partition for swap file and it's configuration

[deathside]

hello!

i have 512RAM and a 2.8 GB CPU and a 120GB hard-drve with no partitions.
i would like to have some ideas on how it's best way to create a partition for the swap file, knowing that i already have my OS installed and a lot of prgrams, so i don't even think in re-install it all again!

please give me some ideas for teh configuration of the partition for teh swap file, primary, logical, before or after the c:\, in wich partition should the OS be, etc...

i use CorelDraw often, with quite big drawings, so how's teh best way to configute size of swap file in teh partition, to have a better performance in CorelDraw.

i would appreciate a lot some help! thanks!!
/deathside :|

 

[deathside]

hello,

can anyone help me with this? thanks!

/deathside

 

[Navid]

You did not mention your OS. XP?
Since you only have one physical drive, you should let XP handle the pagefile (SWAP).

 

[n0cmonkey]

I think the only possible benefit to putting the swap file on a second partition is for defragmenting easily. It's not really worth the effort, the Microsoft engineers know enough about the OS to make the swap file work properly.

If you really want to do this, you'll need some spare space at the end of the drive. Just create a partition, and there should be a way to set the swapfile to that partition manually. Not sure how to do that off hand though.

 

[AmigaMan]

What I've done in the past is use a separate physical drive for my swapfile. That lessens IO contention on your primary drive when Windows is swapping memory and doing other things at the same time. At least that's the principle behind it, I don't know if it really helps or not. It sounds good though right?

 

[Nothinman]

please give me some ideas for teh configuration of the partition for teh swap file, primary, logical, before or after the c:\, in wich partition should the OS be, etc...

The best configuration is to juts not touch it. If you put it on another partition on the same physical drive you'll just slow things down because every pagefile access will have to do a full seek to the other partition. If you have a second physical drive you can put it there without hurting performance, but generally it won't help much either unless you don't have enough memory in your machine.

i use CorelDraw often, with quite big drawings, so how's teh best way to configute size of swap file in teh partition, to have a better performance in CorelDraw.

If you know it's pagefile access that's causing the slowdown get more memory, f'ing with the pagefile won't help in any noticable fashion.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
If you really want to do this, you'll need some spare space at the end of the drive. Just create a partition, and there should be a way to set the swapfile to that partition manually. Not sure how to do that off hand though.

This would be really bad.
First, the end of the drive is the slow part of the drive!
Second, every time the pagefile as accessed, the head has to move since the pagefile is on the same physical drive (same head).
The only time you may benefit from putting the pagefile on a different partition is if it is on a different physical hard drive. Then, the head on each drive will most of the time (hopefully) be where most of the access is made. Also, if the two physical drives are both masters, they will not even share the same cable, which would be even better.

But, on the same physical drive? Never put the pagefile in another partition.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Is it worth putting the swap file on a separate plain old EIDE drive?