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From: Ricky Hunt on 10 Apr 2008 19:29 OK. I think after all my starting from scratch I overtweaked a few things (from supposedly good suggestions) that I want to undo but are not sure what I want to do. One is the Pagefile. One guru said you could get improvement by putting it on it's own partition. He said something about fragmentation and a few other things. But since most people I know (with 1GB of RAM or more) set theirs to a fixed size, defrag and let it be. It would seem it would take more time going to that other partition every time it needed the Pagefile than if it just resided on C (hopefully would be moved near the front) to begin with. So I think I want to put it back on C (instead of a partition right after C which also contains all my temp files (ones that all my audio/video programs use to get them off the same drive the audio/video is on) and IE's temp files. I did most of this to keep my images small when I backup. I realize now I could just use filters and not backup that stuff in the first place and it would probably be faster on C, yes? So that leaves the Pagefile. How do you know exactly how much (or if) it's being used? I tried Taskmanager but I just see a solid line in the window "Page File Usage History" with no numbers on the side of the graphs to tell me what that level is. It's just always straight when I look at it (but then again I'm not doing anything when looking at it so it probably wouldn't be used). I always seem to have "available memory" in the little box called "Physical Memory" but again I'm just watching it and not doing much. Second, I've always heard if you have a 1GB or more or RAM the Pagefile should be set at around 500-768MB (or about half your RAM). Currently mine is set at 1GB but it recommends 1.533GB. This is under a box in the Virtual Memory settings that says "Total paging file size for all drives". I thought you just had (or wanted) one page file. Why is it taking all the drives into account and giving me such a high recommended number? Is this some calculation it's done over time (say when I've run Photoshop or big video or audio projects)? And why does each drive have a pagefile setting? I suppose it's so you could put it on any drive (maybe getting if off the system drive helps?). Anyway, I know that was long and rambling but if anybody minds could they go through and try to answer each question if they know the answer? TIA! -- Thanks, Ricky Hunt
From: Sue Morton on 10 Apr 2008 19:41 Ricky Hunt wrote: > One is the Pagefile. I always keep my pagefile on C: with the OS. I had a problem where I lost my "D:" partition (that's on a second disk; "E:" is the balance of space on C:'s disk in my setup). Anyway, I lost D: where the pagefile went and windows wouldn't boot. I've since been told this is not/no longer an issue, but I've not put it to the test. Basically my philosopy is, anything you need to boot the system, should be contained in its own partition. Some things go hand in hand with the OS so my philosopy is to put those things with the OS too. So my OS partition is all installed programs, windows, windows and IE temp, documents and settings, and pagefile. The one thing that is NOT in the OS partition is "My Documents" -- after windows is installed and current on service packs and hotfixes, I move "My Documents" to "D:\data" which is on a separate drive from the OS. If the OS can't find "D:\data" at boot time it creates the default "My Documents" again so no big deal. > I realize now I could just use filters and not backup that > stuff in the first place and it would probably be faster on C, yes? C: being your OS partition? When you make an OS image you are going to get it all. 6 and one-half dozen. Your OS image will be a little bigger, but again, it is self-contained for booting so I prefer that over saving space in the OS image. YMMV according to your restore practices. (BTW, *have* you practiced restoring?) > So that leaves the Pagefile. I'm sure there are ways to see what is being used. I set mine to a range -- minimum is the same size as physical memory and maximum is 4x my physical memory. Others will have formulas and reasons for them. I find this works well for me. One time I had to change the max to 32x my physical memory temporarily, so a particular program could run (thankfully a once-in-a-blue-moon proggie). > Second, I've always heard if you have a 1GB or more or RAM the > Pagefile should be set at around 500-768MB (or about half your RAM). > Currently mine is set at 1GB but it recommends 1.533GB. This is under > a box in the Virtual Memory settings that says "Total paging file > size for all drives". I thought you just had (or wanted) one page > file. Why is it taking all the drives into account and giving me such > a high recommended number? Is this some calculation it's done over > time (say when I've run Photoshop or big video or audio projects)? > And why does each drive have a pagefile setting? I suppose it's so > you could put it on any drive (maybe getting if off the system drive > helps?). I have not educated myself on any of the above. I have experimented with multiple page files across drives, etc. and in my experience one pagefile like I mentioned above works great for me. I'm sure there are good reasons for when to set it up differently, I just haven't run into any of them yet :-) -- Sue Morton
From: Steve L. on 10 Apr 2008 20:33 "Ricky Hunt" <rhunt22(a)hotmail.com> thought it was ok to ask > One is the Pagefile. One guru said you could get improvement by > putting it on it's own partition. I think the theory is to have it on a seperate physical drive so that it could do R/W's faster. If it's on the same disk it has to wait for something to finish or something has to wait for it to finish. And the setting that is recommended is not one half your physical amount but one and a half times. and the other theory is setting the min and max the same so the the pagefile doesn't get used. I think it's really a non isssue if you have a lot ram . If you want see your pagefile being used just open a bunch of proggies till it moves. even with mine setto min/max the same i still see the meter going up on the pagefile useage. I've tried a myraid of settings and it really didn't seem to matter. the pagefile got used. I'de not worry too much about it unless your getting some sort of problem you can attribute to pagefile useage.
From: BobF on 10 Apr 2008 20:51 "Steve L." <email(a)myeamail.com> wrote in message news:Xns9A7CB29955B84emailmemyemailcom(a)66.133.129.71... > "Ricky Hunt" <rhunt22(a)hotmail.com> thought it was ok to ask > >> One is the Pagefile. One guru said you could get improvement by >> putting it on it's own partition. > > I think the theory is to have it on a seperate physical drive so that it > could do R/W's faster. If it's on the same disk it has to wait for > something to finish or something has to wait for it to finish. > > And the setting that is recommended is not one half your physical amount > but one and a half times. > > and the other theory is setting the min and max the same so the the > pagefile doesn't get used. > The idea of setting min & max the same is keep the pagefile from fragging and to keep it from growing/shrinking at the most inopportune times. Setting the same doesn't keep the pagefile from being used unless they're both set to zero :-) > I think it's really a non isssue if you have a lot ram . > > If you want see your pagefile being used just open a bunch of proggies > till it moves. > > even with mine setto min/max the same i still see the meter going up on > the pagefile useage. I've tried a myraid of settings and it really > didn't seem to matter. the pagefile got used. > > I'de not worry too much about it unless your getting some sort of > problem you can attribute to pagefile useage. >
From: Steve L. on 10 Apr 2008 20:56
"BobF" <rNfOrSePeAzMe(a)charter.net> thought it was ok to ask > Setting the same doesn't keep the pagefile from being used unless > they're both set to zero :-) > > Thanks for clearing that up |