Re: Page File - optimal location

Depends on how much of a crash dump you want to capture. A minidump -- one minidump -- needs 2MB so that's the minimum. For a full memory dump you would reserve an amount equal to the amount of RAM you have. The Microsoft knowledge base explains it rather well.

But again, this is in the realm of technicality.

---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

eblaster wrote:
What size should the smaller paging file be?

"Ted Zieglar" <teddy.z@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:ui5yMZ06GHA.2120@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
And while it is technically correct to move your paging file to a second physical hard disk, don't expect the kind of performance improvement that you'll actually notice. For most of us it makes no real difference.

You need a small page file on the system drive to capture crash dumps. It's explained pretty well here:

"How to configure paging files for optimization and recovery in Windows XP"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314482/en-us

---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
eblaster wrote:

Where is the optimal location for a page file (Windows XP)?
I have two disk drives in my PC, each on a separate controller.
I always thought it was best to place the page file on a drive other
than the one used for the operating system and user files.


The thing that most slows down use of the page file is moving the drive heads to and from it. Putting the page file on a second partition on your only (or main) drive puts it far from the other frequently-used data on the drive, increases the time it takes to get to and from it, and negatively impacts performance.

Putting the page file on another *physical* drive, on the other hand, normally increases performance. A good rule of thumb is that the page file should be on the most-used partition of the least-used physical drive.



However,
I recently read somewhere that MS recommends putting at least a small
page file on the boot drive.


That's correct. If you have two physical drives, put most of it on the second, but a small one on the drive with Windows.



However, note that most people these days have enough RAM so that page file is minimal. If you fall into that category (for most people, 512MB or more) it hardly makes any difference where the page file is located.


.

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