Disk Defrag - XP Pagefile won't defragment

[Cynge]

I'm running WindowsXP and have a custom pagefile size of 2048. I've tried the WinXP defragger, O&O Defrag, and PerfectDisk. None of them will defragment and optimize my pagefile.

The pagefile as displayed in O&O is in two large chunks that aren't at the "beginning" or fastest part of the disk. That program also will not move the pagefile.

In PerfectDisk, the pagefile is displayed as the black "excluded" type...which means that program won't defragment it either.

Would like to get the thing optimized....anyone have any ideas?

 

[bunker]

I usually move my pagefile to another drive, reboot, defrag, move pagefile back.

Of course this only works if you have more than one drive/partition.

 

[Nothinman]

Would like to get the thing optimized....anyone have any ideas?

Stop f'ing with it and move on, there's no real performance to be gained from defragging the pagefile or moving it to the beginning of the disk. Also making the thing 2G is a huge waste of space, but it's yours to waste.

 

[Tabster]

You can configure PerfectDisk to optimize it for you (look in its options). Try Diskkeeper which is advertized all over computer magazines but has a sucky GUI.

Windows defrag can't do this because the page file is locked. These programs are able to do it because the defrag it before you boot into Windows -- much like Checkdisk operates.

Gluck.

 

[Cynge]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Would like to get the thing optimized....anyone have any ideas?

Stop f'ing with it and move on, there's no real performance to be gained from defragging the pagefile or moving it to the beginning of the disk. Also making the thing 2G is a huge waste of space, but it's yours to waste.

You know...if you can't answer my question or provide something to this thread that I wanted to know, then feel free to not post in it. It would be one thing to provide the information that you did (however little you actually provided)...but you don't need to get the attitude that you have.

To the rest of you, thanks for the info....will see what I can do.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Would like to get the thing optimized....anyone have any ideas?

Stop f'ing with it and move on, there's no real performance to be gained from defragging the pagefile or moving it to the beginning of the disk. Also making the thing 2G is a huge waste of space, but it's yours to waste.

"Would like to get the thing optimized" , so he wants it optimized, or maybe he wants to experiment a little. Telling him there is no performace increase is fine, but there is no need to be rude. Also, how do you know he doesnt need a 2GB page file? He might be doing video editing, 3D modeling...or playing Farcry (har har). Next time, check your bad adittude at the door, and don't bother

 

[Bucksnort]

I game with high power games and I use 2 gigs, those who are mentally deficient should not speak. Let windows manage and it will give 1.5 - 3 gigs. You are probably one of the fools that say dont use a paging file in xp.

 

[Nothinman]

You know...if you can't answer my question or provide something to this thread that I wanted to know, then feel free to not post in it. It would be one thing to provide the information that you did (however little you actually provided)...but you don't need to get the attitude that you have.

I have an attitude because questions just like this are asked about weekly and explaining how VM works and why stupid things like defragging the pagefile doesn't help is getting old

Also, how do you know he doesnt need a 2GB page file? He might be doing video editing, 3D modeling...or playing Farcry (har har). Next time, check your bad adittude at the door, and don't bother

Because if he really needs a 2G pagefile he's not going to get any work like that done any time soon, the slowdown caused by paging in/out 2G constantly would be enormous.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

You know...if you can't answer my question or provide something to this thread that I wanted to know, then feel free to not post in it. It would be one thing to provide the information that you did (however little you actually provided)...but you don't need to get the attitude that you have.

I have an attitude because questions just like this are asked about weekly and explaining how VM works and why stupid things like defragging the pagefile doesn't help is getting old

Also, how do you know he doesnt need a 2GB page file? He might be doing video editing, 3D modeling...or playing Farcry (har har). Next time, check your bad adittude at the door, and don't bother

Because if he really needs a 2G pagefile he's not going to get any work like that done any time soon, the slowdown caused by paging in/out 2G constantly would be enormous.

you know, not really. I just happen to do lots of video editing. How about you? Do you speak from experience? I'm just asking for honesty here. Your above comment doesnt make any sense? "not get any work done?" Of course he would/could..

 

[Nothinman]

you know, not really. I just happen to do lots of video editing. How about you? Do you speak from experience? I'm just asking for honesty here. Your above comment doesnt make any sense? "not get any work done?" Of course he would/could..

Of couse "not get any work done" was an exaggeration, eventually he would if he sat there long enough. But would you honestly sit there and wait for a machine to render something when it's constantly paging to/from disk instead of doing the work you need it to? If you're honestly using 2G of pagefile space, you need to invest in more memory because defragging the pagefile is going to make no difference what so ever.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

you know, not really. I just happen to do lots of video editing. How about you? Do you speak from experience? I'm just asking for honesty here. Your above comment doesnt make any sense? "not get any work done?" Of course he would/could..

Of couse "not get any work done" was an exaggeration, eventually he would if he sat there long enough. But would you honestly sit there and wait for a machine to render something when it's constantly paging to/from disk instead of doing the work you need it to? If you're honestly using 2G of pagefile space, you need to invest in more memory because defragging the pagefile is going to make no difference what so ever.

I agree...no real performance increase. But we're discussing your adittude toward him. There really no reason for it. End of thread.

 

[Bucksnort]

So what page file size do you use?

 

[Nothinman]

I agree...no real performance increase. But we're discussing your adittude toward him. There really no reason for it. End of thread.

The big search button near the top that noone uses is reason enough, IMO.

So what page file size do you use?

Me? Hell if I can remember, I don't worry about it because all I use Windows for is Outlook and a few Windows-only network tools at work that I run in VMWare on Linux. I'm pretty sure it's still the default, the VMWare session has 256M allocated to it which is more than enough so I'd have no reason to f' with it.

 

[Bucksnort]

"I have an attitude because questions just like this are asked about weekly and explaining how VM works and why stupid things like defragging the pagefile doesn't help is getting old"

So what page file size do you use?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



"Me? Hell if I can remember, I don't worry about it because all I use Windows for is Outlook and a few Windows-only network tools at work that I run in VMWare on Linux. I'm pretty sure it's still the default, the VMWare session has 256M allocated to it which is more than enough so I'd have no reason to f' with it."

LOL, you are a Joke! Real expert u are

 

[Nothinman]

LOL, you are a Joke! Real expert u are

Why don't you use the search and actually find out, I've explained how VM works and why all those pagefile tweaks are worthless many times on this forum. The fact that I don't use it as much as you has correlation to how much I know about the subject.

 

[Bucksnort]

Well your previous posts show you are rather dumb. Anyone can cut and paste techinical information. Let me guess, u use win98? oh well I suppose you can get by with a 256 pagefile just checking emails

 

[Nothinman]

I only have to cut and paste technical information because people like you cry if I don't back up what I'm saying with something from Microsoft, since obviously Microsoft is the authority on all things. But the real difference is whether or not you understand the information, which I doubt you do. The fact that 99% of your posts are about games tells me alot about what you actually do with your computer and OS internals and memory management wouldn't be very high on that list I would guess.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
I only have to cut and paste technical information because people like you cry if I don't back up what I'm saying with something from Microsoft, since obviously Microsoft is the authority on all things. But the real difference is whether or not you understand the information, which I doubt you do. The fact that 99% of your posts are about games tells me alot about what you actually do with your computer and OS internals and memory management wouldn't be very high on that list I would guess.

Oh look....looks like you cannot get through a post with insulting someone again. He was asking you a simple question and you still don't have the maturity to give him a simple response.

Also, how do you know he doesnt visit these forums to post only about games, and contrubite technical information somewhere else? You don't. Making snap-judgements, it makes you look like an ass.

I think you hostility is stemming from somewhere else. You mentioned MS, and no one else did....and pointing the blame in their direction. If you have a problem with them, take it up with them and dont support their products....but don't drag your hang-ups into this thread and throw it on us when it was never an issue.

 

[Nothinman]

Oh look....looks like you cannot get through a post with insulting someone again

You guys started it, all I said initially was that there's no use to trying to optimize the pagefile and that he should move on.

He was asking you a simple question and you still don't have the maturity to give him a simple response.

He started off his first reply to me with "You are probably one of the fools that say dont use a paging file in xp." and his last reply with " Well your previous posts show you are rather dumb." and I'm the immature one?

Also, how do you know he doesnt visit these forums to post only about games, and contrubite technical information somewhere else?

That's irrelevant, if he's going to cry about my past postes being "dumb" he should have something to show for his.

I think you hostility is stemming from somewhere else. You mentioned MS, and no one else did....and pointing the blame in their direction

The OP said he's using XP, I think that implies MS and as such anything in this thread that he's having issues with would most likely be their fault.

If you have a problem with them, take it up with them and dont support their products....but don't drag your hang-ups into this thread and throw it on us when it was never an issue.

My only hangup is how oddly offended people get here.

 

[Bucksnort]

Uh oh, he may cut and paste something techinical! Lets see it wizard. Why dont you go check some emails with your computer. Sounds like thats about all you know how to do. I post about many things, and games are some of the most technical pieces of software around Mr. 256mb swapfile email checker.

"I have an attitude because questions just like this are asked about weekly and explaining how VM works and why stupid things like defragging the pagefile doesn't help is getting old "

Oh, we are so sorry we posted something that caused you to have to look up information to cut and paste. You are so busy. You are so important and we are very sorry. We know you were probably busy checking emails since thats about all you know how to do.

 

[Cynge]

Could this thread go any further off topic?

Nothinman
I did do a search. In fact you could do one now. Any search with pagefile and defrag comes up empty, doing a search on pagefile I manage to find lots of information on pagefiles, but very few have to do with defragging. The one that does is a simple two post thread where the original poster asks "What is that non-moveable portion while defragging? Pagefile.sys?" and the only reply says quite plainly "It's your pagefile"

So as you can see...that info is really helpful isn't it?

Further, the size of my pagefile is 2GBs because of some online games that I play...I set it to that when playing Shadowbane upon the suggestion of a friend. That game would crash constantly and he said that upping his pagefile corrected this...so I tried it and low and behold it did stop it from crashing. I've got 512MB of ram, and for a game like that you shouldn't need that large of a pagefile but if it works, it works, and I don't question it. Is there anything else about my personal setup that you'd like to know?

Now, in my searches (I checked again tonight) I did find another thread where you posted similar information (with a slightly less rude attitude). What gets me is that you claim moving the pagefile to the beginning of the drive doesn't give a benefit to the performance. From what you say you're basically implying (and in a way I'm inclined to agree) that with the speed of harddrives today that moving it from beginning to end or wherever isn't going to make that big of a difference....but then you say in another thread that it can hinder performance? How is that? It takes up beginning drive space for something else..? But...but...you're saying the performance difference doesn't matter? Or are you?

Oh yeah...forgot...you don't use Windows. *shrug*

Anyway, I've got the matter resolved and I thank the others who have replied to this thread with information that was useful in deciding what I wanted to do, or how to do it. Good to see that there is at least some of the AnandTech spirit left over from days of old.

 

[Bulldog13]

"Debian."

You dudes need to chill the fsck out. Nothinman contributes alot of great info to these boards, more than any of you punks.

And I understand his feeling. It gets really old hearing the same questions every week, especially when a search will answer it.

You know what, I did a search also and I found a few threads answering your exact question.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=34&threadid=201288&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=arc
and
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=230144&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=arc

Nevermind what 5 minutes on google got me.

 

[Mem]

Yep Diskeeper defrags the pagefile with no problem,reading the posts in this thread amazes me,flaming ,bad attitude etc....

He asked a simple question,you only need to give a polite reply like I`ve done,we are all members here and should treat each other with some respect,remember it`s his PC so he can do with it what he likes.


I think some of you guys need to chill out with some online gaming,I`m in TFC later if you want a target .

 

[Bucksnort]

"You dudes need to chill the fsck out. Nothinman contributes alot of great info to these boards, more than any of you punks"

Birds of a feather flock together. Look in the mirror PUNK

 

[Nothinman]

Why dont you go check some emails with your computer. Sounds like thats about all you know how to do.

I said that's all I use Windows for, not all I do, maybe your reading comprehension skills could use some work. Most of my work involves network security so the main things I use on my notebook are ssh and telnet clients to get to the varias routers, pix's, IDS boxes, etc on our network.

From what you say you're basically implying (and in a way I'm inclined to agree) that with the speed of harddrives today that moving it from beginning to end or wherever isn't going to make that big of a difference....but then you say in another thread that it can hinder performance? How is that? It takes up beginning drive space for something else..? But...but...you're saying the performance difference doesn't matter? Or are you?

I was saying that putting at the beginning of the disk won't help performance because even though that part of the disk is technically faster, the pagefile is accessed in such small chunks (page sized, 4K on 32-bit systems) that you never transfer enough to get any benefits. And I say it can slow things down because everytime the pagefile is accessed the disk has to seek father to get to it, unless you find away to cram all of your data on the drive to the outside. The best thing is to leave it in the middle of the disk so that when it is accessed the seeks are short and take up less time.

Oh yeah...forgot...you don't use Windows. *shrug*

That's irrelevant, disk access is basically the same no matter what OS is used.

Birds of a feather flock together. Look in the mirror PUNK

I find this extremely funny since you're the only guy who's done nothing but contribute ad-hom attacks.