using second drive as page file in Windows 10

Shinnen

Member
Hi,
I'm using a partition on my second drive for my page file, in order to extend the life of my first drive, an SSD.
I'm wondering if I should designate the minim and maximum size of the page file or let let windows decide how to manage it? The other question I have is wrt to the size of the page file. I only have 2 gigs of ram, so what should be the maximum size of the page file? And, one other question. Will Windows use this drive if I disable it in the bios? I suspect not.
Thanks,
...... john
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Page file should be between 1.5x to 4x the amount of physical ram so 3gb to 8gb. If you disable a drive, windows can't see it to use it.
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi John,
Thanks. Do you think it's advisable to set the minimum and maximum pagefile size to the same value?
...... john
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Honestly just use Automatic.

If you make a larger one you'll swap more, one that is too small will give you out of memory errors. Your system is pretty light on RAM (my router literally has twice as much), so performance will tank as you're swappin, and be much worse on the mechanical drive.
 

Shinnen

Member
Thanks beers
Aldan ... I pretty much have to use paging, because I have only 2gigs of ram. Things move at a snails pace if I don't.
...... john
 

aldan

Active Member
Thanks beers
Aldan ... I pretty much have to use paging, because I have only 2gigs of ram. Things move at a snails pace if I don't.
...... john
i see your point.even with paging file its not gonna get much better.what are your specs and do you have the option to add more ram?
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi Aldan,
I have a desktop, Dell Dimension 3100. It's pretty much at the low end of the computer spectrum. It will only take 2x1 gig of ram. Some people say that they've been able to add 2 more gig (total 4) but I haven't tried it yet. It has a low end built in Intel 915GV and I have not been able to find a graphics card that will fit it, so I'm stuck with the Intel. I'm running Windows 10, which is a little slower than Windows 7, but seems to provide more versatility. As I mentioned, I added the second drive as a swap file, in order to extend the life of my primary SSD. It's ok, for what I used it .... emails, light surfing, some photo editing ...... but not much more. I've been through my options with other members of this forum and the general consensus is that I should upgrade, which is probably what I'll do eventually.
Thanks for your interest.
....... john
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi,
I'm sure that you'll all find this amusing as hell (I know I did); but I installed and ancient Matrox Mystique PCI card on this computer, with a noticeable improvement in performance. It's still no rocket but it's much better.
..... john
 
Page file should be between 1.5x to 4x the amount of physical ram so 3gb to 8gb. If you disable a drive, windows can't see it to use it.
No Offense but please read the claim no: 2 at the section: THE TRUTH ABOUT WINDOWS PAGING FILE! on this page: Tips ´n trix for Windows 10 (winguider.se)

As I understand it this recommendation (to set pagefile to minimum 1,5 times the ram etc.) came from the early PC stoneage when system crashes was common, and to solve these the recommendation was to use a FULL MEMORY DUMP (thus the minimum = RAM) and then allow some more for the system it-self during the "dumping-process"

And, back then these crashes was usually caused by faults in drivers etc..

A privately owned and used PC does not have any need for a full memory dump, so this recommendation is a bit off, especially since drivers are certified for Windows 10. And most important of all is that very few private persons would ever investigate a full memory dump.

Today I´m not alone to recommend a FIXED PAGEFILE (same minimum size as maximum size) of 4096 or 5120 Mb (4 to 5 Gigabyte)
BUT if anyone puts that on a SEPARATE DRIVE then they still need to keep a pagefile of a few hundred Mb on the C-drive (Eventlogging etc. demands this) so I would recommend to set a fixed pagefile on C: of 1024Mb IF you have another pagefile on a different drive!

If anyone if interested there is a link to more detailed information regarding the pagefile at the bottom of the: THE TRUTH ABOUT WINDOWS PAGING FILE!-article i linked to above!

"How Big Should I Make the Paging File?
Perhaps one of the most commonly asked questions related to virtual memory is, how big should I make the paging file? There’s no end of ridiculous advice out on the web and in the newsstand magazines that cover Windows, and even Microsoft has published misleading recommendations. Almost all the suggestions are based on multiplying RAM size by some factor, with common values being 1.2, 1.5 and 2. Now that you understand the role that the paging file plays in defining a system’s commit limit and how processes contribute to the commit charge, you’re well positioned to see how useless such formulas truly are.

Since the commit limit sets an upper bound on how much private and pagefile-backed virtual memory can be allocated concurrently by running processes, the only way to reasonably size the paging file is to know the maximum total commit charge for the programs you like to have running at the same time. If the commit limit is smaller than that number, your programs won’t be able to allocate the virtual memory they want and will fail to run properly."

But to be honest: Counting the commit charge is not for most laymen to do, since this requires an identical every-use of the PC. And most private users do change WHAT they do on a daily basis.. (They do not always play the same tracks on the same games everyday etc.)
So a fixed pagefile of around 4 to 5Gb is best i general (at least in my opinion) :)
 
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