Need guidance creating image

Hi starsfan09,

I would have used the following sequence:

1. Open Windows Control Panel, select System and then on the Advanced tab click the Performance "Settings" button.
2. In the Performance Options window select the advanced tab and click on the Virtual memory "Change" button.
3. In the Virtual Memory window, hilight the drive that currently holds the Pagefile, select the "No paging file" radio button and click "Set". Back out of the various dialogue windows and reboot the system back into Windows.
4. Use Windows Explorer to navigate to the location that held the Pagefile and delete it. Reboot the system back into Windows.
5. Repeat steps 1 and 2 and then in the Virtual Memory window, hilight the drive or partition that the new Pagefile is to be located on, select the "System managed size" radio button and click "Set".
6. Back out of the dialogue windows and reboot the system.

I may be wrong but my guess is that you had missed out steps 3 and 4.

Regards

 

Yes you're right. I didn't do the steps seperate.
I did steps 3 + 4 together during the change over. I highlighted the C:/ and ticked No Page file, and Set. Then highlighted the F:/ and manually entered the same number that had been assigned for C:/ into the areas, and clicked Set again. Then rebooted. It worked out I guess, because I didn't have any problems, or errors.

I have some questions and concerns about doing this though.

-1) After you delete the old page file, and let Windows make a new one on your F:/ drive, ....what happens to it if you wanted to Reinstall Windows? Since the F:/ will not have an OS on it, ...can you just Delete it with no problems?
Usually, you can just put in the Windows Installation Cd, and begin "Operation Wipe Out" (Reinstalling XP). But with the page file tied to the spare F:/, ...I'm thinking you'll have to take an extra step somewhere...to get that existing Page File off the F:/ drive before you begin.

-2) How does this affect ATI since the "page file" is on another seperate internal HD? I mean, I'm sure you'll have to have both internal HD's ON during the Restore process, --- and also, during Windows first boot after the Restore so it can activate the Page File that's on the F:/ drive.

-3) You can never turn OFF your Spare HD that has the Page File writing to it. It has to be running all the time. Right?

Right now, as it is....there is no way to shut off the Internal Spare HD.
I would love to figure out a way to automaticaly send the Internal "Spare" into "Hybernation" after 10 minutes of Inactivity. All WD Externals will shut down automatically, but since the Internal is being powered by Legacy, and is attached to the Motherboard, I don't think it possible.
But however, I've spoken with Western Digital about producing some software that will allow you to "Spin Down" an Internal Spare HD that doesn't have an OS on it, and is used just for Storage.

 

It depends whether you carry out a "Repair" reinstall or a complete reinstall. In the former case Windows would retain the existing Registry settings for the Pagefile, whilst the latter would create a new default Registry hence placing a new Pagefile on the system partition. You could then just merely delete the old orphaned Pagefile residing on F:\.

Well, if you choose to also restore the HD containing the Pagefile then, yes, that HD must be connected and running.

However, if Windows were ever to boot without the F: drive connected then it will merely override the Registry setting and create a new Pagefile in the root of the system drive. The next time you boot Windows with the F: drive connected it will revert to using the Pagefile on it and you can just go ahead and delete the one that was created on the system drive.

Oh, just in case you were wondering, you can't create a Pagefile on an USB or Firewire connected HD. Although Windows will happily accept it as the location it won't actually create the Pagefile. When you then reboot into Windows, your Registry setting will be ignored and the Pagefile is created in the root of the system drive instead.

Regards

 

Hmmm... Wedding. Basically, it sounds like a "Marriage" between the F:/drive and the C:/drive. They're somewhat... dependant on one another.

But say,... you're wanting to do a backup with ATI with the Boot-CD. While Aronis is writing the .tib file to the F:/, ...won't Windows also try to write Page File information at the same time?

Also, when you are booted into Windows, won't any kind of writing, and deleting you do to the F:/ drive, ..such as (moving files & folders, deleting files & folders, over writing files & folders) ...affect the performance of the Page File writing process to F:/ drive?

All this sounds like 2 trains on a collision course...for Divorce!

 

Sorry starsfan09 but I'm afraid I don't get your latest drift. Please "simplificate" your concern/question .

Regards

 

I edited the post, Menorca. Try it again.

 

“But say,... you're wanting to do a backup with ATI with the Boot-CD. While Aronis is writing the .tib file to the F:/, ...won't Windows also try to write Page File information at the same time?”
If you booted with the ‘Boot-CD’, why would Windows write anything? Is it even running?

“Also, when you are booted into Windows, won't any kind of writing, and deleting you do to the F:/ drive, ..such as (moving files & folders, deleting files & folders, over writing files & folders) ...affect the performance of the Page File writing process to F:/ drive?”
Sure, just like activity on the C: drive will affect a page file located there. But I suggest you’d be hard pressed to notice unless your drives are years old and you’re running with 128MBs of RAM.

 

Yeah you're right, Windows wouldn't try to write anything to the F:/ because it's not booted up while using the Boot-CD.
I guess I should've asked,...what if you're trying to make a Backup in Windows? While Acronis is writing the .tib file to the F:/, and Windows is writing the Page File to the F:/ at the same time ....won't there be problems?

 

I have 2 IDE drives (System drive and Data/Game drive) and 1 SATA for backups and page file. I’ve never seen a problem and all my TI images are created from within Windows.
Windows and TI are not writing to the same file, so I see no reason why this would be any different than any two or more apps accessing or writing data on a drive. The controller should handle everything nicely.
TI is not trying to backup the page file, so even if Windows does write to it during a backup, it shouldn’t cause a problem. Files are written to all the time during a TI backup.

 

Not to toot my horn, but just to establish that I'm not talking with my head up my a**, I spent years working as a performance/capacity analyst/tuner. And mechanical action of the spindle is exactly why segregation of disk activity on separate spindles can *potentially* be very beneficial, even if you believe (I'm unconvinced) that traffic contention on the "channel" is not a bottleneck. The goal is to avoid banging the arm back and forth across widely separated cylinders.

Try this sometime... On a machine whose usage is I/O-intensive (e.g., PhotoShop, CAD, etc.), place half of the files most heavily in concurrent use -- which may or may not include the swap file, depending on your RAM size & usage -- in one just-big-enough partition at one end of the drive, and the other half similarly at the other end, with real or dummy partitions in between as place-holders. Then try running the most I/O-intensive operations of that app.

And wear earmuffs to block the sound of the drive clattering around. ;-)

The lesson is that spindle segregation can be a big boost, whether or not it's the swap file which is the biggest I/O hog. (For that matter, isn't this principle one of the two major motivations for RAID?)

btw, how did you manage to arrange your life so that you could be living in Menorca? I'm jealous!