Re: Paging File on Second HDD

ReadyFreddie

You will not get significant improved improved performance. I thought I
had already made that clear! You also led me to believe you had a spare
hard drive but you now say this drive is in another computer. I think we
are both wasting our time.

http://support.gateway.com/s/manuals/servers/eseries/8507852.pdf

--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


ReadyFreddie wrote:
The computer is a Gateway desktop, model on the invoice is simply
Performance 1800. I bought it in July 2001. Has Intel P4 1.8GHz
processor, 512MB RDRAM PC800 memory. Primary hard drive is described
as 40GB 7M Ultra ATA.

As for the second hard drive, can I get the needed info through
software or do I have to take it out of the PC it's in now and read a
label?

If I understand correctly and everything is compatible, is your idea
to reformat and repartition the second drive, then move my personal
data and files to it - freeing up space on my primary drive? In
novice terms, how will that specifically improve my performance?

ReadyFreddie

What Lil' Dave's has suggested is another way to achieve a similar
result. Althought I would suggest a slight modification.

You need not introduce a second hard drive to achieve a performance
gain. What it achieves is to give you more disk space and makes use
of a spare hard disk that otherwise would not be used. What is being
suggested is not overcomplicated and would be experience worth
gaining for the future. Unless you learn by taking easy steps you
will always be a novice and most of us aspire to achieving the dizzy
heights of success.

However, to assess how easy it will be I think we need you to answer
to several questions:

1. Is your computer a desktop or a laptop?

2. What is the computer make and model?

3. What is the size, make and model of the spare hard drive?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


ReadyFreddie wrote:
Gerry, thanks for your involvement in this discussion. I value your
comments highly. At the outset, one of my speculations was that
moving the paging file and personal files/data to a second HDD would
improve overall performance by reducing the number of read ops,
write ops, and related seek ops on my primary drive. The amount of
improvement was a complete unknown.

After all the dialog, it appears that accomplishing this is not a
trivial task and a good part of it is beyond my ability. So.... do
you think it's reasonable (also taking into consideration Lil'
Dave's post of 2/1/2009) for me to conclude that the exposure to
making a critical mistake is significant enough that I should just
"leave it alone?"

My other point is that even a significant amount of improvement may
not justify the work required. What do you think about that? Perhaps
I should just sit tight and save for a new PC.

ReadyFreddie

The pagefile suggestions will not make a significance difference to
performance. If you add the second hard drive to increase available
disk space. If you do not need extra disk space then leave the
pagefile as it is.

The suggestions regard disk space should have yielded more than 4
mb. This suggestion alone "The default allocation to System
Restore is 12% on your C partition which is over generous. I would
reduce it to 700 mb." should have provided 4 gb extra free disk
space.

What are you doing for housekeeping? This will increase
performance.

An alternative to Disk CleanUp is cCleaner (freeware) which does a
more thorough job than Disk CleanUp. Disk CleanUp has to be run for
each user profile, whereas cCleaner only needs to be run once.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one
has irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer
so that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

cCleaner does not remove restore points. You need to use Disk
CleanUp for this. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System
Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all
but the latest System Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ReadyFreddie wrote:
Wow, this certainly has stirred up a lot of dialog.

As you mention in a subsequent reply to SC Tom, there aren't a lot
of folks around with the depth of knowledge to carry off all these
changes. I did decrease the default allocations for the things you
mentioned and did the other stuff. I may see a slight improvement,
but it isn't much (didn't expect anything to knock my socks off).

I started this on the premise that if I decreased the load on my
primary HDD by moving the paging file to a second drive, I might
see a performance increase. After digesting all the comments, it
appears that what I see is probably all I'm going to get - unless
I add RAM, replace the processor/MB, etc. That's what I wanted to
avoid.

I was looking for a quick way to get a little more oomph. I think
that's what I got, thanks to your suggestions Gerry. I increased
my primary drive's free space by about 4MB - not bad at all. It
appears that all your suggestions focus on freeing up space on my
primary drive, right? From a novice's perspective, I don't
understand why that might improve performance. Can you elaborate
on your recommendations?

Because I don't install HDDs, define partitions, or move data
around every day, I don't really understand completely the things
you suggest in your second paragraph or have a feel for the
degree of performance gain I might see, so I really don't feel
comfy trying them. Too much exposure to mistakes for a novice
like me. But thanks for your recommendations.

I freed up a lot of space on my primary drive. Guess I'll have to
wait until my budget permits me to get a new PC. I think that even
though I surf the Web, use email, and do word processing, I'll opt
for a gaming-oriented PC with a powerful graphics card and plenty
of memory. Hopefully, the other apps will be happy.
So Thanks!

ReadyFreddie

Are the read / write speeds for each drive the same?

It would best if you partitioned the second drive. Create two
partitions. The first say 1.5 gb to take your page file and the
second should take up the remainder of the drive. You should
retain a fixed 50 mb min = max pagefile on the first hard drive.
You should not put any other files in the dedicated pagefile
partition and I would make it a
1.4 gb min = max pagefile. Doing it the way I have suggested
should ensure both pagefiles are contiguous and they will be
maintenance free.

Leave the Windows and programme files on the first drive. Apart
from these you can move as many of the other files as you want to
the second drive. Your objective you be to ensure that you have
always a minimum of 20 / 25% free disk space on each drive.

There are many other options for increasing free disk space on a
Windows partition if you have another partition / drive.

The default allocation to System Restore is 12% on your C
partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb.
Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select
System Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings
but this time find the slider and drag it to the left until it
reads 700 mb and
exit. When you get to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK
and exit.

Another default setting which could be wasteful is that for
temporary internet files, especially if you do not store offline
copies on disk. The default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending
on your attitude to offline copies you could reduce this to 1% or
2%. In Internet Explorer select Tools, Internet Options, General,
Temporary Internet Files, Settings to make the change. At the
same time look at the number of days history is held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive.
Change to 5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer
place the cursor
on your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global
and move the slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid
letting it get too full as if it is full and you delete a file
by mistake it will bypass the Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp to Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet
Files. Also select Start, All Programs, accessories, System
Tools, Disk CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all
but the latest System Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System
Information, Tools, Dr Watson and verify that the box before
"Append to existing log" is NOT checked. This means the next time
the log is written it will overwrite rather than add to the
existing file.

The default maximum size setting for Event Viewer logs is too
large. Reset the maximum for each log from 512 kb to 128 kb and
set it to overwrite.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

You can generate more space in the system partition by relocation
of folders.

For Temporary Internet Files select Start, Control Panel,
Internet Options, Temporary Internet Files. Settings, Move
Folder.

To move the Outlook Express Store Folder select in Outlook
Express Tools, Options, Maintenance, Store Folder, Change.
http://www.tomsterdam.com/insideoe/files/store.htm

How to Change the Default Location of the My Documents Folder:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310147

You may also need to change Default File locations in the
Microsoft Office programmes you choose to move the My Documents
folder. For Word go to Tools, Options, File Locations, highlight
Documents, click on Modify and change file path. For Excel go to
Tools, Options, General and change default file path.

My Documents is one of a number of system created Special Folders
including My Pictures and My Music. These can more easily be
relocated using Tweak Ui. Download TweakUI, one of the MS
powertoys, from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

In TweakUi select My Computer, Special Folders. You can scroll
down to see the full list of Special Folders to the left of the
Change Location button.

You can move programmes but to do this you have to uninstall and
reinstall.

--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



ReadyFreddie wrote:
Because of the economy, I'm forced to keep using a vintage PC -
1.8GHz P4, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD, and Windows XP Home Edition. The
HDD is only about half full.

It is an old workhorse and I'd like to try improving its
performance a bit if possible. Would I gain anything at all by
installing a second hard drive (surplus from another PC) and
moving the paging file from the C: drive to the second one? If
yes, would it be best to I let Windows continue to manage
virtual memory, or could I specify a paging file size myself
and squeeze a little more out of this poor old nag?

Is there anything else I could move to the second drive to get
even a smidgen improvement in performance? -Thanks!


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