If I have 512mb of RAM, would setting up a RAMDRIVE for my swap file be a good idea?

[Nullity]

I have 512mb of RAM. I read a thread last night about disabling the swap file to increase performance. Many of the respondants said not to disable it. So if disabling the swap file is bad, I thought the next best thing to do is to create a RAMDRIVE for it. I was thinking of using 128mb (or less) out of my 512mb. BTW, I am using Windows 2000 Professional. I have also tried that ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1 thing and I still get quite a bit of swap. Anyways..

Is this a good idea?
How do you setup a RAMDRIVE and set the swapfile on it?

Thanks!
Null

 

[erub]

windows 2000 does not need the conservative swap file setting, as it fills up all available RAM before using the swapfile anyway. I have a 40 mb RAM drive where I put my web browsing cache, i think it speeds up the browsin a tad, and my HDDs go to sleep, which is an added benefit - i wouldn't otherwise use all the 256 mb ram i have.

You need a program to do it, I'm using RamDiskNT.

 

[BlvdKing]

I think that there are two reasons why people don't do this:
1. Not enough RAM
2. What the difference between have a RAM Drive swapfile and just disabling the swap file? In both scenarios the information sits in the system memory anyway. I can't think of any difference.

 

[MGMorden]

Blvdking, with the ram drive the system will see less memory available and hence not take up as much. The OS expects to have the swap file as a backup and often won't hesitate to fill system ram thinking the swap will be there. If you have your swap on a ram disk, then that extra security (for the OS) is there, but you're not taking a performance hit for using it.

 

[Nullity]

There are several facts why I can not just disable the swap. One example is that Wink2/NT requires a swap as well as certain programs and games. Here is the post about disabling the swap file: click me but be warned, this is a long thread

Null

 

[Turbopit]

.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

Well, Win2k certainly does not wait until system ram is full before using the swap file, my system with 256MB will start using the swap file on bootup, even though I'm only using about 190MB of RAM. If I had more memory I would probably set up a RAM disk to the tune of 64MB, and do a split pagefile, one on the virtual RAM disk, and one on another partition so that Win2k has room to grow it. I am not sure if this is the most efficient use for system memory but I'd like to find out.

 

[NeonFlak]

Actually on boot the operating system trys to put as much of itself and the programs it is starting into ram so it can start faster. So if you are going over your 256 you will get hd thrashing. On some of the designer comps at work here with 512 and more sometimes on bootup some of them get hd thrashing from swapfile usage as well. If you try to check your max resource usage once you load into windows it will give you a lower number cause that doesn't start keeping track until you first see your desktop or 3 secs after that (can't remember exactly). Also, on nt systems the swap file can be disabled or set to as low as 2mb. One of my boxes here is nt4 with 256mb of ram and I have the swap set to 12mb. I have never ran into a problem whatsoever.

 

[Whitedog]

If you're using Windows2000, don't concern yourself with the pagefile. Windows 2000 does an outstanding job of managing memory and using the hard drive swapping.

There are a few tweaks you can do to the registry, other than that, you don't need to worry about it.

you can't disable VM on Windows2000.

 

[Nullity]

WhiteDog...where can I find some of these reg tweaks?

Thanks!
Null

 

[CQuinn]

IMO,

Using a RAM drive for a Swap file is like cutting off one of your feet so
you can save money on shoes. You lose more than you would have gained.

Using a RAM drive for temp workspace or for the browser cache is better,
but if you want to keep any of the data store there you still have
to copy that to the hard drive before shutdown.

Some Windows 2000 tweak guides:

http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/win2k/

http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/win2kmem/

 

[Whitedog]

Here is the Link Nullity to the webpage with the tweaks.

It's worth reading over. Some of it isn't necessary, some will help. You decide.

 

[Whitedog]

I just did some tweaks on my PC here at work. Windows 2000, 256MB Ram. Before I did the tweaks, I had about 20 apps running and pagefile usage was hovering around 100MB's (25%). I have a static 400MB file.

After doing the tweaks and rebooting, my pagefile usage is 2.1% About 8 megs.