejean posted this in this thread - http://forums.rojakpot.com/showthread.php?t=12952

     
  12. Magnus_CA

    Magnus_CA Newbie

  13. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    ROTFL!! Windows... :haha:
     
  14. hydraSlav

    hydraSlav Newbie

    Hi, just read your article, very nice work, helped me a lot, thx.

    However, here is my dilema:

    I have 2 74GB Raptors (10,000RPM) in RAID 0 (these hold the OS and the games)
    And 1 250GB (7,000RPM) disk

    Both SATA.

    In your article, you say that one should not move the pagefile to the other disk (the big 7200RPM in my case) if that disk is not half as fast as the first

    However, in this post, you say that one 7200RPM non-system disk is better then one 10000RPM system disk

    So, my question is: are 2 10,000PRM disks in RAID 0 twice as fast as one 7200RPM dis? Or more particularly, are they fast enough to warrant keeping the pagefile on the RAID 0 config (which also holds the operating system and the games) ?

    Also, as a side note, has anyone here tried PerfectDisk instead of DiskKeeper? Any comments?


    Cheers
     
  15. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Hello hydraSlav,

    Thank you for your kind comments. :)

    First of all, when we are discussing about the performance of several drives, it's important NOT to just compare them using their spindle speed. Spindle speeds only tell ONE part of the story.

    A drive's performance is also affected by other factors like the areal density of its platters, buffer size, controller, etc. So, if you want to know what's faster than the other, you have to benchmark them.

    Therefore, I doubt I would have said that one 7200 rpm non-system drive is better than one 10,000 rpm system drive. Please point out where I might have mentioned such a thing....

    As for your questions :

    1. I personally don't know the answer to that. Never have been able to afford one, much less two for a RAID array. :mrgreen:

    2. If you want to be practical, just create a larger paging file on the 7,200 RPM hard disk and a smaller paging file on the 10,000 RPM RAID array. Windows XP will dynamically make use of the paging file that is free.

    Side note : Yes, many of us have used both PerfectDisk and Diskeeper. You can search the forums for threads on PerfectDisk or Diskeeper. There's a search link right at the top. :beer:

    But if you are lazy, you can check these two threads :
    - http://forums.rojakpot.com/showthread.php?t=17750
    - http://forums.rojakpot.com/showthread.php?t=15529

    Hope that helps you some. :mrgreen:
     
  16. hydraSlav

    hydraSlav Newbie

    Oh cool, if that's the way it works, then it solves all problems :thumb: . I am however genuinely curious why i never saw a recommendation anywhere "create a pagefile on all drives and windows will pick the best to use". Freespace concerns? :?

    I am attaching an image of results i got with HD Tach for comparison of my 2 drives

    Thanks again

    [​IMG]
     

    Attached Files:

  17. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    I thought I added it to the guide but seeing that quite a few people are still asking about it, I suppose I might have missed that recommendation. :think:

    I will have to go through all 40+ pages to see if it's there... somewhere! Or add it in! :haha:

    Yeah, unnecessarily creating too many paging files will just waste hard disk space.
     
  18. martianrobot

    martianrobot Newbie

    Great guide thats put into question a lot of the methods I've used in the past to optimise my system. Unfortunately it's also served to confuse me about the best way to proceed with setting up a paging file on my system.

    I currently have 1024mb DDR400 system RAM (though will be adding another 512mb stick soon as I rip it out of the Spresso system I was building but gave up on)

    I have two 80gb Samsung Spinpoint SATA drives setup in a RAID 0 array, which I have then partitioned into two logical drives - one 40gb System drive (C) and one 120gb for programs & games (D).

    I also have a 160gb Seagate IDE drive, which I have also partitioned into two logical drives - 40gb for general documents and images (E) and 120gb for large media files such as music and video (F).

    I also have a DVD-RW drive on its own IDE channel (G)

    Can anybody tell me, what would be the best option for me to set up the paging file in this setup? Currently I think its the default - Windows managing a dynamic paging file on the C: system drive.

    Your guide suggests a RAID 0 array is good but that is what I have for my system disk for quicker boots and loading of software. However, does it make sense to put it on the IDE drive where my data is stored? Especially as this is where my TV tuner PVR records to, as well as other large media files are stored and accessed.

    Thanks.
     
  19. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Well, it's a little hard to give anyone advice on such matters since there are quite a few variables. But I suggest...

    1. Creating your main paging file in drive C.

    2. And then creating a small paging file in drive E.

    That will allow Windows to select the optimal paging file to use at any point in time.
     
  20. shkj

    shkj Newbie

    Moving the paging file to the outer tracks

    Hi All,
    Great article on virtual memory optmization !!!

    I am really confused about something...here it goes:

    I have a machine with 2 gigs of ram in it...I used diskeeper to move the paging file to what it thinks is the outer tracks but now i want to put it in it's own partitiion to make it permanant...I will use partition magic to do it...when I run partition magic how do I know where the outer are ???

    In otherwords should the paging file be at the beginning,middle or end of the bar that partition magic shows as a reppresentation of the hard drive ???
     

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