Separate partition for page file?

Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 notebook XP Pro SP2, using TI9.03677. I have a Travelstar 40gb 4200 speed HDD. I am getting ready to replace the drive with a Travelstar 80gb 7200 speed HDD. The old drive has only one partition, I plan on partitioning the new 80gb into several partitions.

My question is; is there an advantage in making D partition for just the page file?

I also plan on making E for data only. I know I will have to clone the new drive to C first using TI9.

Thanks in advance,
Becky

ps If anyone has swapped drives in an Inspiron, are there any thing I need to watchout for?

 

Depends on which one of the 999 million opinions you want to follow. Here is what MS says:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314482/

 

“My question is; is there an advantage in making D partition for just the page file?”

I would say that there is no advantage as far as TI is concerned (this is a TI forum ).
TI does not really include the page file in a backup image; only some place holder info.

 

The advantage of a separate partition is that the paging file won't be fragmented, which can be a small benefit after a long time -- unless you have a defragger that handles system files.

Having the paging file on a seperate physical disk can mean the I/Os can be performed on the paging file and the system disk simultaneously, whcih can be a small benefit.

Whther you caould actually detect any diff in performance while running most programs, is doubtful.

sh

 

That is my unscientific take on the situation as well. I did set mine up on a separated drive in its own partition and for various reasons over time it has now drifted back to the Windows default settings. I can't tell any obvious difference and I would say that with the amount of RAM most people have these days the pagefile usage isn't what it used to be.

I might throw in my General Rule #3 here: "The default settings are the most tested settings and the ones most likely to work with everything else." In other words, trying to wring a small amount of extra performance can sometimes cause you a large amount of grief.

 

I agree with TheWeaz, Shieber, and Seekforever.
I did my own testing with a Spare Internal HD. The name of the spare HD ...is "F: Storage". After assigning the Page File to the F:, and rebooting Windows, the Page File was re-assigned to it with NO problems. After a couple days of testing, I didn't notice any performance increase. If there is anything you can do to help performance, ....that's "Defrag".

As Seekforever said, ...Windows will eventually try to write it back to the HD in which Windows is installed.

If you want a little more natural performance, get an Internal WD Raptor 10,000rpm HD. You can get them at Newegg.com cheap now. They're worth it. I wouldn't take anything for the 2 that I have. After using the "Raptor", I can't stand to use a 7,200rpm HD anymore.

 

Yes, those 10K raptors are lightning fast. Disk times are cut in about half pretty much across the board during typical operations and that really is noticeable. But be forewarned -- just as cable spoils you for using other web access methods, the 10K Raptors spoil you for PCs with slower drives.

 

Hi becky

I have a nice warm feeling that my pagefile is on a self contained separate and dedicated partition. It doesn't make a jot of difference to ATI when it backs up my system partition, and it doesn't make any perceptable difference to performance. I just like to feel organised

(sad or what)

F.

 

OK, fess up - how many wire ties can be found behind your system!

 

Well, Ok. Maybe not that organised

F.

 

It is almost always better to have the pagefile on a different PHYSICAL drive than the drive on which the OS lives.

Also see MSFT KB article 889654, and http://www.standards.com/index.html?PageFileUsageMonitor.

 

I know there are many claims this helps, but I just see a performance difference. I assigned the Page File on my "F: Storage" drive ...which is a 7200rpm. Windows was on my Raptor ....10,000rpm HD. Do you think the "rpm" difference affected it?? Also, why does the Page File always seem to migrate back to the Default drive...which is where the OS is on?

 

I was under the impression that the drive also has to be on a different controller.

 

Yes, 7200 vs. 10000 rpm makes a big difference.

I had a 7200rpm sCSI drive die an Quantum upgraded my replcement to 10000rpm, quite a marked improvement.


Windows puts stuff on the default drive because that's what default means.

Fo rxample, on my multiboot system, I have OS on 4 logical drives.
I sure don;t want Windows putting a pagefile on th OS drive, so I spcify the size and location.

If I happen to boot to th edrives on which a page file lives, depending on what apps I choose to run, perferformance may significantly deteriorate, if the page file on the OS drive has to be used.

 

It helps if the drive is on a different controller.
But being on a different physical drive eliminates the drive head jumping all over the place.

 

The interesting thing would be to test the performance with some tests uising actual programs. Lots of things that are improvements in theory don't add up to a hill of beans in actual practice.

Whatever the effecft of putting the page file on a diff disk, getting more memory would make an even bigger improvement in speed if you have a lot of swapping going on.

And faster disks. But it would be interseting to see how much diff moving the page file might make.

 

IMHO the correct way to optimise is to first identify the next bottleneck and deal specifically with that. Spurious changes to any system are wasted effort unless they are addressing that bottleneck.

F.

 

More memory will help, but not as much as you think, as it it up to each app to choose how much memory to use. Alas, many apps choose to use the pagefile even when there is ample free memory.

Of course if every app grabbed more memory, those apps likely would run faster, but your system would otherwise slow down because not all apps could be allocated memory.

Most apps limit memory use to reduce impact on other apps.

A faster disk drive always helps, but has no effect as to whether a page file is used.