perris Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 Originally posted by freeza well i still have my pagefile set to min/max of 128 MB and coolmon says it never goes over 30% usage. freeza, I forgot tho mention, microsft says that you should NEVER SET YOUR PAGING FILE LOWER THEN 1.5 IF EXPANSION IS ENABLED. obviously, if you are going to dissable expansion, you're going to need much much more then 1.5 for best performance. if you want to read that document, myself, or twoz will post it fro you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perris Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 twoz...i just read a few more posts on this thread...I did not know xp uses ram to configure the page file...if so,wouldn't the ram be released immediatly or as needed? anyway, a humongous pf would be better regardless, but here's the funny thing, if you are going to have a static pf, the size that ms seems to be indicating needs to be available for the page file is 3x the 1.5 figure of your ram...and that's why they set the file dynamic...so as not to tie up that much hd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arckon Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 I would like to know what settings I should be using for my pagefile. I have 512 MB of RAM and 2 hard disks. The Primary Master drive has Win XP on it and is using NTFS. The Primary Slave has Win ME on it and is using FAT32. I have not booted to Win Me since I have installed Win XP though (which has been since Dec of last yr.) The only reason why I still have Win ME still on that drive is just in case I really need to get some kind of work done and I don't have time to get Win XP back up and running. Also, the drive w/ Win XP on it is 60 GB, DMA 100, 7200 RPM, and again, NTFS. The drive w/ Win ME on it is 13 GB, DMA 66, 7200 RPM, and FAT32. I use my computer mostly to surf the net, play games, and sometimes use Photoshop 7, SoundForge 6, Corel Office 2k2, and MS Visual Studio 6. Keep in mind that I usually don't have ALL of those programs open at the same time. I forgot to mention that currently my page file is set to "Let Windows manage my page file" for my boot drive, and set to none for my other drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perris Posted July 24, 2002 Share Posted July 24, 2002 windows manages your page file perfectly...that's fine, if the page file is not resizing, you should be set...BUT photo shop is a bear, any sopisticated office sweet is bog, and though I don't use it, I'm asuming your visual studio uses a bit too. My favorite setting is two or three times ram as the initial value, with expansion enabled 3x the 1.5 figure, ...but if you're not ever getting to an expanded state, just keep running it the way you have it, until an expansion occurs...then, you can finish your work...and when you're done computing, go ahead and raise the minimum to two or three times your ram, leaving expansion enabled. don't forget, it's not possible to suffer performance with a page file too big...it is possible to suffer performance with a page file too small...here's an example...if you'r running some ram hogs, plus ie intensively, like lots of windows, etc, ie can crash before windows even realizes it needs memory now, if you can spare 2 gigs, (who can't nowadays), go ahead and make the the file 2 gigs, defrag the file, and you'll never ever have to think about it again twoz has a better idea of configuring two hard drives, with two page files...you would wind up with a gig on each drive...if the hd's are the same speed, you will almost definately get better performance with two page files, ( though I don't think you'll notice the differance)...you can try two page files even if one hd is slower then the other...twoz can also tell you how to configure one page file for both os's...I know that can be done, though I don't dual boot, so lol. now this is important...if you do increase your minimum page file, then defrag the page file... because you resized it, it'll be fragged. if xp resizes the page file automatically, the page file will not be fragged on your next boot, since the pf will return to the original cintigousness(I just made that word up....it means the same thing as fujism). that's something everyone needs to realize, and that is that there is absolutely no fragmentation issue if xp resizes the page file automatically, since on reboot, it's all thrown out. BUT on the other hand, if you have increased your ram, then xp would have made a larger page file automatically, but since that's a permantent enlargement, you should defrag that page file one time...that's all you'll need Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoZigzagColt45 Posted July 24, 2002 Share Posted July 24, 2002 Hi Perris ok, when I double click "file and printer sharing", nothing happens, and I can't get anywhere that says "optimization". I think this is only applicable if your on a local network - in this case if the page file is set to low it will effect the transfer speed, more noticeable when transferring large files Some games REQUIRE a certain amount of swap space to be created to even run, no matter how much RAM is available. such games as Age of Empires 2, Sacrifice, when using programs such as Adobe Photoshop or any 3D rendering/video capture programs, you must set a pagefile that suites your needs. If you DO use a program such as those above, a 512MB ? 750MB may be in order. Otherwise your 3D renderer will choke and freeze Even with as much RAM as you can afford installed in your computer, you'll still run into instances where you use the page file. Page partition b> One way to improve your page file performance is to create a dedicated FAT16 partition on your hard drive that serves as your page file -- or better yet, a separate FAT16 partition on a drive other than the one that houses your operating system. 1.A static swap file 2 x RAM on a separate hard drive in a FAT16 partition away from Windows and frequently accessed data, 2.A dynamic swap file set to default Min & MAX on a separate FAT16 partition, but on the same physical hard drive as Windows This will reduce the amount of work needed to dynamically resize the swap file, usually when you need it most. FAT16 has a 2.1GB partition limiti> Windows usually requires about 10% free space, so don't fill your partitions to the Maxi> Plenty of info on the net regarding Using One Swapfile with Multiboot Windows Systems I found this a very informative site. http://bratlady.com/swapfile.shtml twoz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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