partition&page file

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Hi all.i have a hdd 60 gb.i ve used partition magic to tear it up into 2
parts(30gb each)/the questions are :which of the 2 parts is used for virtual
memory(page file)?
should the one part contain just the OS?
Additionaly which is best :NTFS or FAT32 for my case?My OS is win xp pro sp2.
thanx in advance
 
You have one drive? Leave the pagefile where it is installed by default!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
You should have left the drive as a single 60GB drive formatted NTFS. Keep
the pagefile on the same partition as the system. If you put it on a
separate partition on the same drive you just slow the system down by
forcing the drive heads to move further to reach the page file. Things have
changed in the last few years and the reasons people partitioned their
drives years ago no longer apply.

If you want the page file to be in a different place than the system, buy a
second internal drive and put the page file on it. If the drives are IDE
then they should be on different IDE controllers to gain an increase in
performance.
 
(-;


--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!


Colin Barnhorst said:
You should have left the drive as a single 60GB drive formatted NTFS.
Keep the pagefile on the same partition as the system. If you put it on a
separate partition on the same drive you just slow the system down by
forcing the drive heads to move further to reach the page file. Things
have changed in the last few years and the reasons people partitioned
their drives years ago no longer apply.

If you want the page file to be in a different place than the system, buy
a second internal drive and put the page file on it. If the drives are
IDE then they should be on different IDE controllers to gain an increase
in performance.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
psyke said:
Hi all.i have a hdd 60 gb.i ve used partition magic to tear it up into 2
parts(30gb each)/the questions are :which of the 2 parts is used for
virtual
memory(page file)?
should the one part contain just the OS?
Additionaly which is best :NTFS or FAT32 for my case?My OS is win xp pro
sp2.
thanx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Richard Urban said:
(-;


--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!


Colin Barnhorst said:
You should have left the drive as a single 60GB drive formatted NTFS.
Keep the pagefile on the same partition as the system. If you put it on a
separate partition on the same drive you just slow the system down by
forcing the drive heads to move further to reach the page file. Things
have changed in the last few years and the reasons people partitioned
their drives years ago no longer apply.

If you want the page file to be in a different place than the system, buy
a second internal drive and put the page file on it. If the drives are
IDE then they should be on different IDE controllers to gain an increase
in performance.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
psyke said:
Hi all.i have a hdd 60 gb.i ve used partition magic to tear it up into 2
parts(30gb each)/the questions are :which of the 2 parts is used for
virtual
memory(page file)?
should the one part contain just the OS?
Additionaly which is best :NTFS or FAT32 for my case?My OS is win xp pro
sp2.
thanx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
i have one hdd.the volume with the os files has about one gb free space.does
this mean that page file is on the other partition?Could this slow down
performance?
thanx once again
 
First, consider how much RAM do you have. If it is enough, say, above 512
Meg, XP will not use the pagefile much, so it does not matter where it is
located. In fact, unless you run several memory-intensive programs, even
256 Meg may be enough to avoid using the pagefile. Conversely, for editting
high-resolution digital images, 1 Gig (or more) of RAM might be optimum.

As for the partitioning, I suggest that you keep the two partitions, and try
to move all your personal files (DOC, XLS, JPG, etc) to the non-system
partition. That way you might have the option someday, if necessary, to
re-install XP without losing all your data. Of course, an external backup
is also a very good idea, especially with CDs and DVDs being cheap, and
large USB hard drives being commonly available.

As for the file system, NTFS can be more secure and it has some additional
ability to fix itself (via the CHKDSK command and MFT). But, if you ever
need to get data off of the drive, or do some manual repairs to files, FAT32
would be simpler, since a DOS floppy can access a FAT32 drive. But, there
are also repair/rescue solutions for NTFS drives, such as Bart's PE builder,
and some small LINUX-on-CD downloads.

The real choice of FAT32 vs NTFS comes down to whether you need to access
the partition from another operating system, like 98, or LINUX. If yes,
then you need FAT32. If no, and if file security is important, then NTFS
would be better. Otherwise, flip a coin.
 
The one GB free space would take the page file into account. You said you
added a 60BG drive. Do you mean you are replacing a smaller drive with a
new one? You need to say what size hard drive has only 1 GB left. One GB
is not enough free space for the system to be able to write temp files and
keep the disk defragmented. A drive or partition should have 10-15% left
for free space for these needs. If you only have 1GB free space then I
suspect that your hard drive will be running just about all the time.

How much memory do you have? This affects the size and amount of usage the
page file gets. The more memory, the less the page file gets written to and
the less your hard drive has to work.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
psyke said:
Richard Urban said:
(-;


--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!


Colin Barnhorst said:
You should have left the drive as a single 60GB drive formatted NTFS.
Keep the pagefile on the same partition as the system. If you put it
on a
separate partition on the same drive you just slow the system down by
forcing the drive heads to move further to reach the page file. Things
have changed in the last few years and the reasons people partitioned
their drives years ago no longer apply.

If you want the page file to be in a different place than the system,
buy
a second internal drive and put the page file on it. If the drives are
IDE then they should be on different IDE controllers to gain an
increase
in performance.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
Hi all.i have a hdd 60 gb.i ve used partition magic to tear it up into
2
parts(30gb each)/the questions are :which of the 2 parts is used for
virtual
memory(page file)?
should the one part contain just the OS?
Additionaly which is best :NTFS or FAT32 for my case?My OS is win xp
pro
sp2.
thanx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
i have one hdd.the volume with the os files has about one gb free
space.does
this mean that page file is on the other partition?Could this slow down
performance?
thanx once again
Click to expand...
 
In
psyke said:
Hi all.i have a hdd 60 gb.i ve used partition magic to tear it
up
into 2 parts(30gb each)
Click to expand...


My question to you is why did you do this? I'm not necessarily
saying it was a mistake, but rather than it should be done only
if you have a clear cogent reason for doing so. It makes no sense
to divide the drive into two partitions and *then* ask what
should you use them for.

/the questions are :which of the 2 parts is
used for virtual memory(page file)?
Click to expand...


Normally it's on C: and that's best.

should the one part contain just the OS?
Click to expand...


Reverting to the point I started out with, if that was your
intent, then you've made that partition much too large; that's
one of the reasons for asking questions like this *before* you
divide it.

Additionally which is best :NTFS or FAT32 for my case?
Click to expand...


Except for special situations, such as dual-booting with an older
non-NTFS-aware operating system, NTFS is normally best.
 
With the split you have watch the size of system restore on partition 1.
You can set it lower than the default 12% of drive (partition). You
might have done better to have made the first partition smaller and the
second larger. Don't forget that using Partition Magic ( if v8) it is a
relatively simple matter to resize partitions.

I would put the system (including swap file ) and programmes files in
partition 1 and place all data and other files ,ie. those which tend to
fragment, in the second partition. This will simplify housekeeping and
backing up. Make sure free space on both partitions is greater than 20%.

FAT32 is wasteful of disk space on a large partition, although there are
situations as others have mentioned when it is preferable.

--

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


psyke said:
Richard Urban said:
(-;


--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!


Colin Barnhorst said:
You should have left the drive as a single 60GB drive formatted
NTFS.
Keep the pagefile on the same partition as the system. If you put
it on a
separate partition on the same drive you just slow the system down
by
forcing the drive heads to move further to reach the page file.
Things
have changed in the last few years and the reasons people
partitioned
their drives years ago no longer apply.

If you want the page file to be in a different place than the
system, buy
a second internal drive and put the page file on it. If the drives
are
IDE then they should be on different IDE controllers to gain an
increase
in performance.

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
Hi all.i have a hdd 60 gb.i ve used partition magic to tear it up
into 2
parts(30gb each)/the questions are :which of the 2 parts is used
for
virtual
memory(page file)?
should the one part contain just the OS?
Additionaly which is best :NTFS or FAT32 for my case?My OS is win
xp pro
sp2.
thanx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
i have one hdd.the volume with the os files has about one gb free
space.does
this mean that page file is on the other partition?Could this slow
down
performance?
thanx once again
Click to expand...
 
psyke said:
Hi all.i have a hdd 60 gb.i ve used partition magic to tear it up into 2
parts(30gb each)/the questions are :which of the 2 parts is used for virtual
memory(page file)?
should the one part contain just the OS?
Click to expand...

Leave it where it is, in C:. That minimises time spent on seeking to
get the heads to it; the slowest operation

I would make it a bit unsymmetric; 16 to 20 GB at most to install system
and programs (and page file) then move My Documents to the other,
larger, partition

See my pages www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm on considerations for the
page file, and www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfs.htm for FAT vs NTFS
 
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