Optimal HDD Setup Help

[seismik]

Pretty basic, I'm running XP, C2D 2.66, 2 GB Ram, a GeForce 8800 GTS video card and 2 Seagate 500GB 7200RPM 32MB SATA II drives on an Asus P5B Deluxe mobo. Right now I just have the drives setup as a single partition on each, C: is the first, D: is the second. I want to improve performance as much as possible... what is the partitioning setup to use? Will I see improvement making changes to what I'm currently doing? I basically use the D: drive just for storage of documents, music, movies, whatever, with C: having the OS and all program files.

So again focus is on performance - which I think should cut out some of the drive thrashing that seems to go on.

Thanks!

 

[MyLeftNut]

If you're using D drive just for storage then perhaps you can also make a small partition of about 2.5gigs for a 2gb static pagefile and remainder for your storage. Since it's a storage drive which probably won't have much activity on it, placing the pagefile there should be benficial so that the C: can concentrate on activity with the OS and programs. To add ontop of that, you can also make a partition on C: for storage or downloads too if you want. It should make defragging a lot easier when you just defrag a few gigs containing just the OS and programs.

 

[seismik]

Cool, I will give that a shot. Is a static pagefile the way to go? I read somewhere that letting XP manage the pagefile was still the best thing to do, but it's been a long time since I've heard anything about that and in this era of abundant storage space maybe just creating a big page file really is beneficial.

 

[MyLeftNut]

If you have the space and a dedicated partition for the pagefile, a static one would be the way to go. In a case like this, I don't think there's any benefit in using a dynamic pagefile as with a static pagefile windows doesn't have to search all over the HD for pagefile fragments and read/write back and forth. So the 2gb pagefile is pretty much confined to a 2.5gb area. This is what I have setup and I've yet to see it fragment within that partition. The only time when it would be better to let windows handle the pagefile is if you have a lot less ram, which is not your case with 2gb. I think if you make the pagefile too big, it might slow things down as it has to look through a larger area.

 

[Throckmorton]

The way Windows handles the pagefile is absurd. People always say to let it manage the pagefile, but yes, it does create fragmentation. If the software engineers were not smart enough to know that 1.5xRAM is not a logical pagefile size, why should you trust them to write a self managing pagefile?

 

[bendixG15]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
The way Windows handles the pagefile is absurd. People always say to let it manage the pagefile, but yes, it does create fragmentation. If the software engineers were not smart enough to know that 1.5xRAM is not a logical pagefile size, why should you trust them to write a self managing pagefile?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's easy to bitch about something, doesn't take much.

Coming up with a solution, does take much.

Didn't see you post any solution for the "absurd" pagefile.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: bendixG15

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
The way Windows handles the pagefile is absurd. People always say to let it manage the pagefile, but yes, it does create fragmentation. If the software engineers were not smart enough to know that 1.5xRAM is not a logical pagefile size, why should you trust them to write a self managing pagefile?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's easy to bitch about something, doesn't take much.

Coming up with a solution, does take much.

Didn't see you post any solution for the "absurd" pagefile.

I was just confirming what MyLeftNut said, to set a static page file size. Set it to 2gb and you're done.