If I have 1gig+ of Ram on XP pro, should i disable VM?

[MustangSVT]

If I have 1gig+ of Ram on XP pro, should i disable VirtualMemory?

What are adv. and disadv. of doing that?

I have plenty of hdd space at the moment.

 

[Anubis]

No bad idea.

just leave it there windows liek that. i dont have a technical answer but i dissabled mine once and it didnt like that

 

[RyanM]

I wouldn't. Having the VMem there can help protect from a memory issues, giving you time to notice something's wrong instead of just locking up. Given, XP's memory management is lightyears ahead of ME and 98's, but there's still the possibility.

 

[ajskydiver]

Sure, try it. If XP needs VM...it'll let you know and grab some. I know this because I disabled the paging file...and after awhile, it told me it needed some and took it.

~AJ

 

[lssanjose]

well just keep it there in case. you're not going to suffer any performance problems by keepoing it there as the page file hits will be minimal at least that's what i'd think

 

[bacillus]

some programs need a pagefile even with unlimited memory

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Originally posted by: MustangSVT
If I have 1gig+ of Ram on XP pro, should i disable VirtualMemory?

What are adv. and disadv. of doing that?

I have plenty of hdd space at the moment.

Definitely Not. No. Leave it well alone.
The advantages are... none.
The disadvantages are that you may well make your system unstable and you're tweaking stuff you don't understand.

 

[nwfsnake]

OK, the consensus seems to be no, don't disable. How about just for defrag purposes? Would it be a good idea to disable
vm, defrag, then re-enable it. I notice that my VM file is always smack in the middle of all my other files. Comments?

In safe mode, (does XP have this?), does it create a vm file? I though I remembered (at least for 98) that its best to defrag in safe mode?

TIA

 

[pelikan]

Originally posted by: nwfsnake
OK, the consensus seems to be no, don't disable. How about just for defrag purposes? Would it be a good idea to disable
vm, defrag, then re-enable it. I notice that my VM file is always smack in the middle of all my other files. Comments?

In safe mode, (does XP have this?), does it create a vm file? I though I remembered (at least for 98) that its best to defrag in safe mode?

TIA

Yeah, I disable page file, reboot, defrag, and then reset page file. You don't have to defrag in safe mode.

 

[Ionizer86]

I tried disabling vmem on 512mb, and it still had to get some page file later.
You can dump the kernel onto mem though. PCmag had an article recently on how to dumb all of kernel onto ram. No prob on 512mb.

 

[lssanjose]

What file system are you using in XP?

 

[anazoal]

Actually I read on a board recently that you should disable VM before defragmenting your HD, since swap file would not be defragmented otherwise. Even though MS claims otherwise, people said there was a performance improvement with a defragmented swap file.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: lssanjose
What file system are you using in XP?

NTFS is the way to go for large partitions and large disk drives. I ran Win2K as both FAT32 and NTFS, but switched to full NTFS with XP and its much snappier.

I leave page file enabled even though I have 1GB of RAM. I just reduced my page file 512MB from the min and max. If you are really concerned about the swap file and you have lotsa RAM, you could set up a RAM drive as your swap file. My bro did that with an older KT133A board that had 1.5GB of accumulated PC133, and he swore by it. I dunno how much it actually helped performance though.

Chiz

 

[lssanjose]

Iv'e been told about page file on ram drives. a big no no .. for some reason\s that I can't explain fully but others in other boards can

 

[alkemyst]

Don't disable it, I did and got a lot of flakiness (512MB XP Pro), Photoshop would not run either. A friend has 2GB and told me the he had that problem too, we both also had problems using the optimize memory for system cache (the server option in Win 95/98/ME) causing IRQ and Page Fault errors . With it VM enabled I don't really use it according to task manager.

Chris

 

[BFG10K]

Leave the page file alone; it's part of every modern memory system and it does you absolutely no good to turn if off apart from saving a tiny bit of disk space. It can also cause additional problems.

Also note that virtual memory is not the same as the swap file and in fact the swap file is just one of the many features that a virtual memory system provides.

 

[AnMig]

The only time I disbale my page file is when I am making an image of my operating partition (ghost or drive image).
By doing this I am sometimes able to fit an image into one cdr.

 

[Booter]

adv. better performance, much faster rig.

disadv. i'ts good to add some tweaks to the registry when you disable the pf for ultimate stable performace...for this you need some knowledge in how the registry works, atleast be familiar with it. Lets say i recommend disabling PF to Power-users!

 

[BFG10K]

adv. better performance, much faster rig.

That's not true at all and if you have enough RAM the page file isn't even a factor in performance since Windows won't actively use it.

However when you run out of real RAM the sh*t will hit the fan if you've disabled the swap file as your system probably won't behave very well at all.

 

[Booter]

? my point is that you won't need any pf at all with 1gb and xppro. Ram is faster then writing and then reading from the harddrive.

 

[lssanjose]

well actually page file is null when y ou have sufficient ram but that doesn't mean that virtual memory is completely taken out. Your other files will be a part of the virtual addressing that NTx does. your exe's , all your other files get paged at some point.

 

[Booter]

all your other files get paged at some point.

I'l let you know when that happens so far 6months+ without any 'issues'

 

[BFG10K]

my point is that you won't need any pf at all with 1gb and xppro.

And my point is that what you're doing is unwise.

I'l let you know when that happens so far 6months+ without any 'issues'

When what happens? Virtual addressing? That's happening all the time since you're not disabling virtual memory, just the swap file.

Also I have a very hard time believing your system has been running for 6 months without a swap file.

 

[NokiaDude]

Windows XP's memory management is so advanced and so perfect that you do NOT need to mess with it. Trust me, I learned that the hard way.

 

[Booter]

And my point is that what you're doing is unwise.

each to his own i guess

When what happens? Virtual addressing? That's happening all the time since you're not disabling virtual memory, just the swap file.

Paging, thats what we are talking about. see my quote and response to it.

Also I have a very hard time believing your system has been running for 6 months without a swap file.

:Q It's not a server...it hasen't been on 24hours for 6months, but apart from occasional power offs thats the way i've been running my rig weather you like it/believe it or not.