Does Swap file have to be on C: drive for good performance

[AnMig]

I only have 1 hard drive (WD 30gb)
have w2k on c: (6gb)
have 98 se on d: (6gb)
3 other partions for aps and games.

I moved my swap file from c: to g: (750 mb)
I wanted to decrease the w2k size to 1.5 to 1.8 so that when I ghost the partition it will fit in a 650 mb cdrw.

is this a bad move? I have 512 of crucial ram and basically just do a lot of gaming.

 

[Elledan]

As long as the swap file is on the same drive, things should be fine. I've divided my swap file over 4 partitions and haven't noticed any degradation in performance (I do have 384 MB RAM, though ).

 

[MulLa]

Swap file should be on a SEPERATE HDD not a different partition on the same HDD, preferably one on a different controller altogether for optimum performance.

 

[AnMig]

Thanks for replies, shouldnt we all be sleeping?

Will put it in a seperated drive as soon as I get another one. In the meantime will keep it in a separate partion to decrease w2k size for ghosting, as long as I am not severly affecting performance in doing so.

Thanks

 

[MulLa]

Remember that not everyone lives in the US!

Well performance wise keeping it in a seperate partition probably would be the same as keeping it on C: drive.

 

[Psychoholic]

No. For best performance it's better to spread it across multiple drives. This is assuming the drives are equal in performance.

 

[neuralfx]

ya main thing, you would like it on a seperate drive or drives, from the system partition.. on a primary partition..
-neural

 

[Serpent77]

Putting the swap on a seperate partition is not going to affect performance, not noticeably anyway (though in the long term you may lose a couple seconds of your life waiting for the BIOS to do the partition table conversions on the drive) What you do hurt thou is the abillity to create a crash dump if you happen to BSoD Win2K. There must be a swap file of at least (RAM + 12MB) on the C: drive for this to work. Though you can move it to another partition to Ghost the drive, then just remember to alter the Swap File location if you reimage the drive to regain this functionality. But in the long run you can leave it as is and never truly have any problems with it.

BTW--those who mentioned the swap file is best left to one or more seperate drives, as opposed to partions are absolutely correct. WinNT/2K uses a round robbin style memory swap, which means it'll jump from drive to drive in circular fashion each time it has to use the swap file. As long as the drives are all of similare performance you should notice a slight increase in performance b'c one drive can be bust while the next does a memory swap.

--Serp

 

[aUt0eXebat]

MS says the pagefile should be on a SEPARATE drive, and yes most preferably on a diff controller. Like someone else said

 

[AnMig]

Serpent77


Did not realize that you loose the ability to do a memory dump if you move your swap file to a different partition from the w2k partition. Did I understand you correctly? Why would w2k even offer a choice of changing swap file location if this was a problem?

Your suggestion of moving swap file prior to ghosting sounds good, but its another step to remember currently I have to backup outlook mail/quicken/favorites/documents (I am sure I am forgetting something)whenever I try to restore a image.

thanks for info

 

[Psychoholic]

That's a valid point Serpent regarding the memory dump. However most people I have come across prefer to spread the page file across multiple drives and the change it back if they encounter a reoccuring problem with system crashes.

 

[Serpent77]

Yes, you lose the abillity to do a memory dump if you have no swap file, or a swap file smaller than 12Mb+Total Physical RAM on your system partition. you have the option of doing this regardless of that fact for the same reason you have the option of completely disabling memory dumps by unchecking a check box. . . Because some people just don't care. Usually only developers, or people who are having a persistant problem want the dumps anyway. You can send them into M$, or if you're skilled enough try and diagnose them yourself, but most people don't crash often enough to really take the time with them (Win2K/NT really is much more stable). So most just reboot, and go on with their life without the memory dump taking up all that HD space.


MSKB article on critical location for Swap file if you want use memory.dmp

Interesting MSKB Article on how to share a single swap file between NT4 (w2k?) and 95/98[fixed link]

 

[Serpent77]

Tis why I said he could technically leave the swap where its at and not harm anything. I just wanted him to have a complete heads up.

TTFN

 

[AnMig]

so you can still have a memory dump even if your swap file is on a different partition from your w2k partition as long as you have (ram +12mb)? or does the swap file have to be on a particular partition either c: or w2k partition?

just want to clarify, since I have been experimenting with this usb wireless nic and for some reason it consistently gives me a BSOD memory dump.

 

[Serpent77]

you have to have 12MB+Physical Ram on your %systemroot% partition, its all outlined in the first of the two MSKB article links I posted a little bit ago.

--Serp

 

[Serpent77]

oops, I had it backwards, min swap file is 12MB+Physical Ram, to do a dump you 1.5xPhysical Ram.

Ex: if you only had 128MB, you'd need a swap on %systemroot% at least 192MB in size.

--Serp

 

[AnMig]

Dam so for memory dump to work in needs to be in the %systemroot% partition and I need minimum of 512 + 12mb and a maximum of 1.536 gb (512 X 1.5)

So I guess the only reasonable way to maintain this dump function is to keep it in my w2k partition and just remove it when I intend to ghost like you suggested earlier.
Thanks for response. My intial goal of moving swap fileto a different partition is to decrease w2k size for ghosting to keep it under 650mb to fit in cdrw.

Peace

 

[Serpent77]

I'm sorry, I think you misunderstood my annotation, the swap MUST be in %systemroot%, and MUST be 1.5x's the size of your physical RAM as a minimum. For you 768MB would be the swap partion likely in your C: drive/partition. FYI, at that point you might as well just bump to 1024 to give yourself some playing room, 256MB isn't much to worry about, you;ll unfortuanatley have to the swap file shuffle while ghosting. I'd recomend creating a CMD scrip to take care of harvesting your files and replacing them, it'll make things allot easier if you only have to run a CMD file and change a few settings like your Swap file rather than doing it all by hand. You can probably even set your ghost image up to run an AT command to restore your files on your first reboot as a run once scheduled event, so all you have to do is make a few changes by hand after that first reboot.

--Serp

 

[AnMig]

thanks for calrification. Will keep swap file on c at 1gb and just delete or move it prior to ghosting to save space.

Thanks for responses

 

[Serpent77]

Don't just delete it, it'll give you log on troubles(besides the fact that you can't just delete it without have NTFSPro or a utillity similar to such). In my experirence, there has to be a swap file there (regardless of whether or not your Swap size is set to 0), or you can't log on the next time you boot. Though there is a MSKB Article on that issue too. Just movie it to a partition you know will be there after you ghost the partition, and everything should be good as gold.

--Serp

 

[neuralfx]

at the risk of making this thread even longer than it really has to be.. serpent is "right" about having a space for the crash dump, it does have to be on the system partition and it does have to be ram+12mb's, but really even if ur really skilled, it will mean nothing to you, the only reason to have it, is if your a sysadmin who is going to be calling MS, and send them to dmp file so they can inspect,.. i mean you would have to have the source code/be familiar with the code/or have a lengthy document, that would have been leaked from ms, to use it anyway.. well thats jus my 2cents..
-neural

 

[Serpent77]

Again, exactly what I said. It's not necessary to keep it on the %systemroot%, and most people ignore the memory.dmp file, or delete it. But if you want to send it back to MS, or go through KB's and Technet to try and resolve a problem you might need it. The system will technically work fine either way.

--Serp

PS: I only mention this becasue he did say he was ahving a problem with frequent crashes.