Pagefile on first separate dedicated partition?

[ran]

Well, I'm not sure if this is a tip, tweak, or just a silly notion..but:

When I setup my partitions, I use the following:

c:\ ~1200MB

d:\5GB

e:\everything else

C: becomes my "Swap" partition on which I create a 1GB pagefile.

D: becomes my System drive where XP is installed

E: becomes my programs drive and whatever else.

I always thought that putting the pagefile on the first dedicated partition (short of using a different drive) was the next best thing to do for optimizing pagefile access.

Is this true?

Also, by putting the OS on D: and everything else on E:, it makes reinstalling a snap as nothing needs to be changed on E (of course apps need to be "reinstalled" into the new OS).

I usually copy D: documents and settings somewhere else, and then just straight copy it back when I'm done....

This also allows backup of just the OS & documents and settings (via Ghost).

Does this seem reasonable, or is there a far better way to set things up?

[maxXPsoft]

I know I've read somewhere since pagefile.sys is not all that big and size can be changed smaller it's simply better to just leave it on the root of main drive containing the OS.

EDIT: If you do that then OS on first drive and you put the pagefile on second/another drive

Or simply saying doing all that changeing serve's what purpose?????

Are we looking at millisecond's or microsecond's. I never saw any difference.

Edited October 23, 2004 by maxXPsoft

[Ashimema]

Before i upgraded to a nice new PC, the only way i could get XP Pro to run stable, (and i mean really stable) was to put a fixed size pagefile on a dedicated partition on my second drive. i.e i had a 1gig partiton on the second drive just for pagefile. I've always done this since with all pc's i install to. The way i see it, if it did such wonders to a crappy OLD PC, then it can't hurt a new fast running PC. my Athlon XP 3000+ seems to idle at less than 1% use this way, but when i use the pagefile in default XP settings, (i.e changing size, on C:) my cpu seems to have to work harder just to keep system stable. (i.e around 2% useage).

Of course there are many, many, other tweaks on my system, but i do recommend altering standard page file settings.

(i have yet to test two fixed state page files on two disks, will be doing so soon, and keep you guys posted)#

Ash

[hqdefel]

@ran - I used to have a setup just like this, but there were a number of dumb applications that kept wanting to use the C drive. I decided it would be easier for me to just keep my system files on the C-drive.

As for the page file. There are a number of tips to improve performance.

The basics include setting both the max & min of the pagefile to about 1.5x your total RAM. This keeps windows from dynamically resizing it. I don't believe there is any advantage to putting it in it's own partition, though putting it on another hard drive separate from your system files will improve performance because the hard drive head doesn't have to switch back and forth between the locations of the page file and the OS files. With hard drives being one of the most limiting factors in overall computer performance, it has the potential to be very noticable in some situations.

More info on pagefiles & recommendations: http://www.theeldergeek.com/paging_file.htm

Oh, I do like having data & OS files on different partitions.

[Jekkaman]

I've read in several sites that creating multiple partitions for holding diferent tipes of data actually improves performance.Is that really true?Is really worth it?

I currently have 3 sata hdds.

1st-single partition-80 GB [Currently holds WinXP SP2+Apps]

2d-Single partition-80GB [My docs]

3rd -Single partition-200GB[Downloads media and stuff]

Also i have 2 gbs of ram.