Re: Page file size?

Bitstring <5b2h14lokn00rlrams14q41ujdr2bl58ju@xxxxxxx>, from the wonderful person Terry Pinnell <terrypin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> said
"Rob" <noone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Terry Pinnell" <terrypin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:qehg14tcb9o42t46l7fn1744otc60hau7i@xxxxxxxxxx
What do the experts here think about the optimum pagefile size and
location for my new XP Pro PC please. It has 4 GB RAM and two
(nominally)750 MB HDs, neither partitioned as yet. The default size
set is 2046 MB 'Total paging size for all drives' and is on C: (the OS
drive).

I've tried on many systems, and in general, a size of 1.5 to 2x
the installed RAM works nicely. If you can put it on a drive
other than the system one, even better.

HTH,

Ah, thanks Rob, that seems to crystallise my earlier view that I
should put it on I: (as I did on my old PC). However seems at odds
with Dean's point about a pagefile being needed on C:?

The whole point with pagefiles is that you really don't want the system to be using them anyway (unless you are hot swapping among users or something), so where you put them is not very exciting. Yeah yeah, they run somewhat faster on a different physical drive from the main OS, but they are still three orders of magnitude slower than RAM, so you really don't want them used except as a desperate last resort.

You want to have SOME, since otherwise Windows assigns space in real RAM to imaginary areas of data and program which don't actually exist. It can assign them to a paging file just as well (if one exists) and since they are imaginary they don't even need reading/writing (although the pagefile will claim to be assigned). There are utilities to allow you to watch this actually (not) happen, at least in Win2k/XP.

Having some on the system drive avoids windows getting in a knot if the assigned paging drive is offlined.

The 'lets use 3x the real RAM' is a heuristic derived from what was a sensible amount of VM to assign to a multitasking time share system (Multics, IIRC) and has no validity in the real world. Out here, the right answer is 'whatever your maximum memory usage might be, less the amount of real RAM you can afford', plus a half-gig or so to take care of the 'imaginary paged out areas' mentioned earlier.

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
11,517 Km walked. 2,259 Km PROWs surveyed. 40.9% complete.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Managing pagefile and hiberfil.sys and disk resize
    ... I want at most a small pagefile on C, and more elsewhere, unless ... the amount of RAM you have, which is not at all what MS intended. ... the best situation is 500 Gig drives for internals and a 1 ... All 7200 rpm drives. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Page file size?
    ... set is 2046 MB 'Total paging size for all drives' and is on C: ... the installed RAM works nicely. ... with Dean's point about a pagefile being needed on C:? ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • Re: Managing pagefile and hiberfil.sys and disk resize
    ... Quite a big hard disk for the category. ... as to pagefile: ... The more RAM you have, ... and all data on all the drives attached to the machine except the ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Server resources are low, please help, its urgent
    ... I would ignore them for now...also remember to adjust your pagefile when you add the ram ... You may want to consider moving your pagefile from your C Drive to the E Drive Or Put some on both ... You don't indicate how much memory your server ... >>> Total Pagain file size for all drives 1830mb. ...
    (microsoft.public.backoffice.smallbiz2000)
  • Re: Page file size?
    ... set is 2046 MB 'Total paging size for all drives' and is on C: ... the installed RAM works nicely. ... It can assign them to a paging file just as well and since they are imaginary they don't even need reading/writing (although the pagefile will claim to be assigned). ... XP will create a dynamic pagefile on the OS partition if it cannot find the specified pagefile. ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)