Vista - What's the best place for my paging file?

I have two identical hard drives. The first drive (the C drive) contains
only my 32 bit Vista Ultimate operating system and the second drive (the D
drive)contains all the programs (that I am allowed to place here rather than
on the C drive) and data. My system also has 4Gb of DDR2 memory.

Left to it's own devices, Vista sets up a "System Managed" paging file on
the C drive. However, I have read that Microsoft recommends that the paging
file should NOT be on the same drive as the operating system. In these
circumstances, I should be most grateful for any advice on whether I
should:-

1. allow Vista to continue to use a "System Managed" paging file?
2. set up the paging file in a different way. If so, how should it be
set up for best performance?

All Windows operating systems place the pagefile on the same partition as
the operating system - by default. If that is not a recommendation as to
it's location by Microsoft, I don't know what is.

That being said - experiment to see what YOU think.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

"Stan Kay" <stan.kay@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:6CEC2E0B-3288-4484-ABB4-C111792A9050@microsoft.com...
>I have two identical hard drives. The first drive (the C drive) contains
>only my 32 bit Vista Ultimate operating system and the second drive (the D
>drive)contains all the programs (that I am allowed to place here rather
>than on the C drive) and data. My system also has 4Gb of DDR2 memory.
>
> Left to it's own devices, Vista sets up a "System Managed" paging file on
> the C drive. However, I have read that Microsoft recommends that the
> paging file should NOT be on the same drive as the operating system. In
> these circumstances, I should be most grateful for any advice on whether I
> should:-
>
> 1. allow Vista to continue to use a "System Managed" paging file?
> 2. set up the paging file in a different way. If so, how should it be
> set up for best performance?

On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:11:35 +0100, "Stan Kay" <stan.kay@ntlworld.com>
wrote:

>I have two identical hard drives. The first drive (the C drive) contains
>only my 32 bit Vista Ultimate operating system and the second drive (the D
>drive)contains all the programs (that I am allowed to place here rather than
>on the C drive) and data. My system also has 4Gb of DDR2 memory.
>
>Left to it's own devices, Vista sets up a "System Managed" paging file on
>the C drive. However, I have read that Microsoft recommends that the paging
>file should NOT be on the same drive as the operating system. In these
>circumstances, I should be most grateful for any advice on whether I
>should:-
>
>1. allow Vista to continue to use a "System Managed" paging file?
>2. set up the paging file in a different way. If so, how should it be
>set up for best performance?

Depends on what you use your computer for. For a casual user that
mainly uses his computer to do some light activity, like surfing the
web, reading email, maybe once in awhile using a spreadsheet or word
processor then your system is just loafing along and neither the size
or the location of the paging file really matters that much.

However if you're a "power user" do a lot of multi-tasking or push
your system where a lot of activity is happening between your hard
drives and virtual memory (your paging file) then maybe you will
benefit from both moving the paging file to a different partition
and/or managing it's size. You need to be willing to experiment.

Since you have a 32 bit version of Vista and 4GB of RAM, you probably
already know only roughly 3GB of your RAM gets used.

If you want to improve overall performance one of the quickest ways is
to overclock your system. While that was strictly geek territory a few
years ago today many motherboards and their BIOS allow you with just a
few simple clicks to overclock. That will boost performance more than
any tweak of your paging file settings. By overclocking you increase
the speed of the FSB (front side bus) on your MB which is the pathway
your CPU communicates with your RAM. Obviously the faster it can
access RAM, the more lively you system becomes. Like with anything
else there are limits. Don't get carried away. If you attempt to
overclock to the limits of your CPU, MB and memory the system will
become unstable and crash a lot more or simply refuse to boot until
you reset BIOS. It also runs hotter which isn't good, but a modest
amount of overclocking can be a blessing.

Providing that you have to separate physical drive, move the paging file to the opposite drive from the OS.
It makes a definite difference.

My machine is a dual drive dual boot with XP Pro and Vista Ultimate.
XPs' paging file is on the vista drive, Vistas' paging file is on the XP drive.

Noticeable performance boost for both.

--

Steve Easton



"Stan Kay" <stan.kay@ntlworld.com> wrote in message news:6CEC2E0B-3288-4484-ABB4-C111792A9050@microsoft.com...
>I have two identical hard drives. The first drive (the C drive) contains only my 32 bit Vista Ultimate
>operating system and the second drive (the D drive)contains all the programs (that I am allowed to place here
>rather than on the C drive) and data. My system also has 4Gb of DDR2 memory.
>
> Left to it's own devices, Vista sets up a "System Managed" paging file on the C drive. However, I have read
> that Microsoft recommends that the paging file should NOT be on the same drive as the operating system. In
> these circumstances, I should be most grateful for any advice on whether I should:-
>
> 1. allow Vista to continue to use a "System Managed" paging file?
> 2. set up the paging file in a different way. If so, how should it be set up for best performance?

If you are a power user, you can create a paging file on the first part of
your second hard drive to keep the read write heads on the first drive from
beating back and forth between the paging file and your programs.

Just to go along with you, run the following:

If you have programs on the second drive you want to save, do it now.

Right click Computer, choose manage, choose disk management, expand your
screen to maximum so you can see all your drives.
Then,
Right click the second drive to see all the options.
Delete the partitions to clean the drive,
Create a new partition and format in NTFS.
Shrink the partition to around 3 1/2 to 4 gb, creating a space for your
paging file.
Then create a partition on the rest of the drive for your programs.
Click the X to back out of disk management.
REBOOT.

Right click Computer, choose Properties,
click Advanced system settings,
under Performance, click Settings,
click Advanced tab,
Under Virtual memory, click Change,
Highlite C: drive and click custom size,
Initial size 16 (this must be done to allow error reporting)
Maximum size 50
and then click Set.
Up in the volume label again, highlite the second hard drive,
click system managed size,
then click Set again.
OK your way out and REBOOT.






--
Jerry

One thing money can't buy,
The Wagging Tail of a Dog.

"Stan Kay" <stan.kay@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:6CEC2E0B-3288-4484-ABB4-C111792A9050@microsoft.com...
>I have two identical hard drives. The first drive (the C drive) contains
>only my 32 bit Vista Ultimate operating system and the second drive (the D
>drive)contains all the programs (that I am allowed to place here rather
>than on the C drive) and data. My system also has 4Gb of DDR2 memory.
>
> Left to it's own devices, Vista sets up a "System Managed" paging file on
> the C drive. However, I have read that Microsoft recommends that the
> paging file should NOT be on the same drive as the operating system. In
> these circumstances, I should be most grateful for any advice on whether I
> should:-
>
> 1. allow Vista to continue to use a "System Managed" paging file?
> 2. set up the paging file in a different way. If so, how should it be
> set up for best performance?

Steve Easton and JerryM are correct in what they are saying. One thing they
don't mention is that a lot of today's computers are configured using RAID.
With RAID writes to the drives are written ACROSS all drives, meaning that
one drive is not filled up first then the other drive. ALL drives are used
at the same time with RAID.

D



"JerryM" <jerrym526@msn.org> wrote in message
news:ujwlr6lyHHA.4712@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> If you are a power user, you can create a paging file on the first part of
> your second hard drive to keep the read write heads on the first drive
> from beating back and forth between the paging file and your programs.
>
> Just to go along with you, run the following:
>
> If you have programs on the second drive you want to save, do it now.
>
> Right click Computer, choose manage, choose disk management, expand your
> screen to maximum so you can see all your drives.
> Then,
> Right click the second drive to see all the options.
> Delete the partitions to clean the drive,
> Create a new partition and format in NTFS.
> Shrink the partition to around 3 1/2 to 4 gb, creating a space for your
> paging file.
> Then create a partition on the rest of the drive for your programs.
> Click the X to back out of disk management.
> REBOOT.
>
> Right click Computer, choose Properties,
> click Advanced system settings,
> under Performance, click Settings,
> click Advanced tab,
> Under Virtual memory, click Change,
> Highlite C: drive and click custom size,
> Initial size 16 (this must be done to allow error reporting)
> Maximum size 50
> and then click Set.
> Up in the volume label again, highlite the second hard drive,
> click system managed size,
> then click Set again.
> OK your way out and REBOOT.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Jerry
>
> One thing money can't buy,
> The Wagging Tail of a Dog.
>
> "Stan Kay" <stan.kay@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> news:6CEC2E0B-3288-4484-ABB4-C111792A9050@microsoft.com...
>>I have two identical hard drives. The first drive (the C drive) contains
>>only my 32 bit Vista Ultimate operating system and the second drive (the D
>>drive)contains all the programs (that I am allowed to place here rather
>>than on the C drive) and data. My system also has 4Gb of DDR2 memory.
>>
>> Left to it's own devices, Vista sets up a "System Managed" paging file on
>> the C drive. However, I have read that Microsoft recommends that the
>> paging file should NOT be on the same drive as the operating system. In
>> these circumstances, I should be most grateful for any advice on whether
>> I should:-
>>
>> 1. allow Vista to continue to use a "System Managed" paging file?
>> 2. set up the paging file in a different way. If so, how should it be
>> set up for best performance?
>

On 7/19/2007 5:01 PM On a whim, -Draino- pounded out on the keyboard

> Steve Easton and JerryM are correct in what they are saying. One thing they
> don't mention is that a lot of today's computers are configured using RAID.
> With RAID writes to the drives are written ACROSS all drives, meaning that
> one drive is not filled up first then the other drive. ALL drives are used
> at the same time with RAID.
>
> D
>
>
>
> "JerryM" <jerrym526@msn.org> wrote in message
> news:ujwlr6lyHHA.4712@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> If you are a power user, you can create a paging file on the first part of
>> your second hard drive to keep the read write heads on the first drive
>> from beating back and forth between the paging file and your programs.
>>
>> Just to go along with you, run the following:
>>
>> If you have programs on the second drive you want to save, do it now.
>>
>> Right click Computer, choose manage, choose disk management, expand your
>> screen to maximum so you can see all your drives.
>> Then,
>> Right click the second drive to see all the options.
>> Delete the partitions to clean the drive,
>> Create a new partition and format in NTFS.
>> Shrink the partition to around 3 1/2 to 4 gb, creating a space for your
>> paging file.
>> Then create a partition on the rest of the drive for your programs.
>> Click the X to back out of disk management.
>> REBOOT.
>>
>> Right click Computer, choose Properties,
>> click Advanced system settings,
>> under Performance, click Settings,
>> click Advanced tab,
>> Under Virtual memory, click Change,
>> Highlite C: drive and click custom size,
>> Initial size 16 (this must be done to allow error reporting)
>> Maximum size 50
>> and then click Set.
>> Up in the volume label again, highlite the second hard drive,
>> click system managed size,
>> then click Set again.
>> OK your way out and REBOOT.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jerry
>>
>> One thing money can't buy,
>> The Wagging Tail of a Dog.
>>
>> "Stan Kay" <stan.kay@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
>> news:6CEC2E0B-3288-4484-ABB4-C111792A9050@microsoft.com...
>>> I have two identical hard drives. The first drive (the C drive) contains
>>> only my 32 bit Vista Ultimate operating system and the second drive (the D
>>> drive)contains all the programs (that I am allowed to place here rather
>>> than on the C drive) and data. My system also has 4Gb of DDR2 memory.
>>>
>>> Left to it's own devices, Vista sets up a "System Managed" paging file on
>>> the C drive. However, I have read that Microsoft recommends that the
>>> paging file should NOT be on the same drive as the operating system. In
>>> these circumstances, I should be most grateful for any advice on whether
>>> I should:-
>>>
>>> 1. allow Vista to continue to use a "System Managed" paging file?
>>> 2. set up the paging file in a different way. If so, how should it be
>>> set up for best performance?
>

Don't know if this was brought out earlier, but the whole thing is
pointless if the users C: & D: are on one physical drive. Any advantage
would only be realized if one physical drive were to be used for each
partition.

--
Terry R.

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

Let Windows manage it.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Stan Kay" <stan.kay@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:6CEC2E0B-3288-4484-ABB4-C111792A9050@microsoft.com...
>I have two identical hard drives. The first drive (the C drive) contains
>only my 32 bit Vista Ultimate operating system and the second drive (the D
>drive)contains all the programs (that I am allowed to place here rather
>than on the C drive) and data. My system also has 4Gb of DDR2 memory.
>
> Left to it's own devices, Vista sets up a "System Managed" paging file on
> the C drive. However, I have read that Microsoft recommends that the
> paging file should NOT be on the same drive as the operating system. In
> these circumstances, I should be most grateful for any advice on whether I
> should:-
>
> 1. allow Vista to continue to use a "System Managed" paging file?
> 2. set up the paging file in a different way. If so, how should it be
> set up for best performance?

JerryM - What is the problem? - As Richard suggests - let it be!!!


"JerryM" <jerrym526@msn.org> wrote in message
news:ujwlr6lyHHA.4712@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> If you are a power user, you can create a paging file on the first part of
> your second hard drive to keep the read write heads on the first drive
> from beating back and forth between the paging file and your programs.
>
> Just to go along with you, run the following:
>
> If you have programs on the second drive you want to save, do it now.
>
> Right click Computer, choose manage, choose disk management, expand your
> screen to maximum so you can see all your drives.
> Then,
> Right click the second drive to see all the options.
> Delete the partitions to clean the drive,
> Create a new partition and format in NTFS.
> Shrink the partition to around 3 1/2 to 4 gb, creating a space for your
> paging file.
> Then create a partition on the rest of the drive for your programs.
> Click the X to back out of disk management.
> REBOOT.
>
> Right click Computer, choose Properties,
> click Advanced system settings,
> under Performance, click Settings,
> click Advanced tab,
> Under Virtual memory, click Change,
> Highlite C: drive and click custom size,
> Initial size 16 (this must be done to allow error reporting)
> Maximum size 50
> and then click Set.
> Up in the volume label again, highlite the second hard drive,
> click system managed size,
> then click Set again.
> OK your way out and REBOOT.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Jerry
>
> One thing money can't buy,
> The Wagging Tail of a Dog.
>
> "Stan Kay" <stan.kay@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> news:6CEC2E0B-3288-4484-ABB4-C111792A9050@microsoft.com...
>>I have two identical hard drives. The first drive (the C drive) contains
>>only my 32 bit Vista Ultimate operating system and the second drive (the D
>>drive)contains all the programs (that I am allowed to place here rather
>>than on the C drive) and data. My system also has 4Gb of DDR2 memory.
>>
>> Left to it's own devices, Vista sets up a "System Managed" paging file on
>> the C drive. However, I have read that Microsoft recommends that the
>> paging file should NOT be on the same drive as the operating system. In
>> these circumstances, I should be most grateful for any advice on whether
>> I should:-
>>
>> 1. allow Vista to continue to use a "System Managed" paging file?
>> 2. set up the paging file in a different way. If so, how should it be
>> set up for best performance?
>

"Stan Kay" <stan.kay@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:6CEC2E0B-3288-4484-ABB4-C111792A9050@microsoft.com...
>I have two identical hard drives. The first drive (the C drive) contains
>only my 32 bit Vista Ultimate operating system and the second drive (the D
>drive)contains all the programs (that I am allowed to place here rather
>than on the C drive) and data. My system also has 4Gb of DDR2 memory.
>
> Left to it's own devices, Vista sets up a "System Managed" paging file on
> the C drive. However, I have read that Microsoft recommends that the
> paging file should NOT be on the same drive as the operating system. In
> these circumstances, I should be most grateful for any advice on whether I
> should:-
>
> 1. allow Vista to continue to use a "System Managed" paging file?
> 2. set up the paging file in a different way. If so, how should it be
> set up for best performance?


Where did you read that MS recommends that the paging file not be on the
same drive as the OS? Just curious...

Lang