Pagefile Question

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Boyo
Yikes. What have I created? I'll be honest and tell you that I'm just going to leave the pagefile alone.

Yeah, you should have done a search before posting the question. Too late now

Best thing you can do at this point is just sit back and watch. We haven't had one of these in over a month which is a really long time to go without that question coming up again. Once a few idiots have posted their opinions on this it will get the veterans sufficiently irritated that they will allow themselves to be dragged in again. That's when the fun starts.


Whatching Ned Flanders explain how he has disabled virtual memory should be a hoot. For extra fun they'll probably let him dig himself into that statement for a while before they dose him with the reality.

 

[dawks]

Since I don't think anyone has actually mentioned it, you can actually improve performance in many cases by moving the pagefile to a separate disk. But use the "system managed size" option.

IE if you have the OS and applications installed on your raptor, and just have data like movies and music on the Caviar, you may benefit from putting the page file on the Caviar, since its accessed much less often.

Almost anytime you open an application, something is paged out, so if your loaded a program from C: and your pagefile is on C:, the harddrive head is busy jumping back and fourth, but if the page file in on a separate physical disc, it can be written to/read from, the same time that a program is being loaded from the C: drive.

I'll say it again, let Windows manage the pagefile size, but you can tweak its location relative to physical discs.

 

[TGS]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: Boyo
Yikes. What have I created? I'll be honest and tell you that I'm just going to leave the pagefile alone.

Yeah, you should have done a search before posting the question. Too late now

Best thing you can do at this point is just sit back and watch. We haven't had one of these in over a month which is a really long time to go without that question coming up again. Once a few idiots have posted their opinions on this it will get the veterans sufficiently irritated that they will allow themselves to be dragged in again. That's when the fun starts.


Whatching Ned Flanders explain how he has disabled virtual memory should be a hoot. For extra fun they'll probably let him dig himself into that statement for a while before they dose him with the reality.

I blame Microsoft for associating the Page File with the term virtual memory. Yes, we've talked about this topic before. The general consensus being that windows post Windows 2000 manages the PF well enough to leave the default settings alone. Though there are *minor* performance gains to be had. Best practices has always been to place the PF on a seperate physical spindle to avoid the system disk and PF read/write contention.

edit:

Even with a small PF on the system disk to capture dumps, a larger PF on a second disk will still be used by windows, as IIRC it has management of the PF and will use the least utilized volume to perform PF operations.

 

[Nothinman]

IE if you have the OS and applications installed on your raptor, and just have data like movies and music on the Caviar, you may benefit from putting the page file on the Caviar, since its accessed much less often.

But if you're editing the music or videos on that drive you'll likely make things worse.

The general consensus being that windows post Windows 2000 manages the PF well enough to leave the default settings alone.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it manages it well, but the knobs required to fix it aren't available anyway.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

That's the typical argument, although rediculous, because it is just arguing semantics.

It's not semantics at all, the pagefile and virtual memory are completely seperate and distinct things.

Um, it is the very definition of arguing semantics. It is obvious that the person is meaning they are choosing the "no paging file" option under the Virtual Memory settings. Microsoft uses the terms Virtual Memory and Page File interchangeably so why wouldn't a user do the same?

It is obvious what the person is talking about, you are just arguing because they did not use the exact precise words to describe it. That is arguing semantics. Does everyone have to have a Computer Science degree and include their dissertation on Memory Management everytime they mention "Virtual Memory" or "Page File" before you people can get past this and address the actual question?

 

[Boyo]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: Boyo
Yikes. What have I created? I'll be honest and tell you that I'm just going to leave the pagefile alone.

Yeah, you should have done a search before posting the question. Too late now

Best thing you can do at this point is just sit back and watch. We haven't had one of these in over a month which is a really long time to go without that question coming up again. Once a few idiots have posted their opinions on this it will get the veterans sufficiently irritated that they will allow themselves to be dragged in again. That's when the fun starts.


Whatching Ned Flanders explain how he has disabled virtual memory should be a hoot. For extra fun they'll probably let him dig himself into that statement for a while before they dose him with the reality.

LMAO......and so I see.

 

[Boyo]

Originally posted by: dawks
Since I don't think anyone has actually mentioned it, you can actually improve performance in many cases by moving the pagefile to a separate disk. But use the "system managed size" option.

IE if you have the OS and applications installed on your raptor, and just have data like movies and music on the Caviar, you may benefit from putting the page file on the Caviar, since its accessed much less often.

Almost anytime you open an application, something is paged out, so if your loaded a program from C: and your pagefile is on C:, the harddrive head is busy jumping back and fourth, but if the page file in on a separate physical disc, it can be written to/read from, the same time that a program is being loaded from the C: drive.

I'll say it again, let Windows manage the pagefile size, but you can tweak its location relative to physical discs.

Thank you Dawks. This addresses my original question. If I should move the pagefile to my D: drive which is mostly media and storage. Now I just have to figure out how to move it.

 

[dclive]

You don't want to do that, or rather, you may move the pagefile to D:, but then you should have a 200MB - 400MB pagefile on C: still as well, so that you can get dumps if your system crashes (and hence troubleshoot it).

But for most users on here, for most systems on here, moving the pagefile around is a tremendous waste of time - the differences are going to be pretty marginal unless you have, say, 256MB of RAM AND you hit your C: drive constantly (while the system is paging).

In other words, most people should just leave well enough alone.

 

[Nothinman]

Microsoft uses the terms Virtual Memory and Page File interchangeably so why wouldn't a user do the same?

And I know users who use the term Microsoft to mean any piece of software that MS makes, that doesn't make it right. And MS does use the term VM right in some of their docs, just not most of them.

Does everyone have to have a Computer Science degree and include their dissertation on Memory Management everytime they mention "Virtual Memory" or "Page File" before you people can get past this and address the actual question?

Yes, because it helps them realize they have no clue what they're talking about and that they shouldn't be touching those settings.

 

[McPudd]

Hi:
Best page I've seen on this.

Virtual Memory Primer
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Happy trailz,

 

[Boyo]

Originally posted by: McPudd
Hi:
Best page I've seen on this.

Virtual Memory Primer
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Happy trailz,

Excellent article. It explains and answers all of my questions in great detail that is easy to understand. Thank you for the link.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Yes, because it helps them realize they have no clue what they're talking about and that they shouldn't be touching those settings.

No, this is exactly the problem. It's NOT going to help them realize they should not be touching the settings (and if they are asking questions then they probably already expect they don't know what they are talking about).

You will do more to just tell them not to touch it, then to insult them, call them stupid, and make fun of them and then tell them not to touch it.