Moving the swap file

  • Thread starter Thread starter Daniel Byrne
  • Start date Start date
D

Daniel Byrne

Is it possible to move the swap file in XP to another
drive? Even an external USB harddrive?
 
Hi

Please have a look at the following article by Alex Nichol:

"Virtual Memory in Windows XP"
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups


| Is it possible to move the swap file in XP to another
| drive? Even an external USB harddrive?
 
Daniel Byrne said:
Is it possible to move the swap file in XP to another
drive? Even an external USB harddrive?
Click to expand...

YES, all things being equal, for performance reasons, the pagefile should be
placed on the 'most used partition of the least used *physical* drive'

NO, the pagefile cannot be put on an external drive (USB, Firewire, etc)...
imagine what would happen if you inadvertently dismounted/disconnected that
external drive... Windows would instantly lose access to data that has been
paged-out to the pagefile... and subsequently generate a STOP error, aka,
BSOD. Windows will not create a pagefile.sys on an external drive, even if
you set one for that drive through the Virtual Memory dialogue, the memory
manager is smart enough to know the drive is external

ALSO, the pagefile(s) can be configured to span multiple drives, if you have
more than one *physical* drive in your system. perhaps the simplest
approach is to allow Windows to manage the pagefile on each drive

[Create Windows Managed Pagefile(s)]
Start menu, Settings, Control Panel, System applet, Advanced tab,
Performance - Settings button, Advanced tab, Change button, on the Virtual
Memory dialogue, first select a drive from the list, then click the
radio-button 'System managed size', press the Set button. select the next
drive from the list, System managed size, press Set, and so on. when you're
done, press OK, OK, OK. a restart will likely be required.

TIP - do NOT forget to press the SET button after configuring the pagefile
for each drive, (many people forget to press SET)

the advantage to spanning the pagefiles across multiple physical drives is
that Windows' virtual memory management algorithms will choose among the
least busy drive(s) while the system is in use and automatically switch b/w
them

NOTE - physical drive is an important consideration, by 'physical drive' i
am referring to the hardware itself, discrete physical hard drives in your
machine. the pagefile should NOT be placed on a logical drive (separate
partition on the same physical drive as the operating system), performance
will be reduced (need explanation, ask me). the pagefile(s) should ONLY be
placed on separate physical drives, no need to create separate partitions to
hold the pagefile, that would be a horrible waste and impact performance.
allow windows to manage the pagefile(s) on all drives for optimal
performance, as explained above.

here are a couple of good KB articles to get you started:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=308417

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314482
 
Back
Top